by Malla Nunn
“What is it?” I ask. “What’s happened?”
Lewis says, “I went to your house and your ma showed me the note that you left on the table. I guessed where the three of you might be.”
That does not answer my question. I try again.
“Oh, uh . . . What’s up?”
“Can you talk?” he says. “It’s important.”
Heavens! The Dumisa family are serious about warning me off. First Goodness and now Lewis in person. I don’t need to hear it twice.
“Don’t bother. I understand. You’re Zulu and I’m mixed. Goodness told me about the list. We’ll never match up, and that’s fine with me.”
Lewis frowns, and I realize, too late, that I have jumped to conclusions. Lewis is here to talk about something else entirely.
Idiot.
“Tell her,” Annalisa says as Lil Bit and Goodness sidle closer.
“Jacob Caluza and two of his friends dropped by the Build ’Em Up for a talk. He says you and him are together. His brother is collecting the bride price and I have no business walking you home or talking to you.”
How does Jacob know that Lewis walked me home the day before yesterday? Oh. The shadows moving under the mango trees outside the toilet block. It wasn’t my imagination. Jacob was watching me from the end of the lane. I almost shiver.
“You know none of that is true. It’s all in Jacob’s head.”
“That’s what I thought,” Lewis says. “My brothers and me will find him and tell him, politely, that you’re not interested and he should leave you alone.”
“What if he keeps on?”
“I’ll tell him that I will walk you home whenever I want and I’ll talk to you whenever I want.” Then he adds, “But only if that’s what you want.”
Goodness groans, but I am melting. Lewis’s unique combination of clumsy and kind, with the added bonus of juiciness, is rare.
Do I want? Yes, I do.
“All right. We can talk and walk whenever you’d like.”
Lewis smiles. I return his smile, and the moment stretches out with no need for words. We are two flies stuck in honey and drowning in sweetness. I don’t care about the list of Zulu girls, or our different circumstances, or being disowned by my mother’s family. My whole vision is taken up with Lewis Dumisa. Annalisa clears her throat, and I glance her way. She glares at me. I receive her message: Schoolwork before boys, miss. That’s the rule. After graduation, I am free to ride in cars with boys and park out there behind the bleachers. But that is two years away. I narrow my eyes and send her a return message: I can do my homework and have a boyfriend at the same time. It’s not rocket science!
Annalisa gives a small nod, agreeing to a balance between attending school and spending time with Lewis. Good, that settles it. I swing my attention to the boy in question, and honestly, I could stare at him all day. The warm feeling that connects us holds strong. I feel it pulsing inside my chest, right in time with my heartbeat. Lovely!
Goodness coughs, and Lil Bit giggles. The noise breaks the spell and reminds me that there are other people in the world besides Mr. Juicy Lips And Gorgeous Dimples. How long did Lewis and I gawk at each other in silence? Twenty seconds or two minutes? There’s no way to tell. Time just disappeared.
“You’ll talk to Jacob?” Annalisa says to Lewis. “I hate to think of him walking the streets, saying whatever he wants about Amandla.”
“Sure thing, Miss Harden. Me and my brothers will find him and have a face-to-face. If he doesn’t listen, my father has a few friends in the police. I hope it doesn’t go that far.”
“Thank you for doing that,” I say. “And please thank your brothers also.”
“Soon as I get back to the Build ’Em Up.” Lewis sticks out his hand. I take it and we shake with a clumsy up-and-down motion. Amateurs. Goodness pulls a face and grins.
“Smooth,” she says. “Go back to work before you kill your chances, brah. It’s the safest place for you.”
Lewis backs away and straight into Annalisa, who loops her arm through his with a cool smile and bright eyes. I know that face. Poor Lewis. He’s landed in hot water. She’s about to commence an assault on his intentions.
“Stay with your friends, Amandla.” Annalisa uses her steely do not test me voice. “Lewis will drop me off on his way back to work.”
“Of course, Miss Harden.” Lewis surrenders with the grace that Goodness displays on the soccer field. Fighting Annalisa is a waste of energy, and somehow, he knows it.
“Wait . . .”
