“With pleasure. Take some food with you,” Kate said, “I’ll come and get your plate later. I must take some to Rydell anyway.”
“Aikona, that’s fine, I have eaten enough today. I want to take a nice long shower and go to sleep. Kate, don’t listen too much to Jono, he likes you very much, he doesn’t mean to attack you.”
“He didn’t attack me. Don’t worry, Betty, you go and rest now and thank you for a delicious supper.”
Kate put a plate of food together for Rydell and she noticed Helen arrive.
“Where did you go?” Ellie cried noisily. “We missed you. Have some schnapps.”
“I went for a run,” Helen said. “I’m going to have a shower then I’ll join you.”
“Why the sour puss?” Gisela called out.
The others found that hilarious.
“No reason,” Helen said. “I’ll get cleaned up and party with you in a minute.”
She headed for the shower and Kate went to give Rydell his supper.
Rydell was sitting up groggily and rubbing his face, scratching his unshaven jaw.
“Must go to the toilet,” he said to Kate as she climbed in and his voice was thick and gritty.
Kate looked at him sitting on his sleeping bag in his hot, airless tent, his clothes sweaty and disheveled. His hair was pasted to his skull and the bruises on his face had turned yellow. She suddenly felt sorry for him. She wondered if his perspective had returned to present-day adult or whether he still believed she was his mother and him a naughty, scolded boy.
“Come on,” she said, “I’ll help you. Where’s your toiletry bag?”
“You should know,” he yawned. “You went through my things, remember?”
Clearly his psyche had bounced back to normalcy and she thought he might be waking up a bit too much.
“Don’t worry,” he said, as if reading her mind. “I’m only joking. I don’t care what you did. I don’t care about any of this anymore. All I want is to get to Windhoek, go to the airport and go straight home. I just want my nice clean life back.Why’s the wind blowing so hard?”
Kate had not noticed. “It must be getting ready to storm,” she said. “It’s been threatening all day. I must go and close my windows. I’ll close yours too. Take some new clothes to change into. The washroom’s over there, you see it?” She pointed, and held the tent door open.
“Yes,” Rydell said, still yawning. “It’s raining, it’s pouring, the old man is snoring. Please don’t make me take any more pills tonight. I hate them, they make me feel terrible. I promise you I’ll take more in the morning and I’ll stay in my tent and sleep but please, no more tonight.”
“Let’s see,” Kate said cautiously. “The others plan on partying hard, the noise might keep you awake. It will be easier for you to sleep if you take a pill.”
“I’ll sleep, I promise. Who’s partying?”
“Whoever’s left,” Kate said and she tidied his belongings to make space for his plate of food. “Not me though, I’m going to do the dishes and go to bed. You go and shower. I’ll fix the tents and I’ll leave your supper for you here, okay?”
“Okay,” Rydell sounded sleepy. “Have you had supper yet?”
“Not yet, but I will.”
She watched him walk to the washroom and marvelled at how normal he could be at times. She zipped the tents closed and walked back to the awning where she saw that the party had already accelerated beyond the point of no return. She wondered if she could risk going into Richard and Mia’s tent but decided to wait a little longer and then she went to gather up the plates. Hardly any of Betty’s food had been touched.
“Come and have a drink.” Jasmine shouted at her. “Stop working so hard.”
Kate shook her head.
The sun had set and the sky was dark violet with a yellowish tinge to the fading light. A strong gale slapped the sides of the tents with noisy force.
“Perfect for a trance dance.” Mia yelled. “Richard, make a fire, here under the awning. We’re going to ’ave to dance in here and then if it gets really muddy, we can roll around in it out there.”
Richard spotted a steel garbage can. He turned it upside down, and tossed the rubbish to the ground.
Nice, Kate thought, stepping over a disgusting compost of rotting food and waste.
Richard dragged the can under the awning. “We need wood,” he announced.
“We’ll get it.” Ellie and Jasmine yelled and they ran to the back of the bus, returning with their arms full.
“I’m in charge of the music,” Mia said, a cigarette hanging from her mouth as she worked on the ghetto blaster.
