Summary
The moment passes for them to ask July for the keys to the bakkie. They’re now in his hands in a permanent way and he’s learning to drive from his friend. Maureen and Bam watch their vehicle lurch and stop and they talk about how trustworthy July has been and how much they owe him now. But they agree that that still doesn’t change how they feel about the keys to the bakkie. They wish they had them. July has a swagger around his people, proud of learning to drive.
It’s raining and cold now and they sit around the fire in their hut all the time. July comes down to see them. He tells them how he’s learning to reverse. Bam mentions that he didn’t know July wanted to learn to drive. July asks whether he means here or back in the city. The conversation grows a little tense as they all seem aware of the fact that they’re not comfortable with him keeping the bakkie. He says that it’s best for him to be the one to drive in for supplies. They agree, but Bam says he worries about what people will think. July says that he knows everyone there and he tells them he took the bakkie from them. This fact quiets them.
Maureen tries to change the subject and she says that July’s wife and mother gave her some herbs for the youngest child Royce’s cough. July is upset by this. He says that those herbs are only for black babies. Royce needs real medicine. He tells her not to use the herbs. She argues that it’s the same for Royce as for the others. She says that the dampness of the floor is the problem. She went to get the rubber floor mats from the bakkie but she didn’t have the keys. She asks for the keys to the bakkie. She says she’ll bring them back.
The next day, Bam takes the rifle and goes hunting for warthogs. Maureen is on her period, using rags and washing them in the river. She sits waiting for July to come get the keys. She reflects that he’s always been moody. She doesn’t want to go to his hut. She feels it would inappropriate—a white woman stooping into his hut. She’s never been into his personal hut here just as she never went into his room in their house in Johannesburg.
July comes down to get the keys. He stands facing her, looking around. He asks if she doesn’t like him keeping the keys. He says that he’s always kept the keys—the keys to their house. He says, “I’m your boy,” which is something she’s never called him. She says he’s not that. He explains the ways that he’s always been trustworthy and done what she’s asked even when it was unnecessary stuff, like cleaning all the bookshelves. It amazes her to hear that he was annoyed by these tasks. They get close to each other as they argue. He says that the “master,” meaning Bam, understands him whereas she doesn’t. She’s shocked and tells him that Bam’s not his master. She also says that she’s the one who knows him better than Bam. She says that here things are different. He doesn’t work for them here. He asks what she means: will he not get paid this month? She says no, that here they’re friends. He says he’s worked for her for 15 years to pay for his wife and family here. She asks why he cares so much about how it was in the city. She asks if he’s thinking about his other woman—his city woman. He’s stunned by this question. He doesn’t answer. He tells her to take the keys. But she doesn’t. He leaves her and walks across the field, calling to people—his people—giving small orders to them. He waves to his friend who’s arriving—the one who teaches him to drive.
Bam shows July’s friend Daniel how to aim a gun. Daniel is the one teaching July to drive. Bam takes another boy on his hunt. He shoots two warthogs—one of them through the nose, shredding the animal’s face in an ugly, bloody way. They give one of the warthogs to July’s family and cook the other, with Maureen squatting by the fire, dirty, basting the meat. The smell intoxicates them. They’re happy. It’s the first meat they’ve had since they’ve been there. Bam and Maureen have sex that night for the first time since they’ve been there.
July asks his mother if she liked the meat. She says that meat is gone once you’ve eaten it. She needs new grass on her roof. He says she’ll get new grass. She says that the white people will bring trouble. She doesn’t mind them, but they’ll bring trouble. July’s wife asks if July cooked for the woman when he was in the city. He tells her there was another cook—a woman. She’s suspicious of this woman, and of the white people.
Analysis
Through the objects of the bakkie, the keys, and the gun, the tensions and questions and feelings between these different people of different social standing are revealed. On the surface, Bam and Maureen’s discomfort with July possessing the bakkie is about their freedom. The vehicle is a symbol of their independence and freedom—even though it’s not a tool for those purposes, and even though they can’t actually use it. But perhaps there is more to their discomfort than this: their role as the benefactors of July in his life and his as beneficiary are being subverted. They are dependent on him here. July keeping the bakkie brings this dependency to their awareness. July however, proceeds in a practical way, as though the only reason he’s keeping the bakkie is to help them—as well as to continue to serve them. July it seems feels himself to be entirely at their service.
The keys of the bakkie—a solid object that fits in the hand—are a condensed manifestation of this new tension. The struggle over the keys between July and Maureen is a struggle over their new relationship. He wants to keep the keys to the bakkie as he kept the keys to the house, that is, as their servant. She wants the keys to the bakkie because July has never had the keys to the bakkie. Him having that independence, and them being dependent, creates a new dimension to their roles, even if he continues to serve them.
What July hasn’t considered, which Maureen feels strongly about, is that now that the Smales family are out here on his land, everything has changed. But if everything has changed, then how are they to relate to each other? July has been operating under the assumption that he’s still working for them. They’ve been operating under the assumption that he’s doing them a favor. For the time being, the positioning of these new roles remains ambiguous.
The argument between July and Maureen, however, brings to the surface the tensions of their previous roles. Never before has he told her about the things that bothered him. His new role in relation to her allows for this to be spoken. If they are going to be just friends, as Maureen wants, then it's inevitable, if not necessary, for previous imbalances to be leveled.
When Bam returns with the meat and Maureen cooks it, squatting, dirty, a shift in atmosphere occurs in the family. Not only is this the first meat they’ve had since they’ve arrived, it’s the first time they’ve been one in their circumstance, forgetting their troubles, harmonized. Ironically while they are settling in, July’s family grows critical, beginning to question their presence.
