Playing Darts

Playing Darts

Twenty four years would pass before she would see the place again and see it unchanged but now Lucy came out of the tunnel and swung the van around on to the gravel road leading down to the river. It was the last week of work on the bridge and they were going to celebrate. It had been a long, difficult year, driving sixty two kilometres to work and back home every day, taking up two hours in travelling time. It was a nice drive, though and once through the tunnel you got sight of the river with its clear water, rippling and frothing over the brown and emerald green rocks - typical trout fishing water. It was like being in another world. She would miss it.

Getting out of the car Lucy walked into the prefab building.

“Hi everyone! Sorry I am a few minutes late today. I got held up behind a furniture van on the N1.”

The men greeted her without looking up from their work, some only nodding in acknowledgment.

Brian gave her a sour look.

“ Excuses, excuses! You are not the only one driving out here from Cape Town. You know we have to wind things up. I am snowed under and could do with your presence at the work desk from time to time.”

“ I am not often late, Brian so stop sulking and whining.”

She knew he would hate that because he thought only the female of the species whined. Men kept their voices at a more level pitch. Lucky for them!

Lucy was the only girl on the working site but she was used to being the only girl. As a graduate civil engineer of the University, she had been the only female student. Civil Engineering was considered a male stronghold. She had been put on the site at The Molenaars River, due to the fact that as a University student she had done her practical work in the Huguenot Tunnel. She had in fact contracted TB on that job. She had been the first woman to drive through the tunnel over the rocky pathway made by the explosives company. Lucy was used to the terrain in this part of the Cape.

The other men seemed to accept her. It was only Brian that tormented her whenever he had a chance, about her gender and her lack of experience.

In the beginning, the men excluded her from the rough aspects of the work. Work they thought, more suited for men.

“We are checking the pile foundations tomorrow,” said Jeff, the site manager.

The others held a discussion about this without including her.

“ What the heck do you think I am doing here , and why don’t you include me in talks about the pile foundations?”

“ We thought you wouldn’t like to do any of the checking. You will be safer above ground. This work is not for the weaker sex,” from Brian

“That is what you thought but you can now think how to integrate me into the action.”

The following day the team was out, ready to check the piles and pile shafts. Lucy joined the men and watched while the first man went down. She started to get second thoughts but it was too late for that.

“Do you want to change your mind?” asked Brian. “This is no work for sissies.”

 She shook her head, seething with annoyance , she was not going to chicken out now. She got into the small bucket seat which dangled over the 30 metre drop, equal to a ten story high building, and started the descent. The diameter of the shaft was 1.2 metres. If she had been claustrophobic she would have been a mess by now.

“ Check the placing of the pile on the rock bottom.” This call from Brian at the top of the shaft, as if she did not know what to do. She had been told what to do. Her heart pounded with fear. The smell of the damp earth almost choked her. The air was stifling and hot and the only light came from her headlamp on the way down. Her skin prickled with the heat.

There were 18 more piles to be checked but she did not volunteer to do another one! She had proved her point.

After this show of bravado she was greeted the next day with,

“Get out of the way of those struts, they are dangerous.”

“Get out of the way yourself, Brian! I’m not moving”

Really , thought Lucy to herself, Brian was an out and out male chauvinist. He obviously felt threatened on what he felt was home ground.

The celebration for reaching the end of the job was due to start at 2pm on Wednesday. The Lodge next door was bringing some snacks to the Bar and they were going to have a dart playing competition everyone placing bets on the winner.

The men gathered around the bar counter and started off with their first beer. Lucy stuck to lime juice and soda. It looked like gin and lime to the other contestants but she knew better.

The game started. All five players were assigned a distinct number. By this time the men were all on their second beer. Lucy sipped at her lime juice and soda.

She smiled to herself. She had learned to play darts from her brother who had been a national champion. Let the games begin, she said to herself, mentally repeating the lyrics of the AJR song in her mind,

“Keep on running this shit

Be the kid for the win, singing

Let the games begin.”

“Shall we play Killer? It should be fun, seeing there are five of us. It is a good game for an odd number of players?”

“Yes and we can make the rule to hit your double three times, before you can become a Killer.”

This would put Lucy in her place, at the losing end, thought Brian giving her a wicked grin.

Lucy was the first to hit her double three times and become a Killer.

“Aah! That was a fluke. Beginners luck!” chortled Brian.

