Canola Karel

English

"Karel!" Bertha shouted from the kitchen for Karel to wake up.

"The people of Malmesbury are not going to wait for you, get up now!" she said angrily at the bedroom door.

Karel makes funny unearthly snoring sounds, pulls the duvet over his head and continues to sleep peacefully.

"Oh no Boeta, you have to get up now, your father is waiting for you at the breakfast table!" She walks in the door and summarily pulls the duvet off his big body, throws it on the carpet and tugs at his chubby arm.

She looked at her son lying in front of her. He is short and a real box of a man. If she can call her own child a man? She raised him so wrong. Baked cookies with her all day in the kitchen and he watched her for hours as she arranged flowers for the church. He practically inherited all her talents. He is good with everything inside the house, yes, everything that can be done with his two puffy hands.

"Oh my, he loves flowers and he can't resist wildflowers." She sigh.

Karel's skin is pure white, because he never goes outside. She fears if he has to burn sunburn blisters; he can be a real baby sometimes. Her child simply cannot grow up!

"Mmmm!" She mumbles to herself, what a terribly strange thing to think.

She tugged his arm again and sat down next to him on the bed.

"Karel, I have something to tell you."

He slowly turned around, moaned and peered at her with his small eyes.

"Hello my Mom." He looked into her deep blue eyes.

Bertha feels sorry for him, so she wants to talk to him first before his father tells him the shocking news.

"Listen carefully to Mamma," she moved closer to him and whispered, "you are going to work with your father at the mine today." She squints her eyes, pulls her mouth crooked and hopes but he doesn't take the news too seriously.

There is a long silence.

"What, what does Mommy say?" He sits up and leans against his pillow.

"Yes, your father and I spoke last night. You are already twenty-seven and already a big man. You can no longer live here with us and pay no rent. You don't work and are very lazy, the girls in town already think you are one of them. I'm getting old and you can't stay with me all day and arrange flowers. Trust me, your cookies and pies taste great going forward, but it's time!"

Karel's eyes widen as big as saucers, he turns pale as a sheet and feels nauseous. Ten thousand thoughts go through his head and only one thought gets steroids, ... the mine overall!

"No Mommy, just not the mine, please! I'm begging you, go talk to Daddy." He grabbed her skinny arm.

"I will never survive the mine. Those overalls stink and I look awful in one of them. The stuff isn't even my colour. The other miners are going to laugh at me again. I can still hear the gossip behind my back."

"Now, then it's time for you to overcome your fears, Karel!" she tapped him on the head, laughed teasingly and walked out the door.

"Karel!" shouted his father from the kitchen.

Before you could say knife, he was out of bed, straight to the bathroom to change into those awful overalls.

Half an hour later Bertha stands at the front door while Sybrand and Karel drive out the gate in the old baby blue Volkswagen beetle. She waves, but Karel is so upset that he just stares at her from the small window.