Claire's Prayer Read Online Free PDF Page B

he and Simon worked in silence under the hot sun. The labour, Seth realised, was just what he needed; he was beating, pounding out his anger against the buckled metal. As the sun sank low in the sky, Seth and Simon were sitting, admiring their rough but functional handiwork. Simon finished his beer and sighed, “I really have to go now, Seth. I don’t want to drive when it’s dark.” Simon fixed Seth with an unwavering gaze. “You need anything – anything at all – just call me.”
    “Okay.”
    Seth walked Simon out to the road, and watched him drive away. He stood in the twilight, wondering what he was supposed to do now. Simon had offered to stay over, but Seth knew he had things to do on his own ranch. He had his own home to protect. Seth locked the repaired security gates and walked slowly back to the empty house. Pouring himself another beer, he locked the back door and slowly made his way to the bedrooms. Passing the rooms where he and Naomi slept, he pushed open the door to his parents’ room. The tide of destruction had not got this far.
    Stepping inside, Seth noticed that his mother’s perfume hung in the air as if she had just sprayed it. The bed was neatly made up and everything was tidy, just as Mom had liked it. Seth sat on his father’s side of the bed, and picked up the novel his dad had been reading. As he thumbed through it, a marker fell out and fluttered to the floor. Seth picked it up, but had lost the page where it had sat. It didn’t matter. Tears blinding his eyes, Seth blinked hard. He gently folded his father’s glasses, and riffled through the pile of papers on his bedside table. Taking a deep swig of his beer, Seth walked to the dressing table and lifted his mother’s brush. Strands of her hair were still entangled on the bristles. Everything was just as they’d left it – almost as if they would walk back through the door at any moment. But they never would. Why?! Anger flooded through Seth and, with one ferocious swipe, he knocked everything off the dressing table onto the floor. The sound of falling bottles shattering exploded in the quiet of the night.
    Shaking himself, Seth left the room and decided to get some boxes from the storage cupboard. Someone had to do this. He could not leave this task for Naomi to cope with. Long into the night, Seth methodically emptied his parents’ closets, shelves and drawers. The pile of boxes grew as he lovingly folded or wrapped each item and packed it away. Some things Naomi would want, he knew, but the rest would be donated to charity. Mom would have wanted that. Opening the safe set into a corner wardrobe, he locked up his mother’s jewellery and all the papers from his father’s drawers. He would go through them some other time. Noticing a bulky envelope in amidst the loose leaves, Seth took it out and opened it. It was his father’s will. That was another thing he and Naomi would have to do soon: see the lawyers. Seth glanced at his watch and was shocked to see that it was two o’clock in the morning. A dull headache throbbed behind his temples, his nose was blocked and his eyes itched ( from all the dust , Seth told himself), but he knew he would not be able to sleep yet. Settling his six-foot-six body into an armchair he had once been too small to climb into, he sat staring into the darkness, sipping beer.
    The next few weeks had been disorienting. Seth had learned from his parents’ lawyers that Impunzi had been left jointly to him and Naomi, along with a sizeable inheritance. This had allowed them to organise the funds needed for the immediate running of the ranch. Tony could run things while Seth took his final exams, and Simon could help often enough for Tony to see Naomi regularly. The last thing Seth felt like doing was going back to university, but he had worked hard for three years; besides, he knew his father would have wanted him to get the certificates and diplomas he’d earned in the animal husbandry, electrical and