Craig Carden

Easter Beside an Estuary Craig Carden

Brad Peters comes to spend the Easter holidays on the family farm of his rugby-loving school friend, Karl van Aswegen. The farm is a large citrus estate in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, close to a magnificent estuary filled with wildlife that joins with a sea in which schools of brilliantly coloured fish are as common as idly cruising sharks. At first everything is wonderfully idyllic on the fruit farm and open, sandy beaches. The two boys enjoy riding, fishing and swimming beneath a warm sun, and Brad spends time indulging in his major love of painting. A truly close relationship develops between the youths, and, if it weren't for Karl's moody and sometimes downright menacing brother, the black-eyed Stephan, their holiday on the farm and beach would be almost perfect. But Stephan becomes increasingly aggressive, and during the tail-end of a cyclone that batters Mozambique, a cruel tragedy strikes out of the dark one as summer draws to a humid close. The even blows the close-knit family apart, leaving a wound that takes years to heal.