The Present- Part 3 Ch6. Valentine
◦Valentine is in the o ce of the Man Himself, and he is describing the o ce along with the
large presence that the Man Himself gave o .
◦Before the man himself worked as The head of the organisation, the person in charge was
Emil Coetzee. He got to old and sick to stay in charge so then he stepped down.
◦Valentine then tries to think what kind of child that the man himself must have been, he then
describes him by saying, “The Man Himself glinted- mischief, malice, mayhem.”
◦After this the man himself starts to talk to Valentine and tells him that he did a great job and
that he now has the, “the most precious and beautiful something” in his pocket.
◦Valentine then proceeds to assign a task to valentine, he must get the deed of the Beaufort
farm and estate signed over to The organisation, as a group called the survivors (street gang)
took over the farm. The man himself has plans for the farm and he wants Valentine to nd
Beatrice-Beit Beaufort to sign over the deed.
◦The Man Himself Manipulates Valentine into agreeing to do this.
Chapter 7. Kuki
◦Kuki Carmichael is now very old as it is the present time, Kuki was Beatrice’s best friend
growing up.
◦Kuki arrives at an old age home and she looks at herself in the mirror and is looking at how
old she had gotten, she is 81 years old.
◦She is at the Princess Margret Retirement Home, she is there to visit Beatrice as she now
lives there as she had Alzheimer’s. Kuki makes a comment how there was a time that all the
nurses their would have been white, where now all of them are black.
◦Kukis comment is deeply ironic as she is not a racist, and is black herself but she thinks in a
colonist mindset.
◦Kuki is visiting with Beatrice and she brings up Genie, this shows us that the two of them
knew one another.
◦Kuki then informs us that her and Genie has a deal that Genie would come visit, Miss B twice
a month and go out of a girls day to the hair salon and spa.
◦Then Kuki would come once a week to have Tea with her.
◦Then Kuki starts to think about how Beatrice and Genie (Zula Nyoni) were similar, they both
loved sun owers, grew up on Beaufort Farm and estate, had a hero father, they were both
brave, de ant spirit and did not care about race or age.
◦Then the ladies get informed that Beatrice has a visitor, Valentine Tanaka. He has come to get
Beatrice to sign over the deed to The Organisation.
◦Beatrice tells Valentine that she sold Beaufort to the Survivors for a dollar, and that it was a
fair and square deal. (Pg. 309)
