Sade’s Orange Coat

The orange fur coat radiated vitality and energy in contrast to the drab and colourless charity shop window display. It demanded the attention of every browsing passerby, even the blind would feel its radiating magnetic presence. Out of place in its surroundings, nonetheless a majestic, and magnificent display of bright inspiring colour, the orange fur coat shone and brightened not only the shop window display, but it also shone for longer in the memory of all the passing pedestrian traffic.

When Sade passed the shop window on the way to work, she was immediately transfixed like a night moth buzzing around a streetlight. She was rooted to the spot. The orange fur coat displayed in the shop window had mesmerized her, yet frozen an unerasable image in her mind, which had previously been full of idle and random thoughts. Now Sade only had one vision, one thought: that of the orange fur coat in the window. All previous thoughts evaporated and disappeared; the coat was sending messages hypnotically to control her frozen mind.

“Buy me!” The orange fur coat demanded.

“How much is the orange fur coat in the window?” Sade said to the only lady in the shop, now standing in front of the glass display counter doubled up as checkout counter. Sade started to regain a slight command of her hypnotized faculties, as the uttered words resonated with her addled mind.

“Well, it was denoted by an anonymous sponsor, we found it in a box of clothes left at the backdoor. It came with matching green high heeled shoes, and a green clutch bag. The label on the coat comes from a small haute couture house from the 60’s or 70’s. It was expensive in its day, but we can’t make a profit, we are a charity, an NGO. Nevertheless, I am willing to take a small donation to cover our costs.” Answered the shop assistant who was very forthcoming in many details regarding the cost and origins of the orange fur coat.

The background information and the terms and conditions of the orange fur coat went into the memory banks of Sade’s focused mind, where the main priority was acquiring and purchasing the fur coat. Nonetheless, the increased scope of purchase with the bright emerald, green handbag and shoes didn’t miss their intended sales target by the sales assistant. The charity shop had a management policy of getting rid, rather than making any profit margin, thus the expanded offer was too good an offer to refuse, for the purchasing appetite of Sade. The bright orange fur coat was already subtly influencing Sade’s emotional senses, with added flavours of abundance and prosperity.

“Yes, I’ll take them all, thank you.” Sade beamed. Already the influence of the orange fur coat was creating enthusiasm and joy and uplifting the heart of Sade. She always loved a bargain.

“It’s funny, when I put the coat in the window this morning, I knew it would attract interest.” Were the last words heard from the shop assistant, as she started to collect the items for packing.

The orange fur coat and emerald, green shoes and handbag were a bargain, and Sade liked nothing better in life than finding small treasures for a tiny ransom. It was the spice of her hard-working life. This was the best find yet, she thought to herself.

At home she hung the orange fur coat on the door, and put the green, emerald shoes and clutch bag on the floor underneath the fur coat. Sade sat on the edge of her bed and stared for a long time at the items of clothing. She basked in their stilled image, as she wanted it to remain in her mind’s eye as a screensaver type vision, never to be forgotten, no matter what her general mood or forbearing appeared in her days ahead. It was a moment in her life she wanted to savour and remember, always.

Staring at the bright orange coat, the words of the shop assistant drifted into her joyous mind, as she continued to stare at her bargain.

“The labels come from a small haute couture house!”

“From the 60’s or 70’s!”

“It was expensive in its day!”

“Left in a box at the back door!”

Sade took the fur coat in her hands, the fur was synthetic, but it felt so soft and fine to touch in her hands. She stroked the soft fur absentmindedly; a feeling of luxury flowed through her senses. Then she searched for the label. Clive Evans – it didn’t resonate, but Sade wasn’t familiar with the famous couturiers at all, her life would never normally collide with the world of haute couture. She put the orange fur coat on, it was a perfect fit, she was elated. Funnily, it had never occurred to Sade to request to try on the orange fur coat in the charity shop. The tapered edges finished just above her knees, the muffled collar felt soft and sensual against the bare skin of her neck. The coat had no pockets; it would spoil the pure image of elegance, the uninterrupted shape and fine lines as the coat cascading three quarters length down her body.

There was an inside pocket to the coat. Sade reached into the pocket and found a slip of paper with what looked like a telephone number; handwritten on the paper. It wasn’t a local telephone number; it was a full international number. She recognized the country code as that from her country of birth.

Whether it was a continuation of joy from the bargain find of the orange fur coat, she felt the urge to phone the number and find out the secrets of the previous owner of the luxury coat. She could always hang up, if the person answering the number proved too difficult to handle. But her curiosity outweighed any qualms she had about making the call, especially since the number came from her country of birth in Africa.

