CHAPTER 16

Kayla decided that she didn’t like scary and noisy helicopters and cried during the entire short, chartered flight from Plettenberg Bay to Camps Bay. Her beleaguered father, who was figuring out that parenthood may not be as fabulous as he had first imagined, battled to keep her calm while Cindy, who was feeling the effects of some pretty powerful medication, remained mostly oblivious to it all. Cindy was vaguely aware of Gerard frantically trying to shush the child. He made funny faces and played silly little games but Kayla refused to be comforted by someone who was a total stranger to her. She was too small to be belted in but she stubbornly refused to stay in Gerard’s lap. Instead she kept trying to crawl over onto her mother’s lap, and Cindy tried her best to soothe the little girl, but Kayla wasn’t too impressed with her limp hugs either.

“ Do something,” Gerard eventually entreated, when Kayla slid from his grasp like a greased pig and melted to the floor in a boneless heap. On