THE KINDNESS OF KATY
A key mishap leads David Alston into a serendipitous meeting
Having succeeded in burying our car key deep in the sands of Sanctuary Beach in Plettenberg Bay, we decided to hitch back to our rented house to collect the spare. As I proffered a tentative thumb on the way out of the car park, a BMW Sports stopped immediately. My aging profile obviously revealing no immediate danger, a vision in designer clothes and dark glasses asked whether she could help me. After I’d blurted out my story with considerable embarrassment, I was bundled into the car with a promise of assistance — as well as a return to the beach, which, although being above and beyond etc, I gratefully accepted.
As one does in times of chance encounters, we exchanged names — hers was Katy — and information about our respective backgrounds.
“I live in the British Virgin Islands and I charter yachts,” she said casually, leaving me in no doubt that the yachts were her own and that this was no minion to be found in the galley cutting up things for others to eat.
It also emerged that her parents had
retired to the Cape and lived but a stone’s throw from the house where I had been brought up, and that she had been educated at Redhill School, another stone’s throw from our present home.
I was still pondering how to turn these coincidences into a more permanent tryst when suddenly we were back at the beach.
After a firm handshake and the briefest of goodbyes, my good Samaritan disappeared in an impressive wheelspin, leaving me to consider how to get my wife and an equally ageing four-footed friend — both now digging listlessly in the sand — to believe my story. At least I had the spare key to support my miniadventure.
What had not been forthcoming was an invitation to come aboard one of her charters, so I was left to dine out on the story of “Katy from the Virgin Isles” whilst contemplating what might have been. —
“The Notebook” is about chance meetings and unforgettable encounters people have had on their travels. Mail your story — no more than 400 words —with the word Notebook in the subject line. If published, you win R500. Mail travelmag@sundaytimes.co.za