[Authors note: The historical facts recounted in this story are pretty much accurate. The towns and cities mentioned do exist and the gold rush did happen. The rest of the story is complete fiction. None of the characters in the story ever existed and bear no resemblance to anyone living or dead.]
I am in a farm graveyard in the sweltering heat, it must be at least 40 degrees Centrigrade or 100 plus in Fahrenheid. Which is a vast difference from the winter in England that I have just flown in from, where the icy weather never gets above 10 degrees. In England it is green and lush, but here the grass is dead and the two trees that mark the graveyard are either dead or dying. The graveyard is not well maintained with most of the headstones either fallen over or crooked. It takes me some time to find the headstone with the name I am looking for. It is one of three headstones enclosed in a low marble wall. The headstones bear the names, Marika van Zyl, Dries van Zyl and Gillian Evans. The first two death dates are within days of each other. Dries dying first, then Marika. Fully two weeks later Gillian dies. The Gillian headstone has a curious epitaph: "Guardian Angel to my Parents". The dates indicate that the three died of the Spanish 'flu in 1919.
Why am I here? Because I have come to find Gillian Evans who is a great, great aunt and her diary fired my ambition to find find her final resting place. I learnt about Gillian or Glittering Gillian as she was known at one time when my grandmother passed away last year and, as I am the historian of the family I inherited all her documents in a box as well as a sealed travelling chest.
As the long nights of winter swept in along with the icy winds I opened grandma's document box and took stock of the documents inside the box. There were photo albums, bundles of letters and the legal documents that mark a person's life such as birth and marriage certificates. I read the letters, noted the certificates and bundled them up. Not much to rock the boat there. Right at the bottom was a sealed envelope addressed to "Roddy". In a different hand was written "Roddy deceased in the Great War. Charles, this is your responsibility now." Nothing else. Inside the envelope was a letter and a second envelope.
The letter read:
"My Dear Roddy,
The travelling chest belonged to Gillian Evans, my sister who disappeared into Africa in 1888. Please do not open the chest until at least 1920 or you get word that Gillian is dead.
Love
Mother."
The other envelope had the name Gillian Evans inscribed on the outside. Also in copperplate handwriting were the words "Only to be opened after my death. October 22, 1888"
Gillian is a shadowy figure in the family history about whom there are tales of travels and adventures told in whispers and in careful asides. She never married but there have been rumours of an absent and possibly fugitive lover and possibly other partners. To the best of anyone's knowledge she had borne no children. Inside the envelope was a slim book, some letters and tickets for ships and trains. Intrigued by the contents of the envelope and the possibility of discovering Gillian's long forgotten secrets I settled onto my comfortable couch in front of the fire and started to read.
The tickets were for travel to and from a place called Barberton. A quick web search told me that it is a town in South Africa. In the 19th century it was in the Transvaal which was an independent state in Southern Africa. Barberton had been the centre of a gold rush in the late nineteenth century and the dates on the tickets showed that Gillian had travelled there shortly after the gold rush started and left there to return home about a year later. What, I asked myself was she doing seemingly alone in what must have been a wild, gold rush town?
Now really intrigued I opened the slim book to find that it was a diary written in beautiful copper plate script. The diary had a title. "My journey to married bliss." The title did not seem to match up to the tickets to Barberton as it was obvious that she had apparently not journeyed directly to marriage but detoured to a gold rush town first.
The first entry was:
10 February: Roger has asked me to marry him! I am so excited. I do so love him but we need to get my Father's permission to marry and Father does not seem to like Roger.
14 February: Father says that Roger must provide adequately for me. He must provide a house and a good income! Roger doesn't have any of that. What to do?
16 February: Roger has announced that he is going to make his fortune in Southern Africa where gold has been discovered in large quantities near a small town called Barberton. Once he has made his fortune he will return and we will be married. Father says it isn't going to happen and I should forget him. Sally, my beloved elder sister agrees with him, but I believe in Roger and I know that he will return triumphant and rich to claim me and prove to everyone that they are wrong. Love will conquer all!
