BREUTENBACH, Breyten

Return to Paradise

…..
Our home was a wonderful place where, among other things, miracles occurred. It had ... a red verandah in front and a white one in the back. Also a kitchen, hall way, a bedroom for our parents, and a ”den" for the boys with beds which provided cover when Ma was about to prod us with a cane or a broom handle, and where full piss-pots were kept as well. Between the bedroom and the "den” was a bathroomy type of chamber. Covered with goose-bumps we would occasionally hear Ma walking around barefooted here, her feet making sucking noise as though they were sticking to the cement floor. Or we would hear Pa sneezing and wheezing as steam bubbled out through the door, clinging in tiny wet traces to the hallway walls. Here we were grabbed and scrubbed without fear or favor until our heels, rough as those of a kitchen fowl, were rough no longer.

…..