SUSANNA

35| BECOMING A MISSUS

It was Sunday. There was great consternation in the slave house. Everyone milled around Angela who had paid the lodge a visit.

She wore shoes, a blue dress of satin and lace, and a hat perched on the side of her head. She was the centre of their admiration as they huddled around her. One of their own had gained recognition in the Colony as the first full breed slave baptised by Adriaan De Voogd

'You look like a missus, ' said Lijsbet. The young girl could not take her eyes off Angela's feet. She bent down and studied Angela's shoes. 'Heels ' she shouted.

Angela took off her shoes and handed them to Lijsbet and the younger girls. They grabbed it, turned it over and over, stroking the heels, spitting and wiping it down, and biting on the buckle. One by one they took chances and fitted them on.

Zara's feet fit into them. They laughed as she struggled to walk and maintain her balance. 'This is difficult, she said when they finally handed the shoes back to Angela. 'Who showed you,' she asked as they looked on while Angela wiped them clean and put them back on.

'Missus Petronella. She gave them to me. She looked at Catrijn who had been watching from a distance. 'This day we will remember for the rest of our lives, Catrijn.' She pinched the cheeks of her radiant face as she looked at her image in the broken mirror stuffed up on a wooden table. 'Minister de Voogd said I made history today,' she quipped.

'Yes, they say we both made history because we were both baptised.'

'It feels good, does it not Catrijn?' Her friend did not respond. 'Catrijn?'

'I am not free,' said Catrijn with a hint of sarcasm. She pushed out her chin and placed her hands on her hips as the rest of the women fidgeted with the fabric of Angela's dress, nagged her for another chance to fit her shoes and stroked the fabric of her ribbons. Catrijn, annoyed about the fuss around Angela and unable to speak without one of them interrupting, shushed them away with a wave of her thick arm. They sauntered off, disappointed.

'I am sorry about Pieter, Catrijn. If he was alive he would have freed you.'

'Why did he have to die? He was my last chance... Now I will never be my own boss. Never marry a wealthy man.'

'Do not talk like that, Catrijn. Both of us will become a missus. Just like Petronella and-'

'Who in this Colony will ask for the hand of a convict slave with three children...'

'It will happen. I know will,' said Angela, but her joviality did not have the desired results. Her friend was morose. 'We will find a man worthy of our Catrijn.' She saw her face light up.

'You will? You have good connections. Your Arnoldus and Secunde Lucas. A word from them to a man with the right surname...' She clapped her hands. 'Oh, Angela, I will be unstoppable.'

'Remember what we used to say when we arrived here?'

'Of course. How can I forget...'

'What did you say?' It was Zara. She had been following their conversation with a childish admiration that made her face glow.

'Nothing in life is free. If you forget that you will definitely end up like Eva. She also thought she made history.' It was Catrijn.

'That is true. Everything has a cost,' repeated Maria who was sitting on the fringes, listening to them with little interest.

'What really happened to Eva? Everybody tells a different story. I do not know what to believe anymore.' It was the Khoe girl, Zara, who never seemed to get tired of Catrijn's tales.

'She was the interpreter of Commander van Riebeeck. She lived in his house, wore shoes and ate at his table. But, when the time came for him to leave he forgot what she had meant to him. She crawled on her bony knees. 'Baptise me before you leave,' she begged him. On her bare stomach she was seen crawling like a snake, licking the buckles of his shoes. Every day.'