Daria's day

Pieter Viviers sent the screenshot at eleven without preamble — a Cape Herp Society post, a photo of her plates in the Citrusdal Caltex lot, a caption reading: `anyone know whose rig this is? tankwa run last week, parked alone in the conservancy after dark.` She sat in the bakkie outside a Bellville primary school for two rings before putting the phone down. The call was a gravid Cape cobra in the school yard — children about to come out for second break — and the catch was clean and the principal handed her a cash envelope and a thank-you card at the gate. She did not text Pieter back, did not reply to the herp group post, took the N1 south, and at the fuel stop the assistant's trolley clipped her ankle and she swore at him in Afrikaans her father would have smacked her for.