Free I Heart Beat by Edyth; Bulbring Page B

penalty for failure is harsh.
    Grummer and Toffie come to find me, and Toffie introduces us to Adore. She’s very friendly and says a lot of thank yous for the new stock of DVDs Toffie’s been supplying her. They’re selling like hot cakes. She says she’s going to branch into music CDs next if I can give Toffie a good URL.
    â€œThe way things are going I’ll be at Yoo Cee Tee next year,” she says.
    Grummer hears all this and looks at Adore. Her eyes narrow and the line between her eyebrows deepens into a donga. That furrowed brow signals danger. She puts her hand on Adore’s shoulder, to get her complete attention. “My girl. Would you steal a person’s cellular telephone? Would you steal a person’s handbag?” Grummer sounds like a bad anti-piracy advert.
    Adore looks at Grummer’s cross face and she figures the answer can’t be yes. So she says no.
    Grummer nods. “Of course not. What you are doing is piracy. And it’s theft.”
    Adore says she has a copy of
The Last Temptation of Christ
which she can let Grummer have for cheap. The quality isn’t so good and it looks like there’s a snowstorm 24/7. But if she makes her eyes squint, Grummer can pretend it’s a sandstorm. Which is fine because it’s set in the Middle East, which is very sandy.
    Grummer’s eyes brighten. And then I see her lips move like she’s making a prayer. And then she shakes her head. “No, Adore. No. It’s not right. And if you carry on like this, the closest you will get to the University of Cape Town is Pollsmoor prison.”
    Adore lowers her head and she says Grummer’s right. But she was only trying to save for medical school. Grummer gets abnormally interested and tells us a very long story about how Grandpa had wanted Mom to be a doctor.
    â€œBut she left school and went overseas and came back with Beatrice,” Grummer says. And she gives me a squeeze. I give her one back just to feel what Dr Simon Fridjohn will be feeling later on tonight. I think he’ll be fine if he likes squishy flesh.
    â€œDerek (my late husband) was very cut up about it. He had his heart set on Beatrice’s mother becoming a doctor. He was a dentist, you know. He felt she had made the wrong choice. Sad really, because if he could see Beatrice today, he would know that she couldn’t have chosen any other way.” Grummer’s going great guns for the Most Embarrassing Granny Oscar tonight. She goes on and on and on and we leave Adore having her ear chewed off.
    Toffie finds his mom rinsing some glasses with Silas. I check Silas out thoroughly. There’s no trace of any albino patches on his hands and face, and Toffie gives me a told-you-so look.
    Mrs Appel tells Toffie that Dr Simon Fridjohn is in the non-smoking dining room. She’s making him a special soya burger ’cos he doesn’t eat animals. I like Dr Simon Fridjohn more and more. Mrs Appel says she’ll make me one too.
    We tell her we’ll also eat in the dining room and we grab Grummer away from Adore just as she’s doing the closing chapter of “Derek’s Big Disappointment”.
    â€œAnd so Derek and Beatrice’s mother never spoke again. When I look back, it seems like such a waste of precious time.”
    I think Grummer’s wasting precious time and we take her through to the dining room. I spot Dr Simon Fridjohn immediately. He’s eating a big plate of salad and feeding scraps of soya burger to three cats under the table. We look around at the full dining room and then Toffie asks Dr Simon Fridjohn if we can join him. I’m so happy I decide to give Toffie a raise.
    Dr Simon Fridjohn smells like antiseptic and he has very white hairless hands, like sterile gloves. He eats nice and doesn’t talk between mouthfuls.
    I’m celebrating victory when I notice Grummer’s starting to itch. There are red welts on her arms and her neck