26. The Promised Land
“Wow! Beautiful dogs! They are sturdy and muscled like two bodybuilders and that mouths of them could easily bite around an ordinary dog’s throat. I must say, I am very glad I am not a stray animal on your farm.”
Chloe laughs. “Talking of stray animals! Last month Batista bit a poor, giant, bush pig’s back off. Luckily today they have caught me just as I stopped the car, or else they would have run me down to earth. Now I shall pacify them before I climb out. Wait a bit, Hunter, let me get out and greet them first before I open your door. I must introduce them to you. They don’t know you.”
Chloe opens her window while she placates the dogs and orders them to sit down to prevent them from jumping on her. They have learned well not to jump up against a car. She takes the bag of biltong that she brought for them and opens her door while they excitedly tremble but obediently only sit and howl.
After she has stroked them and fed them biltong, she takes them to Hunter’s door, open it and introduce him. Hunter goes down on his hunches and greets them face to face. Amazed Chloe sees that they are mad about him.
Hunter gets up and smiles happily at her. “I wonder if Tony ever has told you. We Recces had our own male lion and your dogs bring back happy memories. We had a lot of sports with Teddy and especially when strangers visited us. I’ll never forget the one time when certain VIPs visited our camp. We ‘forgot’ to inform and warn them of the lion. One then ‘met’ Teddy in the bushloo and that was the last time they have ever visited our camp. Don’t you miss these two dogs there on your smallholding?”
“It is only temporary, Hunter. They are so used to the open space here on the farm. I simply cannot steal them away from here. It would be selfish. As a small girl, I’ve never believed Tony’s story about Teddy and now you are telling me the same. I have always thought it was a fairy tale to amuse me.”
They find Ronnie in the workshop. While Hunter conducts interviews with him and all the workers, Chloe goes to Susan in the kitchen.
Susan grabs her and hugs her tightly. “I miss you to pieces, my child. Remember you have grown up in front of me from a little baby to a beautiful lady!”
Eventually, they break the hug and Susan has tears in her eyes. “When are you coming back to the farm? It is as if my life became colorless and has become only a black and white film now.”
Chloe’s eyes are wet and she pecks Susan on the cheek. “Sis, Susan, you make me feel guilty! I only want to flap my wings and fly around for some time away from the farm. What is the situation between Ronnie and Leo nowadays? Are they talking to each other?”
Despondently Susan shakes her head. “That’s another thing. Except for the fact that you are absent, these two guys brought a dark, somber cloud over the farm. They don’t say a word to each other and expect me to convey messages. They avoid each like the pest and refuse to share a table for any meal.”
Disappointed Chloe sighs. “Susan, I gave them an ultimatum: I won’t return unless they have not sorted their animosity. You must force them to share a table and refuse to take messages. Tell them I appointed you to check on them and I want feedback when I visit the farm in the future to hear if they have buried the hatchet. I simply refuse to return to the farm if my two brothers haven’t sorted out their nonsense and live in peace.”
Susan again shakes her head. “If this is your plan, my dear, you will never return. In my wildest dreams, I can’t see them making peace. They are like the Palestinians and Israelites that fight over the princess of the Promised Land.”
“Don’t say that, Susan! There is hope always! I love them as if they are my own flesh and blood. I am sure they will resolve their difficulties. I just must find the right medicine and clandestinely feed them and before they know it, there will be peace and harmony in the Promised Land.”
Susan places her hands around Chloe’s cheeks and looks deep into her eyes.
“Chloe, they are both madly in love with you and the jealousy burns like hell because you have all the qualities that will steal anyone’s heart. You’ve got the loveliest personality; so gentle and full of empathy. You handle everyone with so much respect, irrespective of their race or status. You call a spade a spade and one knows exactly where one stand with you because you are honest, sincere and straightforward. You never speak rudely of anyone and you see goodness in everyone. Although, you’ll never put up with someone’s nonsense and will put him or her in his or her place immediately. And what makes it even more difficult for a man to resist you, apart from all these good qualities, is that you are intelligent and gorgeous. I am sure if you decide one day to enter the Miss South Africa or Miss World pageants you will win by a mile.”
