The Regime- Looking In
South African Short Stories
by
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Typically, he asked to be assigned to the infantry and so eighteen months later we find him , a member of one Reconnaissance Battalion( equivalent to the SAS of Brittain). By this time he had survived a number of skirmishes with the enemy and had also received commendations for bravery in combat. His officer commanding had recommended that he be sent back to the military college to do an officers course, which he was due to do within a few weeks. One night he was feeling rather dejected(So the board of investigation was told) as one of his section's members had been killed the day before in a fierce firefight. That night they had drawn back to the main camp far from where they been engaged with the enemy. It was a beautiful night with a full moon and not a breath of wind. He walked outside his tent stood looking up at the stars, listening to the night sounds with which he had become so familiar in these last few months. He knew that the area had been swept that afternoon and declared clear and so he did not hesitate to collect his cassette player and walk out into the night some ways from the camp to the river. He sat down on a log, switched on the player and soon a voice was heard ; Jussi Bjorling singing Nessum Dorma. The tenor’s voice whispered softly as the river flowing past, and as passion took over it rose and grew sad and serious to end in a thunderous and passionate declaration of love never ending. Then as the tenor’s voice died a soprano took over. It was a voice that had kept thousands all over Europe and the Americas enthralled and captivated, it was the voice that had introduced him to the beauty of music and to the voice of a girl that he had worshiped all these years but had never even spoken to and that will probably disappear from his universe forever. As the last notes of Maria Callas’s voice disappeared in the darkness of the bush all around him, his eyes moistened with the deep ache in his heart that the music had brought forth. Suddenly a shot rang out, and as the sniper sitting in a tree lowered his rifle the voices were silenced forever. The breathing and the memories that had made the longing and unrequited love so real, was no more. Anthony Jackson was buried with full military honors, the medals for bravery and valour pinned to the flag on his coffin and then handed to Mrs. Jackson. Whilst the coffin was lowered into the grave a voice jumped over stones in a river, lightly and playfully, a voice that grew serious and deepened in the process to then break out in joyous melody again, it was not the voice of Maria Callas, but that of a young woman that Mrs. Jackson had tracked down at a University, one that she knew her son had worshiped until the day he died.
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About the Book
Stephen Hawking wrote a book “a Brief History of Time”, and in a sense, this is what this book is all about, a brief history or slice out of the Afrikaner peoples existence in Southern Africa. A glimpse of their achievements, their failures and disappointments, not through the eyes of an historian but through entering into their lives, their homes, experiencing their pain, laughing at their idiosyncrasies, walking next to them in their everyday experiences at home, at work, at war and at play. After some deliberation it was decided that the best way to achieve this goal would be by using the medium of short stories, and to concentrate on the time period 1930 to 2000. It is felt that future historians will recognize this period as the most dramatic and signifi cant in the rise and fall of the Afrikaner nation as well as the birth of the so called rainbow nation.
About the Author
Stephen Hawking wrote a book ” a Brief History of Time”, and in a sense , this is what this book is all about ,a brief history or slice out of the Afrikaner peoples existence in southern Africa. A glimpse of their achievements ,their failures and disappointments, not through the eyes of an historian but through entering into their lives , their homes, experiencing their pain, laughing at their idiosyncracies , walking next to them in their everyday experiences at home , at work and at play. After some deliberation it was decided that the best way to achieve this gaol would be by using the medium of short stories, and to concentrate on the time period 1930 to 2000. It is felt that future historians will rocognise this period as the most dramatic and signaficant in the rise and fall of the Afrikaner nation as well as the birth of the so called rainbow nation.