Hettie van Niekirk had already said no to Johannes Opperman’s offer of a lift, but then she succumbed to his persistence and put her mother’s Nissan back in the lean-to carport and climbed into Johannes’ old Ford truck. This time, however, she said no to Johannes’ amorous persuasions and meant it. Perhaps he wouldn’t have been so hurt had it not been the first time she’d said no in 6 months. Perhaps it was the image of her mother’s look of disapproval becoming clearer with each kilometer that Johannes Opperman drove east out of Windhoek and into the Namib, that made her so adamant, or perhaps it was because Hendrick, her father, had threatened to give her a hiding, which she knew he’d never carry out, if she continued seeing Johannes. Hettie valued her parents’ opinions even more as her desire for Johannes faded, and she’d planned to reestablish their relationship on a different footing that day by meeting him at their favourite spot in separate vehicles.
The dirt road on which Johannes drove, follows the Avis River in the Namib Desert. However, the river, although wide in places with steep sides, rarely sees water from one year to the next and the catfish that remain are deep down in mud below the sandy surface on which, it is too hot to walk, especially in January when the sun is at its highest.
Time passed quickly for Hettie during the fifteen miles to the shade of “their” camel-thorn tree, but when she viewed the shimmering Namib as Johannes drove off in a rage, she felt angry that he’d left her to walk home but satisfied with herself for clarifying her perspective of their future.
Later that afternoon, Johannes was moved by feelings of guilt and within eight minutes of frantically driving back along the road, he discovered Hettie’s body by a hole she’d dug with her bare hands in the dry riverbed in search of water.
Harold Roffey – Oxford, UK.