Magda Prinsloo was very young when she walked down the isle of the groet Kerk in Swellendam in March 1852. On her wedding day she considered herself a beautiful 16 year old woman. Not in the conceited sense, in the sense that she was constantly catching the men folk of the town scrutinising her every move, from the rise and fall of her ample chest to the way she walked down the Hoof Straat on a Saturday morning. This she felt was validation enough that she had the ability to turn heads.
Frederik Johannes was more than twice her age and had been married before. He was an impressive man with a commanding presence. It was his ochre colour eyes that intrigued her the most. A Lion had savaged his previous wife, Marie, and only her tattered dress was ever recovered. He had come into Town looking and smelling like a rag soaked in witblitze. He was emotionally distraught and rambled about wicked spirits and demented demonic lions. The spiteful talk around town was that Frederik was more than capable of controlling a wayward tongue. In fact so capable was Frederik that after the donkey had kicked Marie for the fourth time, he moved far into the interior with Marie and the donkey, away from the loose talk and the loose morals of the town.
It was several years since Magda’s wedding day; the donkey had not changed its ways. As Koos Botha pointed out to Frik Niewoud it wasn’t the fact that the donkey of Frederik kicked, it was the fact that it could follow Magda and kick her several times and always on the invisible areas of her milky white skin. He only knew that because on an uninvited visit to Frederik’s farm, far in the interior, he had bumped into Magda. Frederik chased him off the property with threats of "jy sal brand in die hell " and wicked demonic spirits. Koos felt he noticed the demonic gleam in the donkeys eye whilst making his hasty escape across the yard.
Magda had found a renewed jaunt in her step. Her beautiful smile, which had not shown itself for many years, of late crept across her face often. The missing tooth still did not detract from her radiance. She realised after all these years she still was a beautiful woman, something she found very hard to believe.
Frederik had been thrown off his donkey and as the doctor put it had suffered a crushed vertebra and could not move from the neck down. She immediately shot the donkey in front of Frederik, whilst he was propped up on the stoep. His ochre colour eyes still intrigued her showing fear for the very first time. The new donkey, bought from Koos, managed to inflict cruel blows to Frederik’s head when he sat on the stoep. She reckoned the next time the donkey found its way to Frederik’s rimpie stoel on the stoep, it would leave the way open for Koos to court her. Her blue eyes seemed to close ever so slightly and a possible faint smile traced across her lips.
The End -copyright QJD
