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About an hour after setting off from their taxi and beginning to walk the dirt path, the weary travellers could finally see a clearing in the trees before them. They both felt relief wash over them, bringing their seemingly endless trek through the unusual South African landscape to an end.
The tree line ended right at a beige wall that extended past where they could see, much higher than it had any right to be.
Roy sighed audibly. He was now the one struggling. Alex, on the other hand, seemed to have a kind of renewed strength.
“C’mon. Not long now, lazy bones!” she said excitedly.
Roy paused and sighed again. He was not very happy. He thought it best to deflect from his bad mood with a joke and said, “Lazy? Who’s the one with both suitcases over here?” This wasn’t so much of a joke as a question. It also wasn’t very funny.
“Right,” she said. She didn’t take it personally. “My apologies, sir,” she added. “Would the good lady like me to take one of them for her?”
“Cheeky... And yes, please.”
Roy handed Alex’s suitcase over to her, quietly relieved that at least one of his arms could finally rest.
“Do you need a break, hun?” asked Alex. She could see the toll that the walk there had taken on him. “You look a little sick, actually. I hope I didn’t give you whatever the hell I had in the car.”
“Well...” Roy trailed off. He was now struggling to concentrate.
A concerned look crossed Alex’s face as she grabbed him by the arm. “Roy?”
“Alex?” he managed to say whilst on his way to the ground. Everything got a bit foggy after that. And, just a short time after that, there was darkness.
* * *
When Roy next became aware, he heard the sounds of Alex thanking someone and a door closing. He was a bit confused, expecting to find dirt on his face. Instead, there was a lovely, soft pillow. After some gentle tossing and turning, he decided to try and open his eyes.
“Alex?”
“Roy!” Alex jumped back from the door that had just closed and hurried over to Roy’s bedside.
“What happened to me?” he asked, gathering strength.
“You just fell, babe. I don’t know what happened.”
“How did I get to...” he trails off, trying to take in his surroundings for the first time. “... here.”
“The groundskeepers carried you.”
“Oh.”
Roy didn’t know who or what groundskeepers she was talking about. His mind was still coming out of blank whiteness and fading back into reality. He rolled over and saw his smart phone on the bedside table across from him. He tried to reach over with the little strength he had regained when Alex interjected.
“Save your strength, babe. It’s dead,” she said.
Roy frowned. He wasn’t quite sure what she was saying, both in terms of words and meaning. “Dead,” he repeated absently.
Noticing the dampness in his wit, Alex decided to elaborate. “The battery is flat. It doesn’t matter anyway, because there is absolutely no signal in this place,” she added while glancing at her own phone on the other bedside table.
Roy returned to his silence and slowly rotated his head around the room. “Oh,” he added, “you were just talking to someone.”
“Yeah,” she says, “that was one of them, Jabu. Truth be told, they’re a little strange. They don’t speak at all.”
“What do you mean? Like, they’re both mute?”
“I mean, I don’t know. It was a bit weird. I mean, they were friendly enough and really helpful. When you fell down, I didn’t really know what to do, but I knew I couldn’t just stand there and watch you nap.”
“I slept well; thanks for asking.”
Alex laughed, appreciating his relentless humour, even at the most serious of times.
“Shut up. Anyway! I just started running down the side of the wall. This place is bloody massive, by the way.”
“I can’t wait to see it,” said Roy, as he hoisted himself to sit upright.
"Eventually, I found a gate with a guard posted outside. He called the two groundskeepers, Bheka and Jabu.”
“Bheka and Jabu, hey? Well, I’m glad they were around then. Did they carry me or something?”
“Exactly like a little baby, yes.”
“Behave, or the second I can actually move, you’re gonna get it!”
They both laughed. It must have been a relief, too. What a strange day they’d had already.
* * *
It was a couple of hours later. Both Alex and Roy had nodded off back to sleep. They had not moved from the master bedroom in which they had been placed, nor did they have much time to really appreciate the scale of their new home. The sun was setting, and dinner had just been prepared. There was a knock at the door.
Alex woke first, her head shooting up like an ostrich. There was too much sleep in her eyes and fog in her mind to make sense of things. It felt as though she was waking up from one dream and into an entirely new one.
“Oh! Yes... Yes! Who is it?” She called out with a trill as she shook Roy awake.
The reply from the door was deep and rough, but it carried a warmth with it. “Madam, dinner has been prepared for you.”
“Th-thank you! One sec!”
“Please, take your time,” the voice answered as its owner’s footsteps began to clop down the hallwall and out of earshot.
“Roy, please get up.”
Roy had begun to stir already but was clearly weak and didn’t want to move willingly. Despite himself, he managed to sit himself up and swing his feet onto the floor.
“I feel terrible,” he said. “I don’t know if I can put anything in my stomach right now.”
