ANNA'S SEARCH

Anna had taken a few day's leave and had made all haste to Port Elizabeth.  As she drove along the road from the airport towards town many of her childhood memories started to flood back.  She turned up Cape Road which would take her to Newton Park. 

She pulled up outside the orphanage.  The old ramshackle building was still as she remembered it. On entering the building she was greeted by a woman in her mid forties. The woman called out to her.

"Dr Williams?"

"Yes Mrs  Vermaak?"

"Yes call me Melanie."

"Anna"

"Tell me Anna why did you wait so long? Most inmates inquire after their biological parents while they are still here."

Anna was a little taken aback at the term inmates but she assumed it was intended as humorous and  let it pass. "Adolescent rebellion. At the time I felt that my biological parents had dumped me in a home and disappeared, so if they didn't care about me why should I care about them."

"What changed your mind?"

"Maturity, and when I was working in Somalia in a children's hospital I was present when an orphan was reunited with his biological parents, and the joy of that occasion prompted me to reconsider my stance."

"Somalia?  You mean Somalia in North Africa?"

"Yes."

"What the hell were you doing there?"

"There was a hospital in need of my services and I agreed to go and work there,"

"Weren't there enough hospitals here crying out for your services.?"

Anna raised her hands in the air and said "It's a long story, let me not bore you with the details."

"As I said yours was a late request and after this time your file had gone off to archives. That's why it took so long to get back to you we were waiting for someone to recover it from archives"

"Uh huh so what does the file say?"

"Yours so I see was an interesting case."

"Oh yes?"

"You were a Section 16 baby."

"I remember hearing the term Section 16 whispered against my name but I have never followed it up.  What does it mean?"

"In the bad old days of apartheid there was a piece of legislation called the Immorality Act.  It dealt with things like prostitution, possession of pornography child sex etc. It also contained the notorious section sixteen.  That section made it illegal for a white person to have sex across the color line.  An Indian could have sex with a black person, but if a white person was involved in a sex act, then both parties would face prosecution and time in prison."

"So I suppose both my biological parents wanted the whole thing kept under wraps."

"Yes I remember many of the prosecutions under this section gained high media profile, with both sides in the argument publically expressing outrage."

"So my parents wanted my arrival kept a secret."

"That is correct. The father in particular had made it a condition that you never contact him."

Anna bowed her head and remained silent.

"Are you Okay?" Melanie inquired. "Can I get you anything?" Anna lookup she had tears rolling down her cheeks.

"That is very depressing, I suspected I might hear something like that, now that I hear it, it feels really bad."

"I feel very sad too.  I'm sorry I cannot give you better news."

"I suppose I should have been born after 1994."

"Not so. Section 16 was abolished during 1985 under the government of PW Botha.  He said that he was abolishing it for humanitarian reasons, but we suspect it was abolished as it had become impossible to police.   Just consider how does one police it? Does the policeman break in to someone's bedroom to see who they are sleeping with?'

"Damn I missed the deadline by three or probably two and a half years.  So this I suppose is a dead end for me."

"Hmm not necessarily.  I have a very good social worker and I will get her to approach the parents.  The father may be willing to change his stance particularly as there is no longer a possibility of prosecution. The mother may be a problem, from the point of view that it would be difficult to trace her .  I understand that no one knows where she is."

"You cannot tell me their names can you ?"

"At this stage no."

Anna and Melanie made arrangements for the involvement of the Social Worker, and then Anna asked if she could wander around the establishment for nostalgic reasons. She needed to be alone.  She surprised herself at how devastating the news had been . It was not entirely unexpected after all bit It resonated with the time Gregory had walked out on her.  Isn't there anyone in the world who loves me?  She looked up suddenly into two big brown eyes.

"Waarom huil jy Tannie?" "Auntie why are you crying." Anna reached out to the little child and hugged her tightly.  She replied in Afrikaans. "If you ever find anyone who loves you, don't ever let that person go. Understand?" She released the child,  The child nodded as if receiving an instruction and went back to play.