Tot siens, koning Arthur deur Annelie Ferreira
What few people know about me, is that …
(This chapter is an essay and an introduction, telling us more about the main
character in terms of her personality and background: she is writing this as part
of an acceptance letter into medicine.)
Sylvia punched out a boy’s front teeth in grade one. (This means that Sylvia can
stand up for herself and Sylvia does not tolerate injustice towards others.) In this
instance, the boy was a bully. The teacher sent her mom a letter and Sylvia told her
side of the story; instead of disciplining her, her mother said that if the teacher was too
useless to do something, then well, he deserved it! 😊
The other thing few people know about her, is that Sylvia wants to become a doctor.
She’s not the smartest (slimste) student, but she works hard and wants to get a
bursary. Sylvia was at a birthday party when she realised that she wanted to be a
doctor: it was a house with a massive garden. By revealing that they live in a flat
(woonstel) where their “garden” is basically a pot with lilies in it, the reader gets the
idea that they are not very wealthy.
Sylvia remembers the loud bang when the bird flew into the sliding glass door. It was
a small green bird and she immediately ran and picked it up. The lady whose house it
was, said that the bird was dead. When Sylvia eventually stopped crying, it wasn’t
because of the big slice of birthday cake the lady gave her or the clown (hanswors) and
his stupid jokes or her mom who threatened to give her a massive hiding if Sylvia
didn’t stop crying. It was because she decided to become a doctor one day so that she
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,would never have to see such a beautiful thing as a broken bird and know that
she could do nothing to help it.
CHAPTER 1: GUINEVERE
Sylvia is helping out at an old age home called Huis Andante because the court (hof)
sentenced her to 100 hours of community service (gemeenskapsdiens). It’s
December and the story plays off in Cape Town (Kaapstad). Sylvia meets suster
Pretorius, the matron at Huis Andante. She is not a very friendly person. She tells
Sylvia that they don’t usually take in people in Sylvia’s position, but the social worker
(maatskaplike werker) said there would not be any problems.
When suster Pretorius looks at the form in her hand, she cannot pronounce Sylvia’s
first name: Guinevere. Sylvia’s full name is Guinevere Sylvia van der Merwe. Suster
Pretorius then says that old people are vulnerable and that they don’t allow them to
keep their valuables in their rooms any way, implying that Sylvia is a thief.
Sylvia starts to blush and thinks to herself that she is not in trouble because of theft.
She already started sweating when she entered suster Pretorius’s office which tells us
that she is quite nervous about the whole thing.
Sylvia notices the weird smell in the old age home. Suster Pretorius tells Sylvia to
accompany her and as they walk down the corridor, Sylvia gets a huge fright because
of some loud yelling from an old man behind them in the corridor. Suster Pretorius is
not phased at all; she says it’s oom Naudé and he sometimes yells like that, but most
of the time he at least has it together. They put two deaf people on either side of
where he stays, so all is well.
They then bump into another old oom, but this one is charging down the passage with
his walker like it’s a racing car. Suster Pretorius just sticks out her arm to stop him and
redirects him to the eating hall, which is in the opposite direction of where he was
going.
They eventually arrive at the eating hall: there’s not much light in the room with the
curtains only half way open, as if someone was scared that the old people will start to
crumble when exposed to too much light, like a bunch of mummies.
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,Suster Pretorius takes Sylvia to a long buffet table by the kitchen and introduces her to
two ladies, also wearing the same navy skirt as suster Pretorius, with white shirts. The
suster introduces her as Guinevere, but Sylvia quickly corrects her. She is then told to
take the juice and serve it to the people in the eating hall.
Sylvia can feel the wet spots under her arms from sweating profusely: she is very
nervous. She starts pushing the trolley and think about the Plaaskombuis where she
always carries a tray. This tells us that she works as a waitress at a restaurant,
probably to earn extra money to help her mom out financially and maybe also to save
for varsity.
The first two people she serves, are two old ladies: one wearing a pink shirt with white
hair in a French roll and the other one wearing a blue shirt and has grey, curly hair. The
oldest person Sylvia had to deal with before this, was her Maths teacher and he already
lost some of his marbles and it wasn’t like he had Alzheimer’s or anything.
Sylvia greets the two ladies cheerfully and the one with the pink blouse asks her if
she’s the bride. Sylvia doesn’t know what to say and the other lady says that Sylvia’s
from the 10th floor.
In her mind Sylvia yells for help from Hein, her boyfriend: she sees his face in front of
her – the mouth of an angel, his eyes full of dancing devils. She thinks about what he
would have done.
Sylvia puts down the juice in front of the old tannie and tells them about her
community service. They just stare at her and then the tannie in pink puts her hand on
Sylvia’s arm and says that Sylvia has to get her dress in time because sometimes it has
to be altered slightly.
CHAPTER 2: JOU GAT, MAN
Sylvia’s mom drives a red Corsa and Sylvia has a scooter (poegie). Sylvia has a 4-year
old brother, Fransie. He always wears his Superman outfit which he got for his
birthday; he’s been wearing it for six weeks straight. He cries a lot, but rarely speaks.
Her mom has dark hair, wears high heels and has long red nails, but she is very
particular about neatness. She also talks A LOT.
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, Sylvia’s mom is upset because Fransie’s day care provider (dagmoeder) is away for
four weeks over the Christmas-holiday and Sylvia was supposed to look after him, but
now she obviously can’t and Fransie is having problems adjusting to the new day care
provider. Sylvia’s mom had Sylvia when she was very young and she was an unplanned
baby. Her mom doesn’t want Sylvia to find herself in the same situation as what she
did at her age and she constantly tells Sylvia that she had such high hopes for her.
They struggle financially. Her mom often gets last notices (aanmanings) in the post.
She hasn’t been to the post office to get the registered mail (this is important for
later in the story!)
Sylvia then describes the flat: it’s on the ground floor with a tiny garden and a rose at
the front door. The flat is quiet and neat: her mom always says that their flat is not a
rubbish dump and it doesn’t matter if you live in a shoe box, but you have to keep it
clean.
Then Sylvia thinks back to Schalk and the house they used to live in with him.
They put the groceries on the table and a box Rice Crispies falls on the floor. Sylvia can
see her mom swearing under her breath and this is because Fransie’s first words were:
“Jou gat, man.” Since then, her mom tries to avoid crude language with Fransie around.
They have a fight again about how disappointed her mom is in Sylvia and then Sylvia
bursts out and says suster Pretorius called her Guinevere and asks who gives their kid
such a ridiculous name any way? Her mom goes quiet and then says that to her it was
a nice name.
Fransie starts crying and Sylvia helps him take a bath. He refuses to bath and Sylvia
starts telling him a story about Superman and when he was a small boy and how he
had to go to a new day care provider and how foreign everything was there and
Fransie adds that there was a BIG SMALL DOG. Eventually he does bath and Sylvia
washes his Superman outfit in the basin.
She hears her mom speaking over the phone to a mevrou Pieterse and she is trying to
sell the lady a time share. She does this for an extra income. She is a second hand
car sales person for her day job.
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