Summer Time

Summer Time

It was summer time. The roses were  in bloom, the hydrangeas were  out in all the parks.  In  Kirstenbosch Gardens, through which she jogged at weekends, the dahlias were  showing off their bright pink, yellow and crimson colours. The trees on the mountain were every shade of green, with sunlight picking out some of the leaves shaking in the wind, the south-eastern wind from False Bay. The South Easter picked up moisture from the waters of the Bay and blew it round the east side of Table Mountain,  covering the table in clouds,  like a table cloth.

Yes, it was summer in Cape Town. It would be summer too, for part of the next sixteen months in the place where she was going.

 It was quite surprising how quickly everything had been arranged. Seeing the advertisement in the newspaper  calling for applications for staff,  she had immediately sent in her application. There had been no hesitation on the part of the authorities.

She was meeting Simon and would have to break the news to him. She opened her flat door and kicked off her shoes, heading for the shower.  She had had a tiring day at the hospital outpatients, a stream of injury cases from a bus accident on the M5. They always drove too fast near  Strandfontein,  so it wasn’t surprising seeing it was a Saturday, when the township people lost control  both  of their drinking habits and their driving skills.

She changed into a pair of tight jeans, a cool floral shirt  and  tied   her hair back with a navy ribbon, her favourite colour. She was as ready as she could be, for her date at the Forresters Arms.

Simon was already in the garden waiting for her. The evening was pleasantly cool, no wind  and the sky achingly blue. There were still a few hours of daylight left.

“Hello Si, how was your day?”

“Fine thanks Margot, I got off early, so have been enjoying the nice weather here, while waiting. Would you like the usual?  dry martini on ice?”

“Thanks Si,” she sat on the bench at the opposite side of the table. She and Simon had been dating for almost  a  year now and knew each other’s habits and likes and dislikes. They had met at a cocktail party arranged by administration’s head office for the purpose of team building. There were staff from the paramedics , medics , pharmaceutical and physiotherapy departments all mingling but still sticking together in groups of their own disciplines. Most probably all thinking theirs was the most important.

“So what’s new?’ asked Simon.

“ The news is that I am going to Vesleskarvet for sixteen months .”

“For sixteen months? That’s a long time to go anywhere isn’t it? And where the hell is Vesleskarvet? Never heard of it.”

“It’s a nunatak in Queen Maud Land, Simon. “

“Never heard of that either. Where the hell is that? And what’s a nunatak?” Simon wrinkled up his nose, looking at her in disbelief.

“Are you making it all up?”

“Oh no Si, this is real. I applied for the post of doctor and due to my diverse experience in a teaching hospital, or so they  said,  I  would be appointed and I am due to leave in four weeks time.”

“Yes but where is it?”

“In the Antarctic.”

“ But what on earth are you going there for?”

“Well you told me you thought we should cool it for a while.”

“Yes but I didn’t mean the South Pole!  Aren’t you being a bit extreme?”

“Maybe I am, the chance arose and I grabbed  it.”

“ I only meant  for us to cool off for a while and see how we feel in a few weeks time. We have been quite intense lately. I didn’t mean for you to go and freeze at the South Pole. You must be insane!”

“Proabaly,” smiled Margot, “but there’s no pleasing you Simon. I have signed the contract, so there’s  no going back. I will be there for the first summer months , the winter months from March to December, and the following summer months , all in all counting the travel time it should come to sixteen months.”

“ I can’t  think why you are doing this. It is very inconsiderate of you. What I am I going to be doing while you are sliding around like a penguin on ice?  Well good luck to you.”

 The rest of the evening was a bit of a failure.

“Wish me luck Si, I will probably need it.”

“I already have.”

“The way you said it, it was not nice. I must  go now, early start in the wards tomorrow.”

Giving him a smile and a wave, Margot left him scowling into his beer.

She was on  the  SA Agulhas II for 14 days with a hundred and twenty people, thirty crew members and ninety scientists. Margot was wearing two hats for the expedition.  There were training sessions every  day  which included learning about safety measures on the ice. She was learning a new vocabulary - Ski doos for snow mobiles, nunatak for  a ridge of mountain protruding above the ice, small nunataks were rognons,  Salopettes were snow pants. All clothing was insulated.

Margot was wearing two hats, she was leader of the Environmental team  and  the medical doctor. There were lots of Doctors  on board,  her two doctorates rated quite average on the scale of things.

 Willam duToit was leader of the marine biology team. He had a head of dark brown hair brown eyes and a firm mouth and chin. Margot realized from the beginning, that he concluded she was with environment and not the medical doctor. She didn’t correct him.

Approaching her one evening at the bar he spoke to her.

“ We should get on fine with your environmental work and my marine biology. There will most likely be some overlap.  We will be quite isolated for the most part so can get to know each other really well.  How about  it?”

The glimmer  of  light in his eyes forced her to say,

“ I think I  must tell you that I have  a boy friend back home.”

She saw the spark fade from his eyes.

“Oh , serious is it?”

“Well, yes.” She did feel churlish but there was no way she wanted to expose herself to another heartrending  relationship.

Drawing near to the ice shelf, the  S A Aghullas was beset in consolidated pack ice. They broke free in the evening and made it to open water, eventually offloading at Penguin Bukta.

William still hovered around, being very friendly.

 An excursion to Borgmassivet took place in the first week. Borgmassivet is a nunatak  50k  from SANAE IV.  The huge nunatak is three days away from base and the best way to get there is on ski doos.  It is dangerous. They have  to be on the lookout  for crevasses . There is one overnight stop  in a five man tent, no space  there for personal comforts. Leaving on the Friday it meant they were only due back the following week on Wednesday.

Wednesday came and went. Margot waited anxiously for news.  She was attracted to William and felt concerned about the whole party of five people.  There was a snow storm, maybe this was the reason. Snow in summer!

 Thursday came and  there was still no sign, until the evening, when  the group was seen looming in the dusk.  One of the ski doos was carrying a passenger. It turned out to be William. A fall on the ice  had led to what was thought to be a fractured collar bone. He had passed out from the pain and  was unable to drive his own ski doo over the pack ice.

Margot was ready for them in the hospital when  William was helped in by a colleague.

“Hi William . We’ll take some x-rays and then  see what to do.”

 William looked at Margot in disbelief.

“Are you the doctor?”

“Why so surprised?”

“I thought you were with Environmental research?”

“That too.”

“Why did you not mention it on the Aghullas?”

“There was no need, because my services as doctor were not required until we arrived at SANAE”

After looking at the x-rays Margot said,

“ I am afraid this will take surgery to correct the damage. The collar bone is broken in three places. It needs a metal plate.”

William’s eyes widened with horror and consternation. There seemed no way out. He was going to have to let this slip of a girl with her big blue eyes, operate on him.

He felt the needle go in and then the next thing he knew,  he was awake, looking into those blue eyes and drowning  in them.

“How did it go doc?”

“It went well, you will have to be on light duties for eight weeks and then we’ll see. While you are recuperating we can make friends and see  how  our work overlaps from time to time.”

“ What about the boy friend?”

“ Oh I think I will keep him on ice,” she said.