A month after Jane's death, the Western Cape Earth Science Club invited Marcus to give a series of lectures on his speciality, trace fossils within the Precambrian period. He enjoyed the challenge of working within the span of this era, a field where fossil records were poor yet it accounted for eighty-seven percent of geological time.
‘Knysna,’ Marcus mouthed as he put down the invitation. They'd got married there. He checked the dates again, the trip was ten days long and he felt guilty at his eagerness to get away. He called the number on the invitation and accepted.
It was an amateur palaeontology institution and they offered a small stipend, room and board. The town was overcome with holiday makers but there were a few people who were attending the conference, several had heard of Prof. Marcus Denton and read his papers in journals. The caress of academic success was a welcome distraction. He sent Lightness a text when he arrived and called home two days later.
‘He's not talking sir.’
‘What's the matter? Is he upset?’
‘No. He's just not talking. His teacher called to say they were sending him home.’
‘What happened?’
‘He's not talking. When they call his name in class he says nothing.’
Marcus looked out the window. There was a church across from his boarding house, not the one they'd said their vows in but –
‘Where's he now? What's he doing?’
‘I left him in his room, he's looking through his books.’
‘Put him on the phone.’
‘You didn't say goodbye to him. I told you that would cause trouble with a child.’
‘He's hardly a child, Lightness. I left him a note, I needed to beat the traffic’
Lightness made a sound of disapproval.
‘Put him on the phone.’
He waited while she put the phone down. The Zimbabwean woman had worked for Jane's sister, raising her four kids. By the time they decided to adopt Leke the kids had grown up and left the house. Two lived in Canada, one emigrated to Australia and the other lived in Durban. Jane was not particularly close to her sister but she was offered Lightness as a “life saver”. On meeting her during a large family reunion Marcus was immediately jealous of the easy way Lightness had with both adults and children. He heard someone pick up the receiver.
‘Hello? Leke, it's Dad!’
There was no response.
‘Leke!’ he sang, trying something he'd heard Jane do.
‘You cannot raise a child over the phone, sir.’
‘Put him back on, Lightness.’
‘Haven't you heard me? He's not talking. When are you back? You must come now.’
‘I don't think it's such an emergency.’
‘I just give him food when I think he's hungry. I don't know what he's thinking. I don't want to leave him alone in his room at night. He needs you, sir.’
How strange, Marcus thought as he wiped his eyes, his hands temporarily obscuring the view of the white church – to come all this way to cry.
‘Sir?’
He cleared his throat.
‘Soon. I'll be there soon, Lightness.’
He stayed in Knysna for the duration of the conference, calling home every two days to find out that nothing had changed.
He started his drive back to Cape Town after 2pm and stopped in Swellendam to spend the night, telling himself that driving in the dark was a bad idea. The following day he set out late again and arrived back in Cape Town at dusk. Driving into town along the N1 he ignored the men selling car phone chargers and wire versions of “The Big Five”. He dropped his speed to avoid the hidden cameras and, after passing the Pinelands off-ramp, turned towards the university, putting off arriving home, hoping Leke would be asleep by the time he got back.
If anything, Marcus had missed the campus and his office. He stood in the doorway for a few seconds then switched on the lights and ran his fingers over the hulking books on his desk, two massive rocks as book ends.
On the way home from the university he stopped at the ATM. Leke was asleep when he arrived, Lightness fraught with worry.
‘What are you going to do?’
‘Nothing You can leave now, I'll be fine.’
‘Nothing? This child needs help, sir. A normal doctor, or even I can take him to my doctor.’
‘Oh please, we don't need that charade again.’
In the last stages of her sickness, Lightness had convinced Jane to allow her Sangoma to bless and guide her.
‘It's not a charade.’
‘I'm his father. I say he's fine.’
She picked up her bag.
‘I have something to give you.’
He handed her a thick envelope which she took, looking confused.
‘Sir?’
He cleared his throat.
‘What's this?’
‘I think it's better if we…I think it's–’
‘I won't leave him. I've done nothing wrong.’
‘Please. Don't make this difficult. I need to be alone.’
‘What of the boy? What does he need?’
‘He needs me, you said so yourself. I promise I'll take care of him.’
She left, water running from her nose.
Marcus walked through the house. The door to Leke's room was cracked open and he could hear a strange shuffling He pushed the door open and found Leke, his back to the door, playing on the floor. Marcus had seen him playing this strange game before – Leke sitting with his legs open, tearing strips of white paper and twisting the strips and then shuffling them around on the floor. The box of Lego Marcus's sister had brought for him remained unopened in the corner. Marcus stood still for a while in the doorway. He sighed and stepped into the room,
‘Hey there,’ he walked towards the bed and hugged Leke.
‘How are you?’ Marcus asked.
‘Fine,’ Leke said.
‘Ah! So you do speak after all. What was all the fuss about?’ Marcus smiled but Leke just disentangled himself from the awkward embrace and returned to his game.
‘Bedtime my boy,’ Marcus said, his smile disappearing and a heavy sense of fatigue settling onto his shoulders.
Leke didn't resist, he was already dressed in his pyjamas. He climbed into bed.
‘Good night,’ Marcus said.
‘Good night.’
Leke spoke only when Marcus spoke to him so Marcus came home earlier in the day to engage with the boy. Slowly he invited friends around and, over the course of four months, Leke was willing to answer any question put to him. He rarely volunteered conversation but that, Marcus decided, was simply the child's personality. Relieved to have cured Leke and relieved to have been extracted from what had seemed like a trance-like ritual of work and home with little or no contact with anyone in between, life-after-Jane continued for Marcus, boring and unremitting.