{"id":1864,"date":"2013-01-25T04:07:43","date_gmt":"2013-01-25T04:07:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/?p=1864"},"modified":"2014-01-03T18:42:24","modified_gmt":"2014-01-03T18:42:24","slug":"herman-by-marijke-hillmann","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/herman-by-marijke-hillmann\/","title":{"rendered":"Herman by Marijke Hillmann"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Alley-Brenham_72dpi_Christopher-Woods\"<\/a>
Alley by Christopher Woods<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Herman<\/h1>\n

Johannesburg \u2013 mid nineties.<\/p>\n

by Marijke Hillmann<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Herman, my assistant, enters data on a user-unfriendly computer system.<\/p>\n

He swears in Tswana.<\/p>\n

I look up and notice that his complexion seems very dark today and then I look him in the face.<\/p>\n

His eyes glisten.<\/p>\n

I shiver \u2013 down to the depths of my core.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s up, Herman\u201d I ask.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am sick, Em\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow sick, Herman?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe doctor says I am very sick, Em \u2013 I am positive\u201d<\/p>\n

I put my hand on his shoulder.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you told me you do not have a girlfriend\u201d<\/p>\n

His eyes glisten.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy white friends, Em. The men who buy me shirts and give me money for the taxi – they do not use protection\u201d.<\/p>\n

His eyes are blank.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

Born in the Netherlands, I left for Africa with my husband, a mining engineer, where we spent 40 years in different countries. We returned to Europe a year ago and now live in Germany. I am a translator by profession (Dutch-English and German-English).<\/p>\n

Africa is still very much in my blood and so many memories wanting to be told, hence the story. See more of Marijke’s work on her featured page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Herman by Marijke Hillmann is part of our series Africa in Short. Each month we have a new story from Hillmann about the time she spent in Africa. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t