5.
We met at the studio every day and spent every evening together. By the time the Christmas holidays arrived, we were joined at the hip. I fell in love with him more and more every minute of every day.
Rehearsals were exhausting as the director was an absolute perfectionist and wanted things to be perfect by the time filming began, but I loved the character I was playing. She was a vibrant woman who did not let her disability after contracting polio deter her from her commitment to God and to serve Him in all things. Through playing this role, I found my faith getting strengthened and my commitment growing stronger and in turn, I influenced Callum positively as well.
For the two week break, I went with Callum and his parents to visit his sister Cora, her husband, Bernard and Logan in Westville, Durban. We spent the days and nights in the swimming pool as the heat and humidity were unbearable, especially for me as I had never experienced this kind of weather before. Logan was an absolute water baby and since I was in the pool almost all the time he was allowed to swim too. I think Cora was only too happy to have him occupied by someone else for a while. Logan was his usual spoilt self and even more so on Christmas Day when we opened gifts. He was like a kid in a candy store carrying on as though he had never seen a Christmas present in his life. If he’d exploded from sheer excitement, it would not have surprised me at all. He opened every present, even those that weren’t his. Everyone simply let him get his way rather than face a scene of tantrums and have him ruin the occasion.
Callum was delighted with his gift from me – a new device that had just come on the market that had something to do with sound engineering. It made no sense to me at all but he was overjoyed with it, and that was all that mattered to me. It felt so wonderful to be able to spoil him as I had never bought gifts for anyone other than my parents before. His appreciation openly expressed in his kiss was all the gratitude I needed.
‘I should buy him a gift like this every day,’ I thought to myself after getting my breath back.
His gift to me was a necklace with a heart-shaped locket that already had a photo of us in it. The photo was the selfie we’d taken at the restaurant at the studios on the day of my audition. On the other side of the heart, he’d had engraved: "Forever yours, Callum". The tears of joy flowed freely as my heart overflowed with happiness. There was not a perfect gift better fitted for me in the world, or so I thought!
Two days after Christmas, Callum and I were relaxing on the sunbeds beside the pool, but there was a lack of sun since it was almost ten in the evening. Callum sat up suddenly swinging his legs over the side of the chair so that he was sitting sideways facing me. I glanced at him through the corner of my eye, wondering why he was staring at me.
‘And now?’ I asked sitting up and turning sideways over the chair too, my sarong slipping off as I turned so before I focused my attention completely on Callum I reattached the sarong to my waist.
‘What do you think of marriage?’
‘Pardon me?’ I asked in a very surprised tone wondering where this conversation was going.
‘Well, um, do you want to get married one day and have children and the house with the white picket fence, you know, the whole fantasy dream thing?’
‘Yes I do, but I do have one criterion that must get fulfilled before even considering it.’
‘And what is that?’ Callum asked a bit cautiously, fearing perhaps it was not what he wanted to hear.
‘He must be a Christian too.’
Callum wrapped the biggest smile on his face and took my hands in his, playing with my fingers, and looking intently at them for a while. Then he looked at me; he really looked at me, he looked deeply into me.
‘Marry me,’ he said.
Stunned I found no words but instead just stared into his sincere and honest eyes, brushing aside the sloppy hair with my fingers that had fallen over his eyes.
‘You see, I don’t want to wait until we have money in the bank, all the furniture, the house, the long-term plans or even until we have a dog, to get married. I want to do all those things and so much more with you, together, married. I know we have only been together for four months but why wait? I love you; I have since the day I met you at the petrol station. Please, marry me.’
With his thumb he dried the tears on my cheeks, his face only millimetres away from mine. I swallowed the rest of the tears somehow finding words through my elated brain.
‘Oh yes, oh yes!’ I squealed and threw my arms around him holding him as close to me as humanly possible.
There was sudden cheering from inside the house that drew our attention away from each other. Everyone was standing on the porch their eyes fixed on us. Callum and I looked at each other again and burst out laughing. He helped me to my feet, wrapped his arm securely around me and we walked to the others and into their outstretched arms. Veronica, Callum’s mother, rushed to the kitchen and came back with a bottle of bubbly while Callum disappeared and returned to stand in front of me – all in a matter of seconds. He held out a little blue velvet box, his face lighting up like a thousand stars. When I opened the box, the sparkling white gold ring shone so brightly with the cluster of small diamonds, it reflected all the love we held for each other across the room.
The cork popped and the bubbles overflowed from the bottle as Callum placed the ring on my finger. Now to tell my parents! It was probably wrong of me to lay this news on my mother over the phone, but I was so excited and happy I could not wait a moment longer.