"I saw the Virgin," said Nicky Kreel

Nicky was an extraordinarily gifted 17 year old. She had thick dark hair, femme fatal looks and the long and dexterous fingers of a Carpenter and she really couldn't care less.

She played the piano well, was good at maths, loved her family and her jet black cocker spaniel and took "Vivian Leigh in Gone with the Wind" to be her role model. I think it was the fact that she couldn't really care less that made her so very attractive, but when I got too intense, she would call out desperately: "I'm just a Coca Cola girl." We were born on the same day in November three years apart. She was born in Cape Town and I was born in Johannesburg.

Out of the blue she said to me one day:

"Something interesting happened to me when I was younger"

"What?"

"Well I was sleeping and I woke up and at the door I saw the figure of a woman in white."

"A ghost?"

"No. It was the Virgin Mary."

"How did you know it was the Virgin Mary?"

"I just knew."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes of course I am."

"And you weren't dreaming."

"No I wasn't, I woke up."

"So what did you do?"

"Nothing. I just went back to sleep."

"But you saw the Virgin Mary. What did you do about it?"

"Nothing. I am Jewish."

"So was the virgin Mary."

"Well it didn't seem to have much to do with me."

"You were supposed to convert to Christianity or something. How could you just go back to sleep?"

"Well I did." She said, irritated now.