Richard passed a joint around. “Share the love, loves.” he said.
Mia fired up the music. “Righty-ho,” she said and started to move in time to the music, waving her cigarette around. “’Ere’s how it works. Us girls sit around in a circle and Richard dances around us. We clap and yell at him right? Then I get up and dance around wif him until he’s too shattered to dance or he needs a drink or somefink and then he sits down. You got it?”
She peered around and continued. “As soon as he sits down, the person who was sitting next to me, gets up and she dances wif me until I need a toke or a drink or whatever, and then I sit down and the next person in line gets up. You see how it works? Whoever is sitting must be clapping and yelling, okay? And this is the perfect music, yeah, it’s drumming stuff from Ethiopia, this DJ gave it to me back in England, And remember the idea is to have visions and fings, and get into the zone, connect wif spirits and get out there.”
“Sounds good,” Jasmine said and her pale green eyes gleamed in the light of flickering fire.
“Okay, one more shot each, pass the joint, hit the music and we’re bleedin’ ready!”
The wind blew harder than ever, mixing sand, dust, twigs, small stones in a frenzy. The dancers arranged themselves in a circle under the awning and the fire in the bin sputtered and smoked and the music was deafening.
“Ah, bollocks,” Richard yelled. “I want to get my mask, shite, sorry girls, I forgot. Hang on a mo’, you carry on drinking.”
He ran back to the tent, grabbed his mask and dashed back. A smattering of rain had begun to fall in small, fast, stinging drops. Richard ran for cover under the awning and flipped the mask up over his head, screaming in shock and horror as a waterfall of black muck poured down his face, filled his mouth and his nose, and stung his eyes. He cried out in terror and disgust while the girls shrieked and screamed in fear with Lena and Gisela jumping to their feet, their hands pressed to their mouths in panic and disgust. Richard howled and yanked the mask off as fast as he could, ripping the delicate ancient fabric of the cowried hood.
“Ah! Fuck!” He clutched his face, unable to open his eyes. “An animal shat in my mask, ah fuck, that’s disgusting, I’m going to be sick.” He doubled over and vomited, hanging onto the awning pole for support.
“What happened?” Ellie was still shocked. She leaned over him and patted his back. Mia had recovered quickly from her initial fright and was shrieking with laughter, lying on the ground and kicking her heels in the dirt.
“Fuck me gently with a bargepole,” she finally managed to say and sat up, tears streaming down her face. “Didn’t that take the cake? Are you alright, luv? What the fuck happened there?”
“I’ve got no fucking idea,” Richard said grimly. He remained bent over, his face black with stinking sewerage, “unless a jackal with the runs and fucking bad body odour got into our tent and pissed and crapped in my mask which is highly unlikely, if you ask me.” He gagged and coughed, the smell of the black gunge rancid on his skin.
“Och, come on now, luv,” Mia got up and went over to him with a dishtowel. “Go and wash your face, take a big swig of Jack’s, take a hit off the old weed and get wif the program. I’m sorry your mask’s right fucked yeah,
but here, look, we’ll hang him up, on this pole thing, so he can watch us all nice, like this, he’s still with us, yeah?” She patted Richard on the arm, and started to laugh again, the others joining her and their giggles soon escalated to a crescendo of howls.
Kate, in the kitchen, heard the bloodcurdling screams and rushed out, her heart racing. She rounded the corner to see Richard doubled over, his face blackened and Ellie patting his back.
“What happened?” Kate asked. At first she thought something was seriously wrong and it was hard to get a reply from the stoned and drunken group who were giggling uncontrollably again.
“A jackal pooped in his mask,” Jasmine finally managed to say, gasping and pointing at the mask.
Kate looked at the sullied mask. Its hood was filthy and torn and mud and dirt streaked the ornately-decorated, carved face. She turned back to Richard who was wiping his face with one of the kitchen tea-towels. He went over to the camp tap, stuck his head under the cold water and scrubbed vigorously. He walked back in the rain, beginning to see the humour in what had happened, the shock wearing off.
