rejected the impulse to fly with her, and instead they took the cableway
up the precipitous cliffs of Table Mountain, and from the top station
they found a path along the plateau and followed it, hand in hand, to a
lonely place upon the cliff's edge where they could sit together high
above the city and the measureless spread of ocean.
The sounds of the city came up two thousand feet to them, tiny and
disjointed, on freak gusts of the wind or bouncing from the soaring
canyons of grey rock, the horn of an automobile, the clang of a
locomotive shunting in the train yards, the cry of a muezzin calling the
faithful of Islam to pray, and the distant shrilling of children
released from the classroom, yet all these faint echoes of humanity
seemed to enhance their aloneness and the breeze out of the south east
was sweet and clean after the filthy city air.
They drank the wine together, sitting close while David gathered his
resolve. He was about to speak when Debra forestalled him.
It's good to be alive and in love, my darling, she said. We are very
lucky, you and I. Do you know that, David? He made a sound in his
throat that could have been
agreement, and his courage failed him.
If you could, would you change anything? he asked at last, and she
laughed.
Oh, sure. One is never absolutely content until and unless one is dead.
I'd change many small things, but not the one big thing. You and''What
would you change? I would like to write better than I do, for one
thing. They were silent again, sipping the wine.
Sun is going down fast now, he told her.
Tell me, she demanded, and he tried to find words for the colours, that
flickered over the cloud banks and the way the ocean shimmered and
dazzled with the last rays of gold and blood, and he knew he could never
tell it to her. He stopped in the middle of a sentence.
I saw Ruby Friedman today, he said abruptly, unable to find a gentler
approach, and she went still beside him in that special way of hers,
frozen like a timid wild thing at the scent of some fearful predator.
It's bad! she said at last. Why do you say that! he demanded quickly.
Because you brought me here to tell me, and because you are afraid. No,
David denied it.
Yes. I can feel it now, very clearly. You are afraid for me. It's not
true, David tried to reassure her. I'm a little worried that's all.
Tell me, she said.
There is a small growth. It's not dangerous, yet.
But they feel something should be done about it, I He stumbled through
the explanation he had so carefully prepared, and when he ended she was
silent for a moment.
It is necessary, absolutely necessary? she asked.
Yes, he told her, and she nodded, trusting him completely, then she
smiled and squeezed his arm.
Don't fret yourself, David, my darling. It will be all right. You'll
see, they can't touch us. We live in a private place where they can't
touch us. Now it was she who was striving to comfort him.
Of course it will be all right. He hugged her to him roughly, slopping
