happening? 'You are all right. The operation was a success. You are
just fine.
Colours, she cried. Filling my whole head. I've never known it like
this. It's the result of the operation. It shows that it was a
success. They removed the growth. 'I'm frightened, David. 'No, my
darling. There is nothing to be afraid of Hold me, David. Hold me
safe. And in the circle of his arms the fear abated, and slowly she
learned to ride the oceanic waves and washes of colour, came gradually
to accept and then at last to look upon them with wonder and with
intense pleasure.
It's beautiful, David. I'm not frightened any more, not with you
holding me. It's wonderful. 'Tell me what you see, he said. I
couldn't. It's impossible. I couldn't find the words. 'Try!
he said.
David was alone in the suite, and it was after midnight when the call
that he had placed to New York came through.
This is Robert Dugan, to whom am I speaking? Bobby's voice was crisp
and businesslike. It's David Morgan. 'Who? 'Debra Mordecai's husband.
Well, hello there, David. The agent's voice changed, becoming
expansive. It's sure nice to talk to you. How is Debra? It was
obvious that Dugan's interest in David began and ended with his wife.
That's why I am calling. She's had an operation and she's in hospital
at the moment. 'God! Not serious, is it? She's going to be fine.
She'll be up in a few days and ready for work in a couple of weeks.
'Glad to hear it, David. That's great. Loo ere, I want you to go ahead
and set up that script-writing contract for A Place of Our Own. 'She's
going to do it?
Dugan's pleasure carried six thousand miles with no diminution. She'll
do it now. 'That's wonderful news, David. 'Write her a good contract.
Depend on it, boyo. That little girl of yours is a hot property.
Playing hard to get hasn't done her any harm, I tell you! How long will
the script job last? They'll want her for six months, Dugan guessed.
The producer who will do it is making a movie in Rome right now. He'll
probably want Debra to work with him there. Good, said David. She'll
like Rome. You coming with her, David? No, David answered carefully.
No, she'll be coming on her own. Will she be able to get by on her own?
Dugan sounded worried.
From now on she'll be able to do everything on her own Hope you are
right, Dugan was dubious.
I'm right. David told him abruptly. One other thing.
That lecture tour, is it still on? They are beating the door down.
Like I said, she's hotter than a pistol. 'Set it up for after the
script job. Hey, David boy. This is the business. Now we are really
cooking with gas. We are going to make your little girl into one very
big piece of property. Do that, said David. Make her big. Keep her
busy, you hear. Don't give her time to think. I'll keep her busy. Then
as though he had detected something in David's voice. Is something
bugging you, David? You got some little domestic problem going there,
boy? You want to talk about it?
No, I don't want to talk about it. You just look after her. Look after
her well.
I'll look after her, Dugan's tone had sobered. And David What is it?
I'm sorry. Whatever it is, I'm sorry. That's okay. 'David had to end
the conversation then, immediately. His hand was shaking so that he
knocked the telephone from the table and the plastic cracked through. He
left it lying and went out into the night.
He walked alone through the sleeping city, until just before the morning
he was weary enough to sleep.
The streams of colour settled to steady runs and calmly moving patterns,
no longer the explosive bursts of brightness that had so alarmed her.
After the grey shifting banks of blindness that had filled her head like
dirty cotton wool for those long years, the new brightness and beauty
served to buoy her spirits, and after the main discomfort of her head
surgery had passed in the first few days, she was filled with a wondrous
sense of wellbeing, a formless optimistic expectation, such as she had
not experienced since she was a child anticipating the approach of a
long-awaited holiday.
It was as though in some deep recess of her subconscious she was vaguely
aware of the imminent return of her sight. However, the knowledge
seemed not to have reached her conscious mind. She knew there was a
change, she welcomed her release from the dark and sombre dungeons of
nothingness into the new brightness, but she did not realize that there
was more to come, that after colour and fantasy would follow shape and
reality.
Each day David waited for her to say something that might show that she
had realized that her sight was on the way back, he hoped for and at the
same time dreaded this awareness, but it did not come.
He spent as much of each day with her as hospital routine would allow,
and he hoarded each minute of it, doling out time like a miser paying
coins from a diminishing hoard. Yet Debra's ebullient mood was
infectious, and he could not help but laugh with her and share the warm
excitement as she anticipated her release from the hospital and their
return together to the sanctuary of Jabulani.
There were no doubts in her mind, no shadows across her happiness, and
gradually David began to believe that it would last. That their
happiness was immortal and that their love could survive any pressure
placed upon it. It was so strong and fine when they were together now,
carried along by Debra's bubbling enthusiasm, that surely she could
regain her sight and weather the first shock of seeing him.
Yet he was not sure enough to tell her yet, there was plenty of time.
Two weeks, Ruby Friedman had told him, two weeks before she would be
able to see him and it was vitally important to David that he should
extract every grain of happiness that was left to him in that time.
In the lonely nights he lay with the frantic scurryings of his brain
keeping him from sleep. He remembered that the plastic surgeon had told
him there was more they could do to make him less hideous. He could'go
back and submit to the knife once more, although his body cringed at the
thought. Perhaps they could give Debra something less horrifying to
look at.
The following day he braved the massed stares of hundreds of shoppers to
visit Stuttafords Departmental Store in Adderley Street. The girl in
the wig department, once she had recovered her poise, took him into a
curtainedoff cubicle and entered into the spirit of finding a Wig to
cover the domed cicatrice of his scalp.
David regarded the fine curly head of hair over the frozen ruins of his
face, and for the first time ever he found himself laughing at it,
although the effect of laughter was even more horrifying as the tight
lipless mouth writhed like an animal in a trap.
God! he laughed. Frankenstein in drag! 'and for the sales girl who
had been fighting to control her emotions this was too much. She broke
into hysterical giggles of embarrassment.
He wanted to tell Debra about it, making a joke of it and at the same
time prepare her for her first sight Of his face, but somehow he could
not find the words.
Another day passed with nothing accomplished, except a few last hours of
warmth and happiness shared.
The following day Debra began to show the first signs of restlessness.
When are they going to let me out, darling? I feel absolutely
wonderful. It's ridiculous to lie in bed here. I want to get back to