The Wall

18

The referee drew closer, peering between the houses and walls. A bakkie slowly rolled up behind him. Moses looked around. He had lost his sense of orientation. The outer wall which could have helped him was nowhere in sight. Now the referee was standing in front of the property where he was hiding.

A black cat padded over and stopped beside him. Watched him without any great enthusiasm. He was neither food nor threat.

“Go on!” he whispered. “Catch some mice!”

Nobody could resist watching animals. He really couldn’t use the attention the cat might bring his way. The animal wrinkled its nose, and Moses couldn’t tell if that was a reaction to him or the trash in the can behind which he was sitting. It strolled away then.

The referee was talking to the bakkie driver.

Moses crawled down the side yard and came out behind the house. Terrace, a couple of pruned shrubs as separation from the neighboring yard, tomato bushes along the house wall. All the windows he could see were shut. Nothing was moving behind the curtains. He stood up. What he now needed was a plan. Back to the outer wall and then over it. That was a plan.