20 February: Roger left for Southern Africa today. I went with him to Liverpool to see him embark. Just before he left he pulled me into a deep dark doorway and kissed me on the mouth. He has never done that before. He even touched my lips with his tongue and stroked my back and ran his hands down to my behind, pulling me in so close I could feel his body against mine. I was sure that I could feel his penis pressing against me. I rubbed a bit against his harness and then I pulled away. Slowly! It was very exciting! It made me feel all tingly from the feel of his body against mine. I felt quite wicked and my pussy got all wet and swollen.
21 February: I couldn't sleep after getting home. I lay in bed thinking about Roger and how he had touched me and the tingly feeling spread through my body and my pussy got all wet and swollen again. I put my hand down there and squeezed and squeezed and squeezed and the tingly feeling got stronger and stronger until I had this strange shuddering feeling and I involuntarily said "Oh!" quite loudly. The tingly feeling went away and I fell asleep. I think I must have woken Sally in the next room as she made some comment to me after breakfast about Onanism being a sin. I ignored her comment but promised myself I would not squeeze my pussy any more.
1 March: I had to squeeze my pussy again because I thought of Roger again and the tingly feeling returned. I did try to resist the urge but failed. However when I got the shudders this time I remembered not to say "Oh!" very loudly.
10 March: I am so embarrassed! I am getting the tingly feeling regularly now. Every two or three days. And if that weren't embarrassing enough last night Sally's friend Tina was visiting and when I was busy squeezing myself she came into my room. I didn't see her till the pulled my bed covers back exposing my pussy and my fingers rubbing furiously.
"Don't do it that way! Lick you finger and rub here." she said guiding my now wet finger down in between my pussy lips. "Rub that little nub there. Its called your clit. You will find its quicker and more fun that way."
She turned to go then said; "And keep on saying "Oh! Oh!" loudly it turns Sally on no end."
She was gone long before I could think of anything sensible to say. She was right though, I got the shudders really quickly rubbing my clit. I said "Oh! Oh!" quite loudly when I got the shudders like Tina suggested. It made me feel quite decadent.
As I was recovering from the shudders I heard Sally say something soft and indistinct from next door. I got up and pressed my ear against my water glass and then pressed it against the intervening wall. Suddenly I could hear heard Sally clearly. She was murmuring "Oh! Don't stop. Don't stop!" I could hear soft but rhythmic noises
too. Then after a while I heard Sally moaning and then say "Oh, Fuck!" loudly.
Then Tina's voice. "Gillian! Stop listening and go to sleep!"
Blushing I went to bed. At breakfast Tina smiled at me but Sally ignored me completely.
28 March: A letter from Roger. He is in a place called Barberton and he has registered and staked a claim. He says he has a partner now and they are confident of making lots of money very quickly.
30 June: Another letter from Roger. He says he is rich and we can marry as soon as I get to Barberton. He has deposited enough money in Baring's bank for me to buy a ticket and sail to Cape Town, take train to Kimberley and then a wagon train to Barberton. I am so excited, but Father says I cannot go.
7 July: I have run away and have embarked on a ship, the Pendenis Castle and we leave for Cape Town tomorrow. Sally helped me sneak away
10 July: We are under way and I am not seasick at all. Nadia with whom I am sharing a cabin is sick quite a lot so I spend a lot of time on deck to get away from the smell of her vomit which is awful and makes me want to vomit too. I love being at sea. So exciting.
12 July: A frightening thing happened last night. I was on deck but because there was no one else around I sneaked up to the first class deck which has a very good view of the stars and the bow wave. I was leaning against the railings watching the plankton in the bow wave sparkle all blue and beautiful when a sailor sneaked up behind me and trapped me against the railings.
"You are not allowed up here. You are a second class passenger and this is reserved for first class passengers. I think I must take you to the captain and he will deal with you firmly."
I was so frightened.
"Please. Don't do that!"
"OK, but only if you give me a kiss."