After a few rings, a woman’s voice with an Afrikaans accent answered with “Hallo?” “Wie is dit?” (Who’s that?). Sade vaguely recognized the voice; her early memories were being actively searched for a voice match.

“It’s Sade!” She blurted out without any thought or control.

There was a long pause on the line, Sade could visualize the woman on other end also searching her mind from the blurted-out omission from Sade.

“Sade! Oh my god, how are you? Where are you?” Exclaimed Candis.

“This is Candis – do you remember me? How did you get this number?” Candis continued with surprise and excitement.

“I found the number in an orange fur coat.” Sade admitted.

“What! You have Mammie’s coat!” Candis spluttered.

“Yes. I found it in a charity shop, it’s so beautiful, so luxurious.” Sade purred with delight.

Candis digested the information for a moment before she responded.

“Sade, Mammie died earlier this year.” Candis was holding back the emotion, and Sade could hear in Candis’ voice her difficulty in holding back tears. The recent loss was painful, and she was still grieving and missing her mother.

“We are just back from London clearing out all her personal possessions, the orange fur coat was too expensive to send to the dump, so we gave to the charity shop.” Candis reported.

“Mammie died from dementia; she had been sick for some time. In the early stages she went out of the house and then forgot how to return. I put our Paarl number in all the pockets of her clothes, so that either she or someone else could phone, if she was unable to remember.” Candis started to sob, and there was a momentary silence on the phone.

“But I’m so happy you found Mammie’s orange fur coat; she would be so pleased you are the new owner. It’s a miracle, and the coat created a reconnection with our dear little Sade” Candis’s voice brightened with every word.

“When are coming home to visit us Sade, we cannot lose you again. Mammie would never want that! We don’t want that! I have a family now Sade, I’m married now. I have small children. There is so much to catch up on.” Candis started the gabble on uncontrollably; Sade was unable to stop her. Sade didn’t want to stop Candis, generally all the words brought back early memories. Those former day memories of the Van Der Verlingen wine estates came flooding back, and specifically Sade was learning about the latter part she had missed since she left her country of birth. Sade suddenly became homesick as the memories in her mind came flooding back.

In the end Candis and Sade exchanged telephone numbers, and finally the line was disconnected. It would take both girls sometime to come down from the high levels of elation. The reconnection after many years. Sade sat on the edge of the bed staring again at the orange fur coat, the item of clothing had now gained monumental significance after discovering the secret behind the scrap of paper with the telephone number.

Sade lay back on the bed, and started to remember those early memories, the earliest was playing with Candis and the other children of the Van Der Verlingen wine estate, as her mother and hundreds of other temporary workers harvested the grapes for that year’s wine. It was the last days of apartheid, the small toddler Sade felt the excitement in the workers, the rumours were rife, a revolution was coming with the ANC taking power of the country, seizing their country from the white minority. Funnily the wine estates and farms of Paarl and Stellenbosch remained in the hands of old families like Van Der Verlingen. Ownership of assets remaining in the hands of legacy owners was part of the agreement during the revolution in South Africa, completely the opposite to that witnessed in other African countries. Nonetheless, the coloured wine estate workers gained improved working and home conditions from the new government and their employers.

Sade life changed dramatically the day her mother died. She never knew her father.

It was the Van Der Verlingen family that adopted her when her mother died tragically of typhoid. Mrs. Van Der Verlingen set up a foundation for the children of the estate workers, especially regarding their education. It went beyond anything a government could offer, the foundation sponsored the children for further education in London, England, and consequently changed Sade’s life from a daughter of grape picker to attending a technical college in London, with an automatic entrance level into the legal profession as a paralegal.

Sade always remembered Mrs. Van Der Verlingen, small in stature, but large in personality and character, a direct descendant from the Voortrekkers, technically the inhabitants of the vast plains of the high veld, as the migrating African tribes from the north had yet to claim those lands, which we now see on a map named South Africa.

Sade thought to herself, the daughter of grape picker inheriting and the new owner of the luxury haute couture fur coat of the queen of the Van Der Verlingen wine estates and famous wine brand empire. Neither did the significance of the colour of bright orange go unnoticed to Sade, the colour Oranje was a band of bright orange on the old flag of South Africa known as the "Oranje, Blanje, Blou" (orange, white, blue). It featured three horizontal bands of orange, white, and blue, with the flag of the Orange Free State in the center. The origins, the flag of the old regime of South Africa.

Then she thought of the orange of the beautiful protea flower of the nation, the same colour as the orange fur coat. It was time to return to her rightful place, her home – South Africa. She had claimed the orange fur coat, now it was time to claim her inheritance.