Free A Dry White Season by André Brink Page B

their more spectacular projects. After completing her B.A. in Pretoria she’d obtained a diploma in commercial art, spent two years working for an exclusively female advertising company, and then accepted a top editorial post with a newly-launched glossy interior decoration magazine. The work involved regular business trips, most of them abroad, which didn’t leave her much time for attending to the needs of the baby boy she’d produced in between her other activities. It annoyed and pained Ben, and it must have been roughly about that time, just after Suzette had returned from yet another trip to the U.S. and Brazil, that he spoke to her rather pointedly about the matter. As usual, she shrugged it off.
“Don’t worry, Dad. Chris has got so many conferences and consultations and things of his own, he hardly notices whetherI’m home or not. And there’s someone to look after the baby; he gets all the attention he needs.”
“But you assumed certain responsibilities the day you got married, Suzette!”
Smiling, she pulled a mocking face and ruffled his thinning hair: “You’re really an old stick-in-the-mud, Dad.”
“Don’t underestimate your father,” Susan said, entering at that moment with their tea tray. “He’s developed an extramural interest of his own lately.”
“What’s that?” Suzette asked, intrigued.
“Champion for political detainees.” Susan’s voice was cool and hard: not deliberately sneering, but with a smooth edge acquired through many years.
“Now you’re exaggerating, Susan!” He reacted more sharply than one would have thought necessary. “I’m only concerned with Gordon. And you know very well why.”
Suzette burst out laughing before he’d finished. “Are you trying to tell me you’re turning into James Bond in your old age? Or is it The Saint?”
“I don’t think it’s very funny, Suzette.”
“Oh but I do.” Another calculated ruffling of his hair. “The role doesn’t suit you, Dad. Drop it. Just be the sweet old square we’ve grown so fond of.”
Linda was easier to manage. She’d always been “his” child, from the time when, as a baby, Susan had been too ill to attend to her. She’d grown into an attractive girl – about twenty-one at that stage – but less strikingly beautiful than her sister. More of an introvert; and, since puberty, when she’d survived a serious illness, deeply religious. A pleasant, well-adapted girl above all, an “uncomplicated” person. Holidays or weekends when she was home from university she often accompanied Ben when he went jogging in the morning, or on his late afternoon walks. In her second year at university she’d met Pieter Els, much older than she was and studying theology; soon afterwards she changed courses, abandoning the idea of teaching and turning to social work so that she would be better qualified to help Pieter one day. Ben never openly opposed the kind, somewhat colourless young man; yet Pieter’s presence made him feel more inhibited towards Linda as if he resented, in anticipation,the idea of losing her. Pieter was determined to become a missionary. During the first year or two after he’d completed his university course he worked among the Ndebele near Pretoria; but his real ideal was to spread the Gospel further afield in Africa or the Far East, saving souls in a world rapidly approaching its doom. It was not that Ben despised his idealism, but he did regard it as somewhat exaggerated, cringing at the idea of the inevitable suffering and deprivation it would cause his daughter.
Unlike Suzette, she shared his concern over Gordon. Not that they had any really profound discussions about it – she was away in Pretoria most of the time and only came home for the occasional weekend, with or without the fiancé – but he felt encouraged by her sympathy. Above all, she was practical. What mattered to her was to make sure that Emily and her family did not suffer materially while Gordon was away; she made