His hair was beginning to stand up in excitement and Lucy could see a dark patch of sweat appearing on the back of his shirt and shirt sleeves. He was really sweating for the win.

By contrast she had taken her helmet off and put some neat strappy sandals on. She looked good in her tight khaki leggings which had, all these months, been hidden by her workman overalls. Her shoulder length hair was shining now, for once, let loose from her headgear. She had changed into a thin silk shirt with short sleeves. She felt cool and relaxed and was enjoying the competition. It was the first time in a year that she had looked and felt like a girl, instead of a male labourer. Her choice of beverage was useful in keeping her aim clear and her hand steady.

The other players were all beginning to show different stages of damage to their skills, no doubt from all the beers they had consumed. They had supposed she was a novice at darts and here she was winning hands down. Brian was a bad loser.

“The sunlight from that skylight is right in my eyes. I can’t see the numbers with that amount of light.”

“Why don’t you simply admit that you suck at darts Brian?”

Lucy often used sarcasm to provoke others, in order to annoy them.

Jeff, Mark and the others sniggered quietly. They were older than Brian, married men and did not feel threatened by a female presence. They had tried to temper their vocabulary to suit her but she had soon put that right with her own colourful language.

Some months passed and Lucy, in her new job at Smith and Jones, walked into the cafeteria. She was feeling tired after attending a long site meeting. The place was crowded and she did not want to stand around for long. In the far corner she saw Baer from the office. He beckoned to her.

“Over here Lucy!”

“Hi Baer, nice to see you and thanks for offering me a seat.”

“ No problem. Relax, I’ll fetch you a sandwich and a soda OK?”

“ Wonderful, thanks.”

Lucy watched him walking towards her with her plate of food. She noticed how effortlessly he made his way through the crowd, smiling at the people he passed. He was very good looking with his fair hair falling over his forehead.

“Here you are. You will feel better after eating that.”

His hand touched hers briefly, as he put the plate down.

She could smell his after shave lotion and felt a shiver down her spine. She loved the faint fragrance of citrus.

“ How about going out for dinner on Saturday? We can try out that new place on Main Street in Newlands.”

Lucy surveyed him carefully to see if Baer was serious. He was quite a sensation in the office with the female staff and she did not want to set herself up for another fall. She had recently slowly recovered from a broken relationship and still felt raw. But no, the invitation looked genuine. Baer’s eyes looked into hers and she felt another shiver of excitement flowing through her again.

Baer escorted her, with his hand firmly on her elbow, from the parking garage to the table near a window.  The string of lights across the entrance gave a faint glow of warmth to the interior of The Lounge.

 “Do you eat mussels? Would you like to share a dish of mussels in a creamy wine sauce?”

“That sounds good to me.”

They had an enjoyable evening, the first of many.

Lucy knew she was attracted to Baer and had no hesitation in going out with him whenever he asked her for a date. The chemistry was there alright. In the office space they shared, she found it hard to keep her mind on work. Sometimes she would look up from her desk and catch him looking at her. When this happened she would be overcome by a rush of feeling that made it impossible to concentrate on anything. He was in her mind all the time, present.

With her matter of fact approach, Lucy googled her situation. According to the findings on the internet, she decided, yes, she was in love.

The first time Baer took her into his arms, she felt her knees go weak and submitted to his kisses.

It became a habit to constantly check her cell phone for texts sent from across the room. When she saw a text from him, she felt a surge of happiness, She would look over and see him smiling at her

Twenty-four years later Lucy put the question to Baer.

“While we are in Cape Town, Baer, do you think we can go through the Huguenot Tunnel and visit the Du Toit’s Kloof Lodge and Trout Farm? I would love to have a look at the bridge”

“ Of course , why not spend a week end at the Lodge? I will look it up and make a booking.”

They checked in and went to look at the bridge. They made their way afterwards, to the Pub in the Lodge for a beer.

The pub looked exactly the same since she had last seen it. Lucy noticed with some amusement, that there was still a dart board in place.

“Do you remember how much we disliked each other back then? How cross you were, when I won at darts?”

“Brian laughed, “Yes we were idiots, never thinking we would get married and have two kids. I think it was during that afternoon I was given the nickname ‘ Baer’. It was after that dart game when I displayed such a fit of bad temper, over losing to a woman! and on top of it, having to pay fifty bucks, for losing my bet. I’ve kept the name but changed my attitude since then.”

And that was all that mattered.