stalactites falling from the ceiling above him so that they looked like crystal bolts of lightning frozen in place above him. It was the most frightening and magnificent effect I have ever seen.
Doc’s voice came back to me, sounding serene. ‘It is beautiful, Peekay, we must never tell any person about the crystal cave of Africa.’
‘C’mon, Doc, you’re giving me the creeps,’ I answered, not fully taking in what he had said.
Doc stood up, shining the torch straight into my eyes so that I was blinded by the light. ‘You must promise me, Peekay. It is very important. You must promise, please?’ He withdrew the torch from my face and in the fuzziness the temporary blinding had created he looked just like Merlin, standing between huge spikes of crystal on the platform ten feet above me.
‘Doc, please come down. I promise, now please come down.’
‘Ja, I come. Remember you have promised, Peekay.’ He made his way down from the platform carefully and I ran to give him a hand. He was breathing heavily, and as I helped him down I could feel the excitement in the old man.
We made our way back to the bat cave and Doc shone the Eveready back into the chamber. ‘Peekay, we have found a place in Africa no man has ever seen, the purest magic cave, the crystal cave of Africa.’
‘Come on, Doc, let’s skedaddle, what’s the time?’ He fished into his trouser pocket for his hunter and shone the torch on its face. ‘Half clock ten,’ he said. Doc always told the time in this funny manner.
‘We’ve got to go. If we get back to camp by noon it’ll be dark by the time we get home.’ Fortunately most of the way home was downhill and we knew we would gain a couple of hours on the way back. I calculated it would be around eight that evening before we would be home. Walking the foothills in the dark wouldn’t be much fun and Doc would be exhausted. My anxiety to get going had taken the edge off my excitement. Doc grabbed me by the arm, he was still shaking. ‘Remember, Peekay, this is our cave, the crystal cave belongs only to you and to me.’
‘Okay, Doc, I promise. I already promised. Now let’s get the hell out of here.’ It wasn’t at all like Doc to be so insistent, anyway he knew he could trust me implicitly. The cave had had a tremendous effect on him and I knew he’d want us to come back, though I doubted that he’d be able to make such a tough climb for much longer. I’d cut the rope we’d taken into the cave but had left the rope handrail intact for Doc to use getting out. Once we were back on the ledge I began to retrieve the two metal spikes, as we’d already lost two by having to leave them embedded in the tunnel wall.
‘No, leave them, Peekay,’ Doc said suddenly, ‘there is no time.’ It was unlike Doc, who was always very careful about equipment. We’d account for everything before moving on from a camp site or where we had been collecting specimens. It was the first time he had ever been devious and I realised how emotionally charged he had become over the crystal cave; the old bugger was determined to come back.
We arrived back in the foothills above the town just as a giant moon was coming up over the escarpment, flooding the de Kaap valley in silver light. It was a full moon again and that was always a difficult time for me. It had been a full moon when Granpa Chook died and while the memory of that funny old rooster had dimmed, when the moon was full memories came galloping through the silver night to sadden me. It had also been a full moon when Geel Piet had died.
I was right, this would be the last big trek with Doc, who was at the point of collapse by the time we finally reached his cottage. I laid him on top of his bed and removed his boots. He had two large blisters, one under each big toe, so I threaded a needle and cotton and ran a loop of cotton through each blister which I then tied, leaving them overnight to drain the fluid. It was a technique Doc had shown me years before and I knew that by morning the blisters would have flattened and there would be no pain. I washed his face and put Vaseline over a cut under his eye and threw an army blanket over him. He was a tough old blighter and in the morning I was pretty sure he’d be okay.
‘Ours. The crystal cave, Africa. You, me, Peekay,’ he mumbled and then seemed to drift off into sleep. I waited until his breathing was deep and even before leaving for home. On the way the moon was so bright that one could see the purple blossom of the jacaranda trees. I was saddened at the thought of never again being with him in the high mountains. Each time I came back from school Doc seemed a little more frail. We had found the crystal cave of Africa but would I see it only once? Perhaps I would return, perhaps not. When you share things, as Doc and I had done, somehow it seemed wrong to halve the secret by returning alone. I thought of the rope rotting and perhaps in a hundred years they’d find the holes where the spikes had long since rusted out and observe the rust stains in the dolomite. They’d search and find minute metal fragments which they’d analyse, and then propound all sorts of theories that would have nothing to do with a six foot seven inch German professor of music and the future welterweight boxing champion of the world.
TWENTY
The second term of form three began with a new aspect of school life. Singe ’n Burn’s tutorials three times a week were quite unlike school. We talked for an hour and from it would come at least three hours of reading and preparation for the next tutorial. The headmaster had a wide grasp of subject and he was quick to discover where a boy’s special aptitudes lay. These he would cultivate carefully while at the same time balancing the mental menu with the discipline of tackling subjects which, though less interesting, he thought essential to a well-rounded education. Sinjun’s People seldom met as a group and once chosen they were never mentioned again in the activity of the Prince of Wales School. No attempt was ever made to make any one of us seem special or especially important, although a powerful struggle between the six took place in the normal course of school, with each one of Sinjun’s People competing fiercely in the classroom for honours. All this, combined with boxing and rugby football, left me very little time to myself.
Hymie had also revealed his big plan. By now he was so intimately involved with me as a boxer as well as a friend that he acted quite unselfconsciously as my manager. In two and a bit years Hymie had acquired a remarkable expertise on boxing and he too was aware that we’d reached the limitations of both Darby White and Sarge and needed to take the next step in my training.
‘Who’s the best professional boxing trainer in South Africa?’ he’d asked one afternoon shortly after our return to school.
‘You already know the answer to that; Solly Goldman.’
‘Well, I went to see him during the holidays. We’re working out for him when he gets back from a trip to England in six weeks. If he likes what he sees, he’ll take you on.’
‘Jesus, Hymie, that’s wonderful! How’d you get him to agree? Solly Goldman only handles professionals.’
For once Hymie wasn’t ready with a flip answer. He looked down at the back of his hands as he answered. ‘We’re going to pay him. We’ve got enough money in the bank to pay him for a year then we’ll think of something else.’ Hymie looked up at me. ‘Now I know what you’re going to say; but as far as I’m concerned my money is yours, you’d do the same for me.’
‘It’s not on, Hymie. Thank you, but it’s simply not on. There are two reasons. The first you already know about, no hand-outs, not under any circumstances, friendship notwithstanding. The second is more practical, that’s our business capital, the first rule of business is never to eat into your capital, you above all people know that!’
‘Look, we’d still keep the Bank, I can borrow money from my old man to keep the float going. You don’t have to take a hand-out. You can buy back your share of the float capital from the profits and you can take a salary as pocket money, you’ll see, it will work out.’
‘Hymie, there’s nothing in the world I want more than Solly Goldman’s expertise, but I can’t do it. It’s got something to do with an incident in my life when I was five years old and I’ve promised myself I would never again forfeit my independence, never again find myself in a position where I wasn’t in control of my life.’
Hymie looked hurt and I couldn’t blame him, in a sense I was rejecting his friendship and his trust. But the wounds entrenched by the Judge and Nazi stormtroopers had left adhesions on my psyche as a constant reminder to me that I was on my own.
‘Okay, Peekay, have it your way, man.’ Then Hymie grinned. ‘If I think up a scam and your share makes enough money to pay Goldman, will you be in it?’
I grinned, relieved that he had accepted my objection. ‘That’s business, that’s different! But only if I play my part and the whole thing’s kosher.’
