Calm and sensible? You must be joking! Calm and sensible are out the window. I am a shaking wreck, curled up in a tight ball in the mud. My mind is a whirlwind of terror. A tornado in the darkness! There is no space for sane thoughts. Perhaps I am going crazy? Perhaps I have lost my mind and I will never find it again?

Still the dogs howl from the Surgery. And the cement wall creaks and groans. What if it collapses on top of me? Buries me under kilograms of sand? How long will it take for me to suffocate and die?

And in the utter darkness, I am haunted. Monsters from all the horror movies I have watched, crowd around me. Mocking me.

Vampires reach out their bony fingers and show me their bloody fangs. Zombies grin at me from faces of rotting flesh. Freddie Krueger hangs upside down above me, scraping his metal claws along the cement. Laughing through his twisted lips. Even in the dark I can see the terrifying stripes of his jersey.

Dr Frankenstein is patting at my arms and legs, deciding which limbs he will chop off once I am dead, so he can sew another creature together. A ghost tugs my arm, trying to pull me into the World of the Dead.

“Leave me alone! Leave me alone!” I try to scream – but my voice is just a hoarse whisper.

I swear: I will never watch another horror movie. Not ever again. If I can just get out of here before I go mad … If someone, somehow, will rescue me before my brain seizes up … Please, God, please …

* * * * *

Is it minutes later – or is it hours? I have lost all sense of time. But my prayer is answered. A voice reaches down to me in the darkness. Echoing and distorting off the hard wall.

Tefo’s voice!

“It’s okay, my little one! I will sort you out. Don’t worry. You’ll be fine.”

I burst into tears of relief. Tefo is up there and everything will be okay! I am safe. He will find a ladder or a rope if Dr Dreyer has one. Or he will phone Emergency Services. Or drive in to Lephalale and get help there. All his client pet-owners will assist their beloved Dr Nkoni!

So I lean back against the wall, close my eyes and wait. The panic has seeped out of me, replaced by calm. Tefo has that effect on me.

What’s that Bible verse? ‘Perfect love casts out fear.’ Yes, that’s how it feels for me now.

I’m thinking about our relationship, how we seem to have so little in common. No shared hobbies, no shared likes and dislikes, no shared interests.

But those are external things, superficial things. What we share, what we have in common runs deeper.

We both love to laugh, Tefo and I. We both have a wicked sense of humour. We enjoy teasing each other.

We both care about education. When it comes to work and study, we both commit to doing our best. We both believe it is important to treat others with respect. We both love our family members unconditionally.

We both believe the future is what you make it. And what you put into the world is what you get out.

Shared values – I suppose that’s what you’d call it. And maybe shared values are more important than shared hobbies?

* * * * *

I am very, very tired. Worn out. Slowly my eyelids droop and close, there at the bottom of the well.

***

Tell us what you think: Are shared values more important than shared interests in a relationship?