The Servant-44
Maggie, a cotton candy stick in her hand, stared with wonderment at the Ferris wheel rotating slowly. It took Charlize all her strength to not let Maggie escape like a bullet through the crowd of Elizabethtown Fair. Amina and Hennie were walking behind them gulping down boerewors roll, a South African hotdog with Dutch sausage, tomato and onion relish.
– “Lizzie! Can we go on a ride, please? Can we go on a ride, please?” Maggie was pleading.
– “Yes, honey. We’ll go on all the rides that you want but you have to go with Hennie or Clark.”
Maggie ran back to Hennie and pulled one of his arm. “Hennie, Hennie, can we go on the big wheel now, please?”
Hennie, his mouth full of boerewors, nodded. “Give me a minute sweetie.”
– “When Clark’s supposed to join us?” Amina asked Charlize.
– “Soon. He’d promised Maggie the grand tour of the fair.”
Koos was following the group from a few yards. He knew that two men he did not know were filming the group’s every action since they’d set foot at the fair. The hired hands from the black township were also there but on the other side of the trail. The client had been very specific. Koos was to hire skollies and explained to them what was required of them two days before the attack while Katz would hire two cameramen from outside his group. After that, all of them were to go into different public places and have as many physical contacts as possible with strangers. On the day of the attack, the skollies were to follow Koos and waited for his signal. A thumbs up from Koos. The attack would be filmed by the two men hired by Katz. After the attack, everyone would go their own way no matter what happened. Koos looked at Charlize and Amina chatting in front of the big wheel while the geek and the little girl were lining up for the ride. He knew that the skollies were only waiting for his signal. Not yet, he thought. Another ten minutes.
Charlize and Amina watched Hennie and an excited Maggie got inside a passenger car. Maggie was waving at them and screaming ‘Lizzie, Amina, Clark’s here!’.
They turned at the same time to watch Clark approaching them from a stand. Not far from them, a man lifted his right thumb.
One of the skollies approached the group still waving at the little girl on the ride. He saw that the Indian woman had her bag’s strap slung over her shoulder. The man slowed down pretending to wait for a friend right by Amina and then, with one swift movement snatched her bag and started running towards the nearest exit.
– “Hey, my bag!” Amina screamed and started running after the thief but was held back by Clark.
– “Clark! He stole my—”
Before she could finish her sentence, the thief let out a horrifying scream and dropped on the ground like a rock apparently victim of hamstring injury in both of his legs. People gathered curiously around the thief incapable of the slighest movement from his waist down.
Clark went to pick up Amina’s bag and was on his way back when two other skollies quickly approached Charlize and Amina. Both wore brass knuckles. Charlize immediately saw the threat and pulled Amina against her. The closest skollie hurried his steps when suddenly everything around him went upside-down. The world he saw was turning itself upside-down. No longer able to coordinate his hands and legs, the man staggered and fell on the ground like a drunkard. The second skollie let out a scream of terror before following his friend to the ground in the same manner. Both were seen moving their heads around, back and forth, up and down, screaming in terror.
– “The ride’s over. Let’s go get Maggie.” Clark said while handing Amina her bag.
Charlize and Amina followed Clark through the crowd with a single question on their mind. Could Hennie be right?