Chloe blushes and shyly smiles. “Oh no, you raised me together with my mother since I was a baby and are looking through a filter at me. Any mother thinks her snot brat is the best and the most beautiful. The sun doesn’t shine out of my ass and if I don’t brush my teeth I also stink. I am only a simple farm girl and above all hopelessly devoid of direction. I don’t even know in which direction to move with my life; even now I am of age. That is why I want to get away from the farm and these madmen and look from another viewpoint and think and get perspective about my life ahead.”
Susan leaves her cheeks and plays with her beautiful hair. “Don’t downgrade yourself, Chloe. You must just find your passion, my dear, and you will make a success of it whatever it is. But about those two guys. They think this farm is the Promised Land and you are the princess. Ronnie grew up with you, that is why he regards Leo as an intruding Israelite. You have been his princess from schooldays. Leo, on the other hand, feels like an Israelite and the farm on which he works so hard and achieves so much success, is his promised land and you are the princess. Each of them wants to ask you to marry him and forever join you in picking the fruits of the Promised Land.”
Chloe smiles and takes both Susan’s hands in hers. “Susan, you are always so wise and have always given me new perspectives when I had a problem. What am I going to do about these two guys?”
“Chloe, you love them as if they are your own flesh and blood brothers, not so? I don’t think you can think about yourself in a position that you want to marry one of them in the future.”
“You are spot on, Susan. In any way, I am not ready for a serious relationship with any man. I want first to sort out the passion of my life and I want to be free to make my own choices and to freely decide on the way forward. When the right guy crosses my path, then it would be somewhere in the future, not now. I am not ready.”
“But is it possible that the right guy might be Ronnie or Leo?”
“I don’t think so. I can’t think about them in that way, Susan. They rather feel like blood family although they are not really.”
“I suspected as much and I think I have a good plan. You must bring them down to earth and cut them down to size like only you can. The best way to do it is to bring in a third male friend into the picture. Maybe someone who you met at the place you are staying and became friends and built up a closer relationship. You must bring him to the farm and introduce him to us and it must look as if you like each other very much. These two guys will then have a common enemy that they hate, and maybe slowly will learn not to see each other as competition, but as comrades and so bury the hatchet.”
Chloe laughs loudly out of joy. “You are so wise, Susan, this sounds like the right medicine. The only problem is, I am not ready for a serious relationship with anybody.”
“It needn’t be a serious one. Just as long as they believe it. You must just find a friend to help you to shake their boats a little.”
Chloe’s face brightens suddenly and naughtily she winks. “Susan, to tell the truth, I have just the right smug, arrogant man to do the job!”
Her eyes are full of life when she thinks about Isaac. “He will surely sink their boats like a warship without competition.”
Susan smiles happily. “I knew it! You are irresistible; the guys won’t leave you alone! Someone is already chasing after you. I can see it in your eyes that you like him a lot more than you pretend. Be honest, Chloe, I can see the flicker in your eyes. You have met someone special.”
Leo enters the kitchen and Chloe greets him hastily before Susan accidentally divulges her secret.
“Hello, Leo!”
Leo’s comes forward hastily with delight on his face and grabs her and lifts her in a warm hug. “I miss you so much, my bundle of sunshine!” He kisses her passionately on her forehead as if she is a teenage girl.
She smiles and looks into his eyes. “Come now, not long ago you’ve tracked me down and sniffed me out and awoken me by knocking and even spoilt me with a breakfast in my own place.”
Her expression suddenly changes from friendly to serious. She frowns at him. “You sadly disappoint me, Leo, because you promised me.”
Leo is startled by the sudden change in demeanor, puts her down and steps back a little.
“What am I guilty of? You ladies are so fickle!”