The little girl stood alone at the edge of the small dam, trying hard not to
cry or panic just because she thought she was lost...
It had seemed so simple and safe when she had walked out of the garden,
across the firebreak and onto the path that led into the dense bush. After
all she had been to the little dam before with the boys, it was such a
magical place, a little lush green oasis in the midst of the dry brown
African bushveld. It really wasn’t that far from home anyway.
She knew she wasn’t supposed to leave the yard on her own, but she was so
lonely and everyone else was so busy. The boys were off on safari with Daddy
She wasn’t allowed to go because she was too little. Mummy was terribly
busy in the house with the servants and the baby. She just wanted to prove
what a big girl she was all on her own.
She had found her way here easy enough, and had lain back on the grass for a
while with the sun beating down on her just listening to the bush noises.
Then the sun moved behind a cloud and she got a little cold. It was then
that she decided to head for home. She wasn’t aware of just how long she had
been gone because she couldn’t tell the time properly yet. It was when she
stood up that she got confused. There were several paths leading away from
the dam and she couldn’t for the life of her remember from which direction
she had come.
She was very frightened, not just of being lost, but because she knew that
Mummy would be very angry with her for being so disobedient. What if? What
if she was lost forever? And she never found Mummy and Daddy again, and the
boys and the baby and the dogs Vixen and Spotty and Ming the cat. She was
also actually afraid of the bush, there were wild animals and snakes and
things out here. Even Daddy never went out into the bush without his knife
and his rifle and shotgun.
Well she couldn’t just sit here doing nothing. Perhaps if she walked a
little way along the biggest path, she would find someone who could show her
where her house was. So with quivering lip and the odd little whimper, she
set off down the dusty path. She walked for a while, nothing seemed familiar
there were no landmarks that she recognized or anything, but wait! In the
distance she could hear singing and suddenly she could smell smoke from a
cooking fire. She walked on a little further and the path began to widen
into a dry dusty dirt road. She saw some huts with chickens running around
scratching in the dirt and a little black baby playing in the doorway. A
thin skinny dog came around the corner and barked at her. As the dog barked
a man came out one of the huts and said something to her but she couldn’t
understand what he was saying. The dog barked again and with that she burst
into tears and took off running down the road. She was scared of that dog.
What if it was like that mad doggy, the one with the foam around its mouth?
The one that the policemen had had to come and kill because Mummy had said
it was sick because it was a rabbit dog or something.
Suddenly she slowed down, the huts were beginning to look familiar, and look
there was the shop, the general dealer where she and the boys were allowed
to spend their pocket money every week. The man didn’t keep a large stock of
sweeties, so they used to buy the big bulls eyes, the ones with the layers
of different colours. Then they used to buy small tins of condensed milk and
dip the bull’s eyes into the condensed milk. Mummy said they were disgusting
Now she knew exactly where she was, it was the village where Daddy’s game
guard Kalyati and his family lived. She hadn’t recognized it at first
because she had entered from the other end. Ahead of her she saw a familiar
site, the gate to the back yard of their house, she stopped crying and began
to smile and ran a little faster. She didn’t mind if she got into trouble,
she was just glad to be home!
She would never ever wander off on her own again. She didn’t ever want to be
really lost, Once was enough for her! .................
The familiar lament of dual-career parents raising children is, "I just can't do it all." The Libra Solution provides an alternative - a more satisfying and sustainable work and life approach - to the overwrought modern day norm.
The familiar lament of dual-career parents raising children is, "I just can't do it all." The Libra Solution provides an alternative - a more satisfying and sustainable work and life approach - to the overwrought modern day norm.
Let this coming of age story of a boy named Bean take you back to a simple time. Set in a small southern town in the 1960's, encircled by a river and gleaming white cotton fields.