My mother ignores me and strolls off with Lewis, her prisoner, in a firm grip. She does not slow down or turn around. On the way here, Jacob was her focus. Now that focus has switched to Lewis. Annalisa will grill him on everything from his favorite colors to his future plans. And somewhere along the line, she will tell him that Sugar Town isn’t forever. That I am meant for bigger and better things. University. A job in the city and a house on the beach. All that she lost. Our leaving is a far-fetched dream that we have lived on for years. Except now, I think, what’s the rush?
19
Annalisa shakes me awake at dawn on Saturday morning. Faint blue light falls through the kitchen window, and the Khozas’ rooster crows four doors down. I groan and snuggle under the blankets. During the holidays, I get to sleep in till nine. I have nowhere to go and nothing in particular to do. “Get up,” Annalisa says. “We have to tidy the house. Visitors are coming.”
We never get visitors, and our house is always tidy. Floors scrubbed twice a week. Dishes washed and put away. Cobwebs swept out into the lane whenever they appear. The bedsheets and blankets tucked tight to the mattress corners. What is there to do?
“What visitors?” I ask when Annalisa taps my shoulder like a pecking hen. “When are they coming?”
“I don’t know who they are,” she says. “Just that they’re on their way.”
Arguing is a waste of breath. Once Annalisa’s mind is made up, that’s it. Resisting her will is futile. I go with the flow. I get out of bed, grab a broom, and attack the clean spaces under our beds. A light fluff of dust comes back. “Don’t forget to do the ceiling.” Annalisa dips a brush into a bucket of soapy water and starts scrubbing the floor of the kitchen area. It’s a wonder the linoleum hasn’t worn through to the ground from the friction of the bristles. “The house has to be perfect.”
One hour later, my shoulders ache and my knees throb from scrubbing, sweeping, and dusting to make the house ready for our phantom visitors. The sudden cleaning binge should worry me, but Annalisa is relaxed and happy. She hums through the work. When we finish, she hugs me and smiles.
“Perfect,” she says. “Now you can go play with your friends.”
I pull on jeans, a T-shirt, and a “pre-loved” camo jacket and skate out the door before Annalisa decides to clean the dirt in the front yard.
* * *
* * *
“Your turn.” Goodness throws a girls’ magazine into my lap from the comfort of her double bed, where Lil Bit sits beside her like a cat in the sunshine. It’s late afternoon, and we lie around in a post-lunch coma. Walking, talking, taking lame shots at goal (none of which get past Goodness), and a visit to the Build ’Em Up to find the address of the Bollard Company headquarters and to plan our assault on Neville’s reputation made the day go fast.
I flip the magazine open to the advice column, always good for a laugh. I read out loud in a high, girlie voice: “ ‘Dear Sisi, My grandmother says that cucumbers are the devil’s food and makes me wear gloves whenever I wash or cut them. I don’t understand why she thinks that cucumbers are sinful or why she says that I’m too young to be left alone in a room with them. Can you explain what’s going on?’ ”
We collapse on the bed laughing. Sinful cucumbers. It’s too crazy to be true!
Two sharp knocks rattle Goodness’s bedroom door. Sh
e springs to her feet and pulls it open. Lewis, dressed in an old T-shirt and khaki work pants, stands in the hallway. My heart lifts inside my chest. This boy walked Annalisa home yesterday and told her all that she needed to know. Blue is his favorite color. His middle name is Thando, which means beloved in Zulu. He loves to work with his hands. When he’s finished training at the Build ’Em Up, he will become a carpenter. Yes, he can scramble eggs. I got home to Annalisa in a sunny mood. Gorgeous-dimples Lewis Dumisa made my mother smile.
He makes me smile, too.
“Well?” Goodness demands when Lewis cranes his neck to spy into the room. “What do you want?”
“Miss Harden is looking for Amandla,” he says. “I asked her in, but she’s waiting on the porch.”
“Annalisa is here?” My voice is thin and high. “Now?”
“Yebo.”
Annalisa does not drop in on anyone for any reason. Ever. I slip into the hallway and say over my shoulder, “You know where to find me.”