“I need a moment,” he said, sitting down and gargling with Jack Daniels. “Don’t worry, girls, I’ll get back into my party spirit, but fuck me, that was disgusting. I smell like shite and the taste was terrible.”
“Ah, but we love you even if you smell like rotten meat,” Gisela giggled and passed him a joint. “This is very good stuff, have some more and you’ll feel better in no time.”
Richard took it, and inhaled deeply. His face was streaked and dirty, his hair a Mohican spike. Mia, still cackling uncontrollably, got up, and pulled Jasmine to her feet.
“Well, luv, “she said to Richard, “you sit there and get yourself together all nice, me and Jazzer are going to begin. Right you all, start clapping, go on, get it on, yeah.”
The rain had begun to fall in earnest, big drops, flat and hot, the beginning of a torrent.
Kate picked up the last of the dishes and escaped to the privacy of the kitchen where she could still hear the raucous insensible shouts and the high-decibel industrial-techno music layered with heavy tribal drums.
She did not see Helen leaning on the other side of the bus, out of sight, a smug smile on her face.
Kate, wishing more than ever that night was over, filled the two sinks with water. She arranged the stacks of dishes, wondering how Eva, Marika and Enrique were doing. She thought about Charisse, Stepfan, Harrison, Treasure and Sofie, and how things had turned out. Her face was creased in a frown of concentration. She hoped Rydell had gone back to his tent like he had said he would. She also hoped that her tent was not going to leak in the downpour. She picked up a frying pan and eased it into the soapy water.
She felt rather than heard a presence and she swung around. It was Helen, sidling in. She was wearing her raincoat, a thin floppy dark green jacket, and she had the hood pulled forward to protect her face.
Kate looked pointedly at the second pair of gloves but Helen made no move towards them and she leaned against the counter instead with her arms folded and her expression fierce. “I thought about our conversation,” she said, and the ghostly black shadows under her eyes coupled with her cowled head covering gave her an almost ludicrous grim reaper look and Kate turned away, unnerved.
“I can tell you categorically,” Helen continued, “that my frickin’ glass is half empty, no matter which way you look at it. I have to say, Kate, you’ve driven me nuts on this trip. I’ve hated your stupid optimism, how you get so excited by such ridiculous things. How you manage to have fun all the time, be so happy, and entertain yourself with things that bring me no pleasure. I watched you from the start, taking photographs of crap everywhere. And what about your irritating enthusiasm for Kleine Skok? For God’s sake, you even held that disgusting rabbit’s blood.”
Kate scrubbed a pot wishing that Jono or Betty would come in but she remembered that they had gone to bed. Monstrous hairy brown and gray moths crowded their way inside the small room and their scattered fluttering wings, along with Helen’s unchecked fury, made Kate anxious but she told herself that her fear was simply a reaction to everything that had gone wrong. She reassured herself that Helen was not dangerous but she recalled Stepfan’s death and the mutilated jackal and her dread thickened.
“And how come you took control when Charisse died? I’m always the one in charge. And you got to drive off with the good-looking Bushman and I bet you charmed the pants off him too, didn’t you? Even that weirdo Rydell likes you when he’s not busy losing his mind. Jono missed you when you went, of course he did, he fell in love with you, just like the rest. And when we fetched you from Walvis Bay there you were, pale and fragile but still happy. I could tell.
“And you know what else?” she said, and she moved closer to Kate. “You know what bugged me about you the most? That all of us on this trip have behaved badly at one time or another except for you. You’re the only one who hasn’t done something bad.”
“That’s not true.” Kate said and her voice sounded trapped in her throat. She was cursing herself for having left her pepper spray in her tent; she had been so sure that nothing else could go wrong.
She fished around in the soapy water, trying to find a bread knife or anything she could use for her own protection. “Sofie didn’t do anything wrong. Or Eva or Marika or Enrique, or Harrison or Treasure.”
