The Smell of Apples

The afternoon Frikkie arrives, the two boys eagerly head down to the bay. They see a schoolmate, Zelda Kemp, two years their junior, who is something of an outcast because her family has little money and they live in the “scummy” neighborhood that borders the Coloreds. With typical insensitivity, Marnus’s mother has told Marnus, “it’s a tragedy that such a cute little girl doesn’t have much of a future” (56). Frikkie decides to play a joke on the girl. The boys snatch her beloved hat and lure her to the quay that runs along the thundering surf by dangling it over the waves. A sudden wave crashes against the concrete, and Zelda is swept out into the churning surf. After an uneasy moment, the boys see her wash up along the quay. The terrorized girl agrees not to tell on the boys to their parents.

Later that day, the boys meet the Chilean general, and the two listen as the adults discuss the volatile political situation in South Africa. The boys are too young to understand the implications of the conversation, but they understand the deep animus Marnus’s father feels toward the country’s blacks and how foreign agents, Communists, are bent on assisting the blacks in their efforts to overturn the white minority government.