“Let’s just go and see. It would be rude to just waste all that food.”
Roy chuckled and said, “Alright, you’ve got a point there. I’ll try a bite or two.”
And with that, they both got up and ventured down the long hallway into their very own luxury dining room. It was only when they crossed the threshold into the room that they could truly grasp how big this house really was.
“Wow...” started Roy, trailing off into nowhere.
“I think we could fit three of my old flats in here,” said Alex.
“That’s about eight of mine, then.”
“Good evening,” came the same voice from behind the door. It belonged to a short but stocky man in the corner of the room. He was bald with a beard and was wearing a tuxedo with a dark blue waistcoat. Completing his look were the golden, circular glasses that adorned his face. “I’m pleased to see the sir is feeling better,” he added.
“Oh, good evening...” Alex paused. This wasn’t one of the men who had helped with Roy earlier on in the day.
“Please call me Mr. Dladla,” the man said.
“Mr. Dladla, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” said Roy.
“’D-la-d-la,’ said Alex, trying her best. “Oh gosh, you’re going to need to give me some time! Sorry about that!”
Mr. Dladla laughed, clearly taking no offense. "Madam, you say it just fine; don’t worry. Please have a seat. Jabu and Bheka are just getting the food plated now,” he said.
“Ah, yes,” said Roy. “I’m going to have to thank them. Not the best way for us to meet, you know?”
“Please don’t worry, Mr. White. We are all humans at the end of the day. Do not trouble yourself. In any case, Jabu and Bheka are not big talkers.”
Mr. Dladla then turned his head to peer out into the kitchen, and his face relaxed as he saw just what he expected to see. He turned back to the couple and said, “Dinner is served.”
Just as he said that, Bheka and Jabu, the two groundskeepers and Roy’s rescuers, came out bearing a series of plates balanced on their arms. With diligant efficiency, that set them down at each end of the long dinner table in the centre of the room. They then each pull out a chair and motion for Roy and Alex to sit on it.
“Yoh, these guys are good, hey?” said Roy. He considered for a moment whether or not to thank the keepers, not wanting to force conversation if they really were as quiet as everyone had said. He opted to give it a go. “Hey guys, I just wanted to thank you for carrying all of this all the way here,” he said, while pointing at his stomach.
The groundskeepers simply turned to Roy, keeping their eyes to the ground, and knodded their heads once in unison. They then handed out the cutlery.
Mr. Dladla stepped forward and said, “Please, Mr. White. It’s quite alright. They are in your servitude. You are their employer, so please. There is no need to be polite.”
“Oh yeah, sure,” replied Roy. “Thanks to them, anyway.”
“Would the sir and madam care to try the food?” asked Mr. Dladla. There was a very subtle force to the answer. He wanted them to start eating.
“Oh. Yes, of course. It all looks delicious,” said Alex.
Indeed, I think most people would be inclined to agree with her. The keepers had served them with a roast beef main and an assortment of side dishes from different parts of the globe.
“We weren’t sure what kind of food you like, so we made a little bit of everything,” Mr. Dladla said with a wide grin.
“Oh my... This is impressive, isn’t it?” exclaimed Alex.
“No doubt,” replied Roy, already reaching for his fork.
“Please, dig in,” said Mr. Dladla as he began to step away from the table. “If you need me, I will be just over there,” he said as he pointed to a corner of a room. He took his position, turned to face the couple, and stood quietly as he waited for them to begin.
And so they did. They both picked up their knives and forks and began to eat the beautiful meal that had been prepared for them. Just before she put the first bite in her mouth, a question came to Alex's mind.
"Mr. Dladla, do you know about any strange women living in the woods?" she asked.
"A strange woman? Madam, there are a lot of strange people in this town. I'm afraid you'll need to be more specific," he replied.
She almost laughed at that, but she could see he was not telling any kind of joke. "Oh, well," she continues, "we were walking here on the forest path, and we saw this lady just come out of nowhere and start laughing at us. It was really weird!"
"I'm afraid not, madam. I apologise if some ruffian was causing you trouble. Some of these people are out of their minds." He smiles once more and adds, "Please don't let it put you off your meal."
"Ah," she says, "I suppose you're right about that. Thank you."
And with that, Alex joined her husband in eating, hoping to get some scraps before he could finish it all.
* * *
The meal itself went off without a hitch. Roy and Alex were able to dig in to some of the best food they’d had in a while. Roy had no trouble filling his stomach with the various kinds of food and drink that were spread out on the table, despite his earlier sickness and lack of appetite. Alex, however, seemed to pick at her food a bit. That was something that both Roy and Mr. Dladla noticed but decided to keep to themselves. When Roy later asked why she did not eat at dinner, she said it was because none of it had any taste.
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