Draft 1

This is a rough start for a short story set in South Africa.

The kind people of Sombreville nailed a bronze plaque bearing dad’s name to the new church building. A ribbon was cut, dad’s hand was shook and the heavy oak doors to the hollow church swung open with a lazy creak. An elderly gentleman with raisin-like skin motioned for dad to step inside. With the other hand, he patted down onto his head, taking great care not to disturb the arrangement of thinning grey hair that rested on his oily, shiny scalp. A small crowd of The Almighty’s followers gathered outside, passing judgment, wondering if the new pastor will be better than the last. Men with skinny legs and big bellies stroked their beards and puffed on their pipes. Woman in colourful dresses smiled from underneath proud hats, each knowing their place all too well. Those were the days when rural churches were stark, yellow constructions, standing bare amidst dying cornfields. Men were men and were damned if they were to be anything else. Women were more familiar with the inside of a kitchen than the chittery-chattery of the modern-day house wife. Sundays were reserved for the word of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, except for those of a darker complexion who were not allowed under a church roof, or any public roof, for that matter. Blacks laboured in the fields and worked the jobs that no pair of white hands would.  

It had only been three months since we moved to this dry, abandoned stretch of earth. Mother pasted a pale smile on her face as dad emerged from the car. He had been away most of the day, visiting the sick and the elderly, performing his pastoral duties. He embraced mother with all the love and intention that a church-going man should. Mother responded in a similar fashion, paying dad the respect that he is due. Her smile fell as her cheek pressed in dad’s neck, that familiar vacant expression washing over her like ice water. I stood watching from under the fig tree in our small back yard. Soon, dad will summon me and I, too, will greet him with a fresh smile.