Lewis leads me past the living room, where his mother sits in a plastic-covered recliner chair at the head of a circle of important town ladies, all of them dressed to shine. Mrs. Dumisa smiles and waves goodbye to me, and the sparkling purple polish on her nails catches the light from the diamante chandelier. She wears a matching purple dress and white high-heeled shoes with purple stars sewn onto the leather.
I was nervous to meet her, but she turned out to be nice-ish. Goodness introduced us. She gave Lil Bit and me a nod of approval before turning her attention back to the ladies. I doubt she remembers our names.
“This way.” Lewis presses his hand to the small of my back, where it fits perfectly. The intimate gesture gets his mother’s attention, and I find that I don’t care one way or the other what she thinks of me, of us. Yesterday, on the sports field, Lewis and I told each other we would be together whenever it pleased us. Our being together this minute pleases me fine.
Lewis opens the front door and pulls me gently onto the shallow porch that runs the length of the house: a perfect winter sun trap. Annalisa waits at the foot of the stairs with her hair twisted into a neat bun and pinned at the nape of her neck. She wears blue jeans and a long-sleeved shirt with a collar. Simple. Stylish.
“Are we going somewhere?” I ask, afraid at first, and then relieved to see her smile. Thank the Lord. Annalisa is fine.
“Come quick,” she says. “Mrs. M picked too many broad beans from her garden, and she’s invited us for dinner. The children eat early, so we have to get back soon.”
Dinner at Mrs. M’s and Annalisa said yes. That’s a first. Taking tea with Mrs. M and Blind Auntie broke the ice and made neighbors of us all. I head for the stairs, vaguely aware of Goodness and Lil Bit standing in the doorway. The living room curtains twitch open. Mrs. Dumisa and the ladies appear at the window, eager to see what’s going on.
“Do I have to change?” I ask, and take the stairs down. Mrs. M picked the exact right amount of vegetables to feed her family and Annalisa and me. She is an Ubuntu machine, building connections inside the community with love and green beans. Lewis reaches around me to push the garden gate open.
“Here,” he says. “I’ll walk you home.”
“You know that walking me home for a second time this week will get people talking.” I want him to be 100 percent sure of what he’s getting into.
He shrugs. “My mother and her friends can say whatever they like. I’m old enough to make up my own mind and I’m of a mind to walk you and your mother home.”
Lil Bit and Goodness follow us through the gate and into London Avenue. They hang back to give us space. “It’s true that my mother has a list of potential girlfriends, but I say that we make up our own lists and choose who goes on them. What do you think?”
It’s a wonderful idea, but I don’t answer his question right away. Instead, I ask one of my own.
“And how many names are on your list, Mr. Dumisa?” Lewis likes me, but he also has his pick of silky-skinned girls with small waists and curved backsides.
“One name only,” he says.
“Oh . . .” A tingling feeling fills my chest. “Do I know her?”
“You might,” he says. “She lives in Sugar Town, but she has one foot on the road to somewhere else. Some people say that she’s a snob, but that’s because her mother has taught her good manners. She doesn’t swear or fight in the street. She gets good grades and stays home instead of going out all the time. She’s different, and that’s why I like her.”
“I think I know who you mean,” I say. “I hear that her mother is strict, though.”
Annalisa picks up the word mother and tucks me close to her side. We turn the corner into Harlem Street, and Lewis looks ahead, scanning for potential dangers. The street is quiet. Long rows of minivan taxis wait to take passengers to Durban and Richards Bay and destinations as far away as Jozi. Johannesburg, that is.
I check over my shoulder to make sure that Goodness and Lil Bit haven’t fallen too far behind. They are too busy talking to notice anyone but each other. Lil Bit laughs at something Goodness says, and it clicks. The world has opened up for Lil Bit and me over the last few days. We were a country of two. Now our tight circle has expanded to include new family and friends: Mayme, Sam, Goodness, and Lewis . . . I take a second as I walk side by side with Mr. Juicy to feel gratitude. There’s that warm tingling inside my chest again.
“And you?” Lewis asks. “How many names are on your list?”
