PAP EN WORS
We were going to the drive-in. Dad was coming home from work before it was dark, and Mom gave us our bath at half-past-four.
She had to struggle to keep both of us still enough to be washed properly. Steve was splashing around so much at the front of the bath near the taps that he nearly banged his head, and he had to be rescued quickly with Mom’s hand.
Mom dried us off and helped us put on our pajamas and dressing gowns and made sure that Steve put his slippers on the right feet. We heard dad’s Volksie coming into the gate while Mom was brushing my hair, and Steve and I ran outside to meet him. Mom went into the kitchen to mix red Kool-Aid in a flask for us boys and putting two Castles and a Carafino in a cooler box for her and dad. She wasn’t packing any food because dad had said that there was a braai at the drive-in, and we were going to eat there. We hadn’t been long in South Africa, and it was to be our first taste of a braai – much better than barbecue, especially the boerewors, dad said.
When the car was packed, mom came out of the house smelling of hairspray and dressed in black pointy Wayfarers and her new jelly-bean-coloured jumpsuit. We all got in the car and Steve and I climbed into the very back with all the blankets and pillows.
It was strange driving down Eloff Street; the pavements filled only with blown-about papers and silence, and the buildings all silver and quiet in the evening light.
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