WHAT WOULD YOU do if you discovered that the childhood you had thought was yours, wasn’t? In other words, if you were indeed the magical being every little child who is invested in fantasy from a very young age, yearns to be. In episode 19 of Martyn le Roux’s serialised podcast, Die Soutwaterheks, Belinda (Annette Havenga) is given an inkling into who – or what – she really is. And it blows her mind.

But the episode is not all magical revelations in the wake of lovemaking. There’s a grief-stricken death in the tale and a letting go which is as difficult for Frans (Francois Coertze) as it is for Belinda, but as cryptic. It’s an episode about dolphins and the relentlessness of ‘The Men in Black’ who present evil, politics and scientific exploration where it is not warranted or necessary.

It’s also an episode in which Belinda’s past as a foundling is revealed, alongside a mysterious blanket and an even more mysterious high school teacher. It’s about what happens to baby mermaids when they reach puberty and also the mystical possibilities of being in the world which we, as mere mortals, cannot hope to comprehend.

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 19 “Belinda vind haarself” (Belinda finds herself) 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 Deon Botha, Francois Coertze, Elzahn Dorfling and Annette Havenga. It is available here.