“No. You’re wrong.” Helen’s breath was hot against her ear. “They all left before it counted and Sofie went crazy, so she doesn’t count either. But I came here to do good and look at what I did. I didn’t stick up for Harrison and I could have stopped Stepfan from walking around that wall but I didn’t. I hoped he would fall, that’s the truth, I did. He was such a showoff and I thought it would serve him right if he fell and then he did. And then I was beyond cruel. I was all the things I’ve hated my whole life. I watched Sofie that night in my tent, getting her things and I could see that she was in so much pain but I didn’t help her.”
“Since we’re being so brutally honest here,” Kate said, her fingers finding a knife among all the cutlery, “let me ask you something.” She was afraid to confront Helen but she could not stop herself. “Did you and Jasmine kill the jackal to drive Sofie beyond the limits of what she could handle? So she wouldn’t be able to tell anybody what really happened up in tower?”
Helen clenched her jaw in anger. “I’ve told you what happened up in the tower and Stepfan was responsible for his own death. And I didn’t help Jasmine kill the jackal, if in fact she even did. I think it was that weirdo Rydell or some locals, not that I care either way. But back to the things that irritated me about you. Next thing, you scored André, and who knows where you found him but you did and, like Prince Charming, he rushed to see you, in a Porsche for God’s sake. You never lost your frickin’ happiness, not even in the darkest moments of chaos, and that really pisses me off in a very big way. I thought that I’d tell you how I feel, given that the trip’s coming to an end.” She gave Kate a strange smile.
Kate pulled the knife out of the water and shot backwards towards the screen door.
“Stay away from me, Helen,” she said, brandishing the knife, her heart pounding. “I’m not going to be another casualty of this trip, I won’t. You think I’m stupid? I know you think you’ve got a chance with André, with me out of the picture. Well, whatever you’re planning, you can forget about it.”
To her surprise, Helen burst out laughing. “ Look at you, all Angelina Jolie with a knife! You think I came in here to kill you? Is that what you think? I guess this trip has been filled with all kinds of violence but you’ve got me wrong. I came here to thank you. Granted I had to tear a strip off you first but I want to thank you.”
“Thank me?” Kate was perplexed but she did not lower the knife.
“Yes. Because you helped me get my power back. I’ve got my focus back. You’re right, my life’s up to me
, not anyone else and waiting for someone to rush in and sort it all out for me is stupid. I fell so hard for Robbie that I lost my way, lost my sense of who I am. I guess what I’m really trying to say is that even although you’ve bugged the crap out of me, thanks. Seriously, you can put the knife away now.”
Kate looked doubtful and Helen laughed again. “And if I’m honest, André wouldn’t look twice at me,” she said, “not even if he was single. I know that. I’m too bossy for him. I just daydreamed that’s all. There you see, I’ve got no reason to kill you.”
Kate glanced back over her shoulder. The rain was a torrent. “How about finishing the dishes then?” she said. “For a save-the-world-do-gooder you’ve reneged more than once on your washing up duties.”
Helen obligingly snapped on the gloves.
“And take your hood off. You look like something out of a Wes Craven horror movie.”
Helen brushed the hood back with her elbow and started scrubbing.
“And if in fact you really were trying to thank me, it’s not the most gracious speech I’ve ever heard but then again, it was bona fide Helen.” Kate thought for a moment. “Helen,” she said, “what’s your take on Richard? Do you still find him as attractive as you did at the beginning of the trip?”
“No way. I’ll tell you this for nothing, he’s a really nasty piece of work,” Helen’s face was grim. “And since I’m spilling my guts to you, I may as well tell you this. He threatened me big time once, in Solitaire. Granted I was coming onto him and I shouldn’t have but still, he threatened to cut my ligaments so I’d never run again. And all he had to say was ‘not interested.’ ”
Kate took a chance. “This might sound crazy but hear me out. I think Richard and Mia might have killed Rosalee Khumalo.”
“That sex worker who was murdered in Swakopmund when we were there? I read about it in the papers, I figured it was some local did it. Richard likes to be cruel all right but don’t you think you’re making big assumptions?”
The Witchdoctor's Bones Page 36
