EVER HAD THE experience of having a rescue puppy choose you, rather than the other way around? Imagine if an otherworldly being had you in their crosshairs, as a point of interest, for years. A bold melange of the power plays in date rape, and an understanding of dreams in a way that reaches into the thinking of Netflix’s series Black Mirror or Truman Capote’s narrative lines in his Tree of Night, Episode Ten of Martyn le Roux’s serialised podcast, Die Soutwaterheks gives a more human face to Salacia (Elzahn Dorfling), the sea creature that Frans Baker (Francois Coertze) is accommodating in his home. And with a little encouragement and lots of sugar, she begins to tell a tale that has Frans’s hair standing on end with incredulity. You can find it here.

The tale weaves around a curious mix of the unknowable and basic mer-rules, which explains the things that mermaids experience and also those that they can or can’t do. But here too, unfolds a tale of love and life and secrets that reek of the mysteries articulated by Elizabeth Klarer, the woman who declared her relationship with UFO dynamics in South Africa in the 1950s.

It’s also about what we consider to be death and loss and how these lines should be seen as blurred in the traditions of Salacia and her kind. Is the episode comforting? Not completely. It is also not completely satisfying. Rather it is intriguing and so far one of the strongest episodes in the series. Frans’s lost love Angelique is there in the ether, but here lies the cliffhanger. Salacia needs more coffee, sugared to the hilt, to say more, and you need to tune in to the next episode, which you can read about next week Friday, to reflect on more.  

Die Soutwaterheks has 25 chapters: Watch this space for consecutive reviews! Recorded and released independently online, in both MP3 and MP4 formats, in Afrikaans with bits of English, this tale, told in individual episodes is accessible through various links.

• Die Soutwaterheks: Episode 10 Vreemde Onthuilings (Strange Revelations) is written by Martyn Le Roux. Directed by Martyn Le Roux, and featuring technical input and sound research by Arné von Molledorf and Martyn Le Roux, and music by Yolanda Strauss and David Muller, it is performed by Francois Coertze and Elzahn Dorfling. It is available here.