Bride Prize

Eleven: Market day preparations

It is noon day.

The bright sun sent heat waves simmering on the golden sand along the wide motorway that led to the marketplace and beyond. The two parallel tracks were quite visible as they went straight down the valley, crossing the small river over a narrow wooden bridge, curved uphill and disappeared over the horizon, which was as far as the eye could see.

About a hundred yards off the main road were the thatched roofs of a village settlement, jutting into the bright cloudy sky like little cones. Other similar settlements scattered further into the semi-forest vegetation.

An old rickety pick-up van suddenly appeared as if suspended from the sky at the crest of the hill beyond the little river. A cloud of dust followed the pick-up van as it rocked on its suspensions, bounced down the slope and disappeared momentarily in the valley as it crossed the wooden bridge and then reappearing again as it laboriously began to climb the hill.

Venda waited impatiently, beside his sack of melon, for the van to arrive.

Painstakingly, the pick-up van finally pulled up. Two elderly men sat huddled on the wooden bench on the open back of the van. Kumeh, the driver, came around quickly, a big smile on his sweating face.

"Man, how is it?" he asked.

Bem stepped down from the passenger's side, came around and punched the sack of melon with his closed fist. "This sack of melon, is it really full?" he asked, eying Venda with an amused look in his eyes.

Venda gave him a dirty look.

"How much fuller do you want it?" He waved a threatening finger at Bem. "Don't you start that crap with me right now."

"Ha ha ha ha ha!" Bem laughed out loud. "Kumeh, give me a hand with this sack."

Between them, Bem and Kumeh lifted the sack and hauled it on to the open back of the pick-up. Kumeh closed the tailgate, went around and jumped behind the wheel, banging the door with a loud clatter. Bem stood on the back of the van while Venda sat in the front passenger seat.

The engine coughed twice before it fired. Rolling forward, the van picked up a little speed, heading towards the marketplace. The van stopped twice, to carry passengers and their luggage, and two of Bem's friends.

* * *

Preparation for the market day is in top gear. Having prepared breakfast earlier, and assisted her mother in arranging items for sale at the market, Iveren quickly went to take her bath in the tiny bath place, a circular mat affair with open top, behind her mother's hut.

Inside her hut, Iveren rubbed her skin with Vaseline jelly from a pint sized bottle that she kept in her round mat box. Then she picked up a small hand held mirror and began to apply make-up. Her beautiful eyes reflected radiantly as she carefully lined her brows, applied lipstick and patted her cheeks with cheap powder. When she was satisfied that she looked her prettiest, she snapped the mirror smack into its bright red compartment and he rose from the wooden stool.

Dressed in a bright, colorful textile material that clung to her body like a second skin, with her ample breasts threatening to burst the cotton fabric. Snapping open the mirror once again she moved to the open doorway and took one last look at herself, adjusted her headgear a little, satisfied, she snapped it shut.

"Knock, knock here," Ape said, stepping into the small round hut. "Ayerrereere!" she chanted when she saw Iveren all dressed up. "You look wonderful. I wish Tersoo could see you this very moment." Iveren smiled, pleased.

"And what do you think he would do?" she asked.

"Hmmm, he won't let you out of his sight," Ape said.