THE LIFE OF STUDENT CONSTABLE SANTIE VEENSTRA: AFTERNOON

b. AFTERNOON

When Santie woke in the early afternoon, Ronelle was sitting next to her bed reading a book. ‘How're you feeling, Santie?’

‘Don’t know yet.’ Santie stretched, feeling her muscles a little tight, but she was after all the fittest woman in the class. An apple and a bunch of grapes lay on a plate next to the bed, together with a glass of water. She quickly downed the water, and then ate the fruit slowly, chewing each mouthful carefully. ‘I’m fine.’

Ronelle smiled. ‘Remember it’s your dinner with Gerhard tonight. Shall I tell him it’s off?’

Santie groaned. ‘Gosh, I’d forgotten. No, I’ll go, and get it over with.’ She sat up, feeling her joints and muscles, looking for signs of injury but was astonished at her quick recovery. ‘Isn’t The Bitch something else. How crude and vindictive can a human being get?

‘Much worse than that. At least you're alive. In some places you’d have lost your scalp for what you said this morning.’

They made the last two classes of the day, one on Criminal Procedure and the other a review of all the unarmed combat classes they had completed in the last six months. It was only later that Santie realised that was her second lucky break of the day.

The Bitch made them forfeit canteen time and stand to attention for an hour. 'You'll have to hurry, Santie. Not much time to get ready. Hey, enjoy it, and watch out. He's a bastard remember.' Santie wasn’t sure whether she was looking forward to it or not.

To go from Afternoon to EVENING (not for the faint hearted)