Free The Smell of Apples: A Novel by Mark Behr Page A

against his stomach. By now, we're laughing so much, I have to lie flat against the lighthouse to keep my balance.
    Tm scared . . .'we hear her say above the noise of the wind and the waves: 'Ag, Marnus . . . please tell him to give back my hat.'
    'Come and fetch it,' I answer. 'You can have it, just come and get it yourself.'
    'Come on, don't be such a sissy! Come on! The waves aren't so bad,' Frikkie shouts, and tugs at my arm, until we're at the front of the lighthouse, facing the open sea.
    Softly I say to him: 'Today's the day we're going to get drowned.'
    'Are you coming, Zelda, or do you want me to chuck this stupid hat into the water?' Frikkie calls at the top of his voice, and we peer at her around the lighthouse.
    She's still jumping up and down and now she's started crying. I can see she's nearly hysterical, and I want to tell Frikkie that we should stop. Just then a dreadful wave comes down on the quay, right where Zelda is. Before anyone can do a thing, the wave cracks against the concrete like a cannon, and we just hear Zelda scream at the same moment as she disappears under the water.
    For a few moments Frikkie and I are dumbstruck. We

    Mark Behr
    stand frozen, our eyes on the swirling water where Zelda was still jumping around a second ago. Without letting go of the lighthouse, we look for her in the harbour. But when the last water rushes down the side of the quay into the harbour, I see her.
    She's lying on the side of the quay, where the force of the wave pushed her. Her hands are up over her face, and the dress has been washed across her stomach so that her white legs and panties stick out. It's as if something tells me: Frikkie and I are responsible for drowning Zelda Kemp. I let go of the lighthouse and shake my hands around. What are we going to do?
    We run to her. When we get to her, I can see she's alive, because her mouth is moving! We help her up, and with her wet body between us, we run to where the quay bends back towards the land.
    She starts crying and we try to make her feel better. I take the hat from Frikkie and hand it back to her. But she carries on crying and sits down on her haunches in the middle of the quay with her face between her knees. Some men from the fish-market come over to see what's happening, and Frikkie says she's crying because her dress got wet. They warn us to be more careful, and then stroll back to the noise coming from the market.
    After a while I can see Frikkie's getting irritated with Zelda, and he says: 'Stop your crying now, Zelda. Else we'll just leave you here. Look, the hotnots are laughing at you.'
    She calms down a bit, and looks at the fish-market through her red eyes. Frikkie walks off, and Zelda and I follow.
    'If I lost my hat, I would have gotten a hiding,' she says. 4 I must wear it so that I don't freckle.' I'm glad she's started speaking again. 'I'm sorry,' I say softly, so that Frikkie can't hear.

    The Smell of Apples
    She starts sobbing again. Then she says: Tm glad we're going to move away from here.'
    'Are you really moving?' I ask, because I'm already thinking of Zelda's father coming to tell Dad that I almost drowned her.
    'From next year Daddy is going to work in the main post office. But there's also work on the railways.'
    'Where are you going to live?'
    'In Woodstock. Close to the cinema.'
    'So . . . will you be coming to Jan Van Riebeeck?'
    She shakes her head and pulls both hands down her plaits to dry them. 'No, we're going to the school close to our new house. I don't know its name.'
    Frikkie is still walking ahead of us. 'Are you going to tell your father about the hat?' I ask, because I don't want her to go before I'm sure Dad and Mum aren't going to hear about this.
    She shakes her head. 'I'm not meant to play on the quay.'
    Frikkie has turned around and says: 'Saggies praat is dui-welsraad?
    At the Greek cafe, Frikkie and I turn to walk back to St James, and Zelda goes up the hill towards their house below the fishermen. Halfway