Scene Eight
from The Bells of Amersfoort
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 May 2019
Summary
Enter TAMI.
TAMI: Dear Luthando, Martijn heard Catharina and Fritz for the first time yesterday. He suggests that we should recruit them into our band. He thinks it will make ours a unique multicultural band: a woman who backs moans and groans of ecstasy with arias; a humming painter who paints sunflowers in the middle of a snow-covered winter; a Surinamese drummer in search of the Africa that history has buried somewhere deep inside him; and me, the African woman who continues to be a seeker. I am still alone, Luthando, even though I am surrounded by people. I am still a seeker. I am still alone.
Enter JOHAN VAN DER BIJL from a different direction. He is not pleased to see her, although she is excited to see him.
JOHAN: You again!
TAMI: Our paths are destined to cross, Dominee. It was quite a show yesterday. But did you have to close the curtains?
JOHAN: Next time I'll open them. I'll do it especially for you. Why, I'll even do it on the street for you. Or even in your living room.
TAMI: You don't have to go to that extreme. Just open the damned curtains, that's all. The way you used to do. That's not asking for too much.
JOHAN: Go get your own! The days of your pirating a ride on my horse are over. Finish and klaar.
TAMI: Admit it, Dominee, you like the idea that I am there. That is why you even waved at me. I wouldn't put it past you that somewhere in your imagination you have placed yourself between Heleen and me.
JOHAN: Don't flatter yourself.
TAMI: I need your help.
JOHAN: Sorry, I already have Heleen.
TAMI: Don't flatter yourself. I only need you to talk with your neighbours: the painter and the window cleaner. Catharina and Fritz. I want to recruit them for my band.
JOHAN: I don't know them. Never even seen them.
TAMI: But you have heard them. They sing for you every Monday and Friday.
JOHAN: I have heard them, yes, just like I have heard you with your atrocious trombone. And now you have that black man with the drums.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Fools, Bells and the Habit of EatingThree Satires, pp. 142 - 147Publisher: Wits University PressPrint publication year: 2002