fence up yet, have you? 'Not yet. Well, that's where they have moved
from, probably sick of being stared at by all the tourists. Come up
here for a bit of peace. He took a swallow of his gin. You're getting
a nice bit of stuff together here, Davey, another few years and it will
be a real show-place. Have you got any plans for visitors, you could
make a good thing out of this place, like they have at Mala-Mala.
Five-star safaris at economy prices - Connie, I'm just too damn selfish
to want to share this with anybody else.
The distractions and the time had given Debra an opportunity to recover
from the American failure of A Place of Our Own, and one morning she sat
down at her desk and began working again on her second novel.
That evening she told David: One of the blocks I have had is that I
hadn't a name for it. It's like a baby, you have to give it a name or
it's not really a person. 'You have got a name for it? he asked. Yes.
'Would you like to tell me?
She hesitated, shy at saying it to some other person for the first time.
I thought I'd call it, A Bright and Holy Thing, she said, and he thought
about it for a few moments, repeating it softly, You like it? she asked
anxiously. It's great, he said. I like it. I really do. With Debra
once more busy on her novel it seemed each day was too short for the
love and laughter and industry which filled it.
The call came through while David and Debra were sitting around the
barbecue in the front garden. David ran up to the house when the
telephone bell insisted.
Miss Mordecai? David was puzzled, the name was vaguely familiar.
Yes. I have a person-to-person call from New York, for Miss Debra
Mordecai, the operator repeated impatiently, and David realized who she
was talking about.
She'll take it, he said, and yelled for Debra. It was Bobby Dugan, and
the first time she had heard his voice. Wonder girl, he shouted over
the line. Sit down, so you don't fall down. Big Daddy has got news for
you that will blow your mind! Cosmopolitan ran the article on you two
weeks ago. They did you real proud, darling, full-page photograph, God,
you looked good enough to eat, Debra laughed nervously and signalled
David to put his ear against hers to listen.
the mag hit the stands Saturday, and Monday morning was a riot at the
book stores. They were beating the doors down. You've caught the
imagination of everybody here, darling.
They sold seventeen thousand hardback in five days, you jumped straight
into the number five slot on the New York Times bestseller list, it's a
freak, a phenomenon, a mad crazy runner, darling, we are going to sell
half a million copies of this book standing on our heads. All the big
papers and mags are screaming for review copies, they've lost the ones
we sent them three months ago. Doubleday are reprinting fifty thousand,
and I told them they were crazy, it should have been a hundred thousand,
it's only just starting next week will see the west coast catch fire and
they'll be screaming for copies across the whole country There was much
more, Bobby Dugan riding high, shouting his plans and his hopes, while
Debra laughed weakly and kept saying, No! I can't believe it! and It's
not true! They drank three bottles of Veuve Clicquot that night, and a
little before midnight Debra fell pregnant to David Morgan.
Miss Mordecai combines superb use of language and a sure literary touch
with the readability of a popular bestseller, said the New York Times.
Who says good literature has to be dull? asked Time, Debra Mordecai's
talent burns like a clean white flame. 'Miss Mordecai takes you by the
throat, slams you against the wall, throws you on the floor and kicks
you in the guts. She leaves you as shaken and weak as if you had been
in a car smash, added the Free Press.
Proudly David presented Conrad Berg with a signed copy of A Place of Our
Own. Conrad had finally been prevailed upon to drop the Mrs. Morgan and
call Debra by her given name. He was so impressed with the book that he
had an immediate relapse.
How do you think of those things, Mrs. Morgan? 'he asked with awe.
Debra, Debra prompted him.
She doesn't think of them, Jane Berg explained helpfully. It just comes
to her, it's called inspiration. Bobby Dugan was correct, they had to
reprint another fifty thousand copies.
It seemed as though the fates, ashamed of the cruel pranks they had
played upon them, were determined to shower Debra and David with gifts.
As Debra sat at her olive-wood table, growing daily bigger with her
child, once again the words flowed as strongly and as clearly as the
spring waters of the String of Pearls. However, there was still time to
help David with the illustrated publication he was compiling on the
birds of prey of the bushveld, and to accompany him on the daily
expeditions to different areas of Jabulani, and to plan the furnishings
and the layout of the empty nursery.
Conrad Berg came to her secretly to enlist her aid in his plan to have
David nominated to the Board of the National Parks Committee. They
discussed it in length and great detail. A seat on the Board carried
prestige and was usually reserved for men of greater age and influence
than David.
However, Conrad was confident that the dignity of the Morgan name
combined with David's wealth, ownership of Jabulani, demonstrated
interest in conservation and his ability to devote much time to the
affairs of the Board would prevail.
Yes, Debra decided. It will be good for him to meet people and get out
a little more. We are in danger of becoming recluses here. Will he do
it? I Don't worry, Debra assured him. I'll see to it. Debra was
right. After the initial uneasiness of the first meeting of the Board,
and once the other members became accustomed to that dreadful face and
realized that behind it was a warm and forceful person, David gathered
increasing confidence with each subsequent Journey to Pretoria where the
Board met. Debra would fly up with him and while they were at their
deliberations she and Jane Berg shopped for the baby and the other items
of luxury and necessity that were not readily come by in Nelspruit.
However, by November Debra was carrying low and she felt too big and
uncomfortable to make the long flight in the cockpit of the Navajo,
especially as the rains were about to break and the air was turbulent
with storm cloud and static and heavy thermals. It would be a bumpy
trip, and she was deeply involved in the last chapters of the new book.
I'll be perfectly all right here, she insisted. I've got a telephone
and I have also got six game rangers, four servants and a fierce hound
to guard me.
David argued and protested for five days before the meeting and agreed
only after he had worked out a timetable.
If I leave here before dawn I'll be at the meeting by nine, we'll be
finished by three and I can be back here by six-thirty at the latest, he
muttered. If it wasn't the budget and financial affairs vote, I would
cut it, tell them I was sick. 'It's important, darling. You go. 'You
sure now? 'I won't even notice you're not here. Don't get too carried
away by it, he told her ruefully.
J might stay just to punish you. In the dawn the thunderheads were the
colour of wine and flame and ripe fruit, turning and magnificent,
towering high above the tiny aircraft, high above the utmost ceiling of