“One name for now.” I keep my vision trained on the road ahead. Lewis turns his head toward me. I can feel him studying my face, but I don’t look back at him. I’m afraid of another extended looking at each other for way too long episode.
We turn down my shortcut, an alley that takes us onto Winnie Mandela Way. I never go down this way at night, but now, in the afternoon and with Lewis by my side, I feel no fear at all. It makes me realize that I feel safe with him. It also reminds me that the township is a hard place for a girl, any girl, to ever feel safe. How sweet it would be to lay all my problems down, even for the length of this walk, to know that I have Lewis to help me cope with mother’s ups and downs and maybe even to build the life I want for myself. But what happens when Lewis isn’t here?
Then again, he is here. Right now. And it feels wonderful. I see that my shoelace is undone and stop to tie it. Annalisa walks ahead, and my fingers fumble with the knot. She is five steps ahead of me and almost at a broken-down section of wall. The wind blows honeysuckle perfume into the lane.
I hear feet on gravel behind the wall, and the hairs on my arms stand up.
20
“Annalisa! Stop!” I jump up and run full speed to close the gap between us. She’s right in front of the broken wall now, her head turned to catch what I’ve said.
That’s when Jacob Caluza steps out from behind the wall with a knife in his hand.
“Mummy . . .” I grab her around the waist and try to pull her away. My right hand goes out to shield us from the blade. Jacob slashes my palm. I cry out in pain and stumble sideways. Jacob raises his knife, aims it at my chest. Annalisa puts herself between Jacob and me as the knife falls. She screams “No!” as she blocks the blade that’s meant for my heart. Then she makes a sound that I’ve never heard before: a groan and a soft sigh of breath that whispers in the lane. Jacob pulls the knife from above her left breast, and she falls to the ground. Blood sprays from the wound. It makes a river in the dirt.
“Mum!” I sob. “Mummy . . .”
Jacob steps over her to get to me. “You think that boy will marry you?” He slashes the knife at my stomach and misses. “You think you can do better than me, girl?”
He charges with the knife aimed right at me. Lewis jumps forward and slams a fist into the side of Jacob’s head, but he shakes it off, drawing energy from the drugs racing through his system.
Lewis lands a second pun
ch that sends Jacob reeling. Jacob straightens up, dazed, and comes at me again. He trips and falls against me with the knife wedged between us. I slam his chest back to push him off me. Lil Bit appears out of nowhere. She tries to grab Jacob’s knife hand and gets a smack across the face for her trouble.
She lands hard on the ground, and I lose track of her. I grab Jacob’s wrist and twist with all my strength. He’s stronger than me, too strong for me to hold him off for more than a moment. I turn away from the gleam in his eyes and see Lil Bit holding Annalisa in her arms.
Jacob struggles to free his hand, teeth clenched, waving his knife in the air. An object flies toward us, and I hear the crunch of bone. Jacob rocks to the side and falls against me. He’s been hit in the head with something heavy. Warm blood soaks my shirt, and a blunt object presses into my chest. Pain radiates out to my arms, my neck, my shoulders.
Lewis pulls the barely conscious Jacob back by the throat and throws him to the ground. Goodness stands over him with a brick raised high above her head, ready to smash Jacob’s skull again if he moves an inch.
Blood gurgles from Jacob’s mouth. His limbs twitch and go slack. The knife handle sticks out of his bony chest. His shirt is bunched up, so I can see where the blade is buried near his heart. I collapse against the wall, dazed and shaking. My mind is frozen. I open my mouth to speak and no words come out. Then I hear Lil Bit calling Annalisa’s name and saying, “Stay with us. Hang on.”
“Is she breathing?” I gasp out the words. “Is she alive, Lil Bit?”
Lil Bit puts her ear to Mother’s mouth. “Still breathing,” she says.
Goodness takes off her T-shirt and presses the balled-up material to the bleeding wound on Annalisa’s breast. “We have to get her to a hospital. She needs a doctor.”
The Sugar Town Clinic closes at 4:00 p.m., and the nearest hospital is forty minutes away by car on roads filled with potholes. I try to think what to do next.
“Mrs. Mashanini.” My brain is working again. “She’s a nurse. She can help.”
