The Cango Valley, Affairs and Fantasies (1968 - 1973)

Excerpt no 4: Africa Will Always Break Your Heart

...We discovered popular music. In Geoff’s case, The Beatles and Creedence Clearwater Revival while I was leaning more towards Deep Purple, Uriah Heep and Cat Stevens. We drove the old man insane with our newly discovered ‘satanic’ influence. He initially did not allow us to play any of it while he was around. But he soon learnt that all of our friends listened to it as well and only then did he grudgingly accept it. Geoff became a good guitarist. I think the old man was silently very proud of him.

We did holiday jobs as guides at the ostrich farms and the Cango Caves. We got well paid and were therefore esteemed by our peers. We bought our own clothes and fended for ourselves.

Family life was more relaxed. In an honest effort of reconciliation mom was not having any affairs. We had friends over. Most of them liked our folks as they came across as carefree and liberal. Dad had a wry sense of humour and treated our friends a lot better than he did his own children especially the teenage girls.

One thing that didn’t change was the dinner ceremony. For one thing, were you as much as a few minutes late you were bound to have shit coming your way. Dinners would always be concluded by dad taking out The Holy Book. He would read and preach and this inevitably led to some serious arguments. He elevated himself to godly status within a few minutes by quoting the Word of the Lord as to how a son should obey his father and then immediately embark on the stupid rules and regulations imposed by him, which he believed we did not carry out to the letter. We were made to feel like the scum of the earth. My most vivid recollection of these suppers is that I used to make ‘fists’ with my toes, tensing up for the argument that was sure to erupt sooner or later. It all depended on whether the old man had a good day at work or not. Mostly it tended to be bad days.

Still, things were better. We even went on a few holidays as a family. Dad had bought a car and even though it was close to becoming a vintage, it was a somewhat reliable form of transport. We did the trip back to Cape Town quite a few times, specifically to visit my cousins in Simon’s Town.

Soon mom was at it again.

Mini-skirts were in fashion at the time and one of mom’s lady friends would visit us regularly. This normally happened over weekends when my elder brother was visiting his girlfriend and not around. ‘M’ never wore a bra and one could see her firm breasts and big swollen nipples quite clearly through the thin tops she wore. She was a slightly chubby little thing, about a head shorter than me with long shining black hair, large emerald green eyes and an upturned nose. She was twice my age but could easily pass for a teenager. She rolled her ‘r’s’ as some do, and I found this extremely sexy.

I was never sure if she knew I was looking at her legs each time I managed to sit opposite her. This was most of the time since she always pulled me into the conversation and made sure that I sat facing her.

Her thighs were slightly thicker than perfect but muscular. I could swear that she’d purposely part her legs slightly to give me a glimpse of her forbidden crotch never looking me in the eye. She would start off by sitting cross-legged showing just a glimpse of her panties underneath a very short skirt. I would wait impatiently for her to uncross her legs as to get a better view of this small triangle of forbidden delight. In time she would uncross her legs, slowly, revealing a full view of her sex. She toyed with me and never let me know if she did this on purpose or not. My mouth went dry and I was unable to speak, mesmerised by her appearance. I was afraid to get up and show my prominent erection...