The following morning, they drove over to a huge shopping centre in Umhlanga which was quite the largest one that Amie had ever seen. They wandered through the two-floor arcade popping in and out of the shops. They were amazed to see from a leaflet they collected, that the centre even boasted a wave pool, a 4 x 4 track, a skateboard park designed by Tony Hawk, a science centre, over a dozen cinemas, a theatre, an Imax, a leisure centre, dozens of cafes and restaurants, and over three hundred shops.
Amie and Vivienne were in seventh heaven. How different this is from living out in the bush, Amie thought. Here we are in a modern centre, yet not too many miles away there are parks where Africa’s wild animals roam free. This could be paradise.
They returned to the Spa loaded with bags containing dresses, shoes, jackets and underwear. Amie had had no qualms about persuading Vivienne to flash the credit card every time she saw something she liked. They were limited of course, neither of them thought the government would look too kindly on paying for excess luggage on the return flight, but Amie felt more human as she twirled in front of the mirror trying on one outfit after another.
To her surprise, Vivienne turned out to be a great companion. They went to the movies and enjoyed the films together, and they sat in the open-air food court and watched a free musical performance and the passing parade, quietly remarking on the high standard of living enjoyed by both black and white people.
“We get so used to seeing the poverty back in Togodo.” Vivienne was looking at a smartly dressed black lady with twin daughters dressed in matching outfits. “There are those at the top connected to government and the ruling party, and the rest, desperately trying to rise above the survival level,” she observed.
“Togodo and Ruanga are the only African countries I’ve ever been to till now, so this is a surprise for me.” Amie was intrigued. “I guess though, as it’s a big continent, there are going to be massive differences from one country to another.”
“I remember being surprised when I first came down south, too,” her companion agreed, “but I think it’s time to get back for dinner and after, we can decide on other places to visit while we’re here.”
“How long have we got?” Amie was surprised she hadn’t thought to ask earlier.
“A few weeks,” Vivienne was a bit vague. “But we have appointments tomorrow, so we’ll plan what to do after that.”
“Appointments? What for?” Amie’s heart sank. It was all too good to be true.
“I’ll tell you later,” Vivienne called for the bill. “I just mentioned it now, because you can’t have any alcohol tonight.”
Before Amie had a chance to question her further, Vivienne was on her feet and moving towards the car park.
Amie hurried to catch up with her and by the time she arrived hot and breathless at the car, the question had slipped her mind. However, once back in the room, having unpacked all her purchases and tried on more clothes, she remembered what Vivienne had said.
“What appointments?” she repeated. “And why can’t I have any wine tonight with dinner?”
“It’s nothing to get worried about.” Vivienne sounded reassuring. “Just some basic medical tests. You had a very nasty accident and we want to make sure you’re all right. They have much better facilities down here, of course ...”
“And I’m not supposed to exist in Togodo right?” Amie couldn’t help herself.
“It’s not that at all,” her new friend protested.
“Oh, yes, it is, that’s the reason for this luxury holiday – to make sure the condemned woman is fit for duty.” Once again Amie felt the anger well up inside her. She stomped over to the bed and sat down. She fumed for several minutes and then began to rationalize the situation. Whatever the reason for the tests, it might be a good idea to get checked out. The dizziness and clouds that floated around her were happening less frequently but no one was sure what damage she’d suffered. And maybe, just maybe, they might find her not up to the job, to any kind of work at all. Unlikely for sure, but there was just a faint hope that if her brain didn’t function as it should, they might not be so keen on employing her and forcing her to do whatever it was they had in mind. On the other hand, would that be a death sentence?
11 SHOOT OUT AT THE MALL
The following morning Vivienne drove her to a well-appointed, very modern hospital situated on a nearby hill. The entrance looked more appropriate for a hotel with its marble floors, pillars, smart reception desk and small shop in one corner. Amie sank into one of the sofas and picked up a magazine from the coffee table. It all looked very civilized and peaceful, and she wondered how much it cost for a room here. Vivienne had informed her that free medical treatment was only for those on very low incomes, everyone else had to take out insurance for their health costs.
Vivienne indicated a corridor on the right and Amie followed her, feeling more than a little apprehensive. Then the battery of tests began. They poked and prodded her until she felt like a pincushion. They X-rayed her and sent her through the MRI and the CAT scanner, they not only checked out her head, but every other moving part of her body as well.
By the time they left the hospital, clutching envelopes containing most of the results, it was early evening and Amie was exhausted, she couldn’t wait to get back to the Spa for a glass of wine and a good long sleep. She climbed into the passenger seat, did up her seatbelt, closed her eyes and was out for the count. She was still fast asleep when Vivienne turned up the short drive to the Resort’s front door, and Amie only woke up when the car came to a halt.
The following week was spent driving around the city, walking through the Indian market and swimming in the warm Indian Ocean. They went inland to a Zulu village to watch traditional dancing, and even further west towards the Drakensberg Mountains to potter around the gift shops and home industry outlets on the Midlands Meander. The scenery reminded Amie of England and she had to pinch herself to remember she was still in Africa.
Bit by bit she could feel herself relaxing. It was difficult to stay totally despondent under a bright blue sky in such a beautiful country, with smiling, friendly people everywhere they went. She was surrounded by beauty, from the manicured verges filled with flowers to the wide, sweeping sugar cane fields they called the green gold of KwaZulu Natal.
“What shall we do today?” Vivienne stretched as she sat up in bed a couple of weeks later.
“I think that huge shopping mall again,” Amie smiled. “I’ve been deprived for so long from real shops, and we didn’t manage to get around all of them last time.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” agreed Vivienne jumping out of bed. “And what say we go to a show in the theatre we saw in there? Now that’s another thing we don’t have in Apatu.”
“Hmm, sounds a great idea. That’s a brilliant plan.”
“This time,” Vivienne remarked when they drove into one of the many car parks surrounding the shopping complex, “we’ll take note of where we left the car. I don’t feel like walking around for hours trying to find it again like last time – especially in this heat.”
Amie laughed. “Let’s use the one where we saw those little golf cart things taking people to their cars. In fact, if I buy too much, I might need one of those – I might not be able to carry it all.”
“Then you’ll have the bill for the excess luggage,” Vivienne laughed and Amie chuckled too until she remembered that she had no money of her own, not one cent. Vivienne had paid for everything so far and it felt strange to have nothing in her purse. She wondered how Vivienne would react if she asked her for a few hundred Rand. She decided to try that later when they got back to the Spa.
Luck was with them as they found a parking space close to one of the entrances, and it was an easy walk into the cool, air-conditioned marble halls.
After a long tour round the shops, a movie and a good meal, it was time to call it a day. Just as they got to the doors leading out to the car park, Vivienne thrust the shopping bags at Amie and handed over
the car keys.
“You go on and wait for me in the car,” she said. “I’ve got to go to the loo. I won’t be long. Remember where it is?”
“Yes, this time I do,” Amie called over her shoulder as she traipsed across the tarmac trying not to drop the many slippery plastic carrier bags. They had once again raided the shops and she couldn’t wait to try on yet more new clothes.
She smiled at the car guard who came over to collect his payment for guarding the car and shrugged. “Sorry, I have no money, but the other lady will be here in a minute and she’ll pay, OK?”
The guard nodded his head slightly and stepped back a little way, but Amie could feel him watching her, and he never took his eyes off the car. She opened the boot and dropped the bags in and then sat in the passenger seat and waited.
Amie checked her new watch. Vivienne had been a long time, what was keeping her?
Just then several police cars, lights flashing, horns blaring, tyres screeching, raced into the car park. They pulled up at the mall entrance, the occupants jumped out and raced inside. They were followed by more police cars, several driving round towards the other entrances.
A few minutes later, Amie counted six ambulances following the same route. They parked next to the police cars and waited. A policeman appeared from inside the shopping centre and ushered in two medics with a trolley, then waved his hand to tell the others to remain outside. Something had happened but it was impossible to know what. Amie was tempted to go and find out, but there was no way the police on the door would let her or anyone else in, and she doubted they would tell her what was going on even if she asked.
She sat in the car and waited, then got out and walked around a little but it was too hot even in the late afternoon sunshine and she could feel it baking the top of her head, so she went back to the car which was even worse. She switched the engine on and twiddled the air-conditioning knob – the inside of the car was like a sauna.
From what she could see of the building, nothing was happening. The police were still there, the ambulance crew ambled around their vehicles, and Amie could only guess that maybe there was some hostage situation going on inside. Her imagination ran wild as usual. She saw Vivienne falling from a high balcony, locked in the ladies’ loo, taking out the bad men whoever they were, or being held with a gun to her head while the perpetrators demanded a jumbo jet to fly them to the Caribbean. Now you’re getting silly Amie, she told herself sharply. This was obviously a serious situation, but she didn’t believe for a moment that anything could’ve happened to her friend.
She waited another half an hour or so but the centre was still on lock down. No one went in or out. Would it be a good idea to drive through the adjoining car parks to see if Vivienne had come out of another entrance? Maybe they’d evacuated the public on the far side of the complex. It was really huge and it would take anyone a fair time to walk back here. But then if they did send people out by another entrance, and Vivienne saw the car was gone, would she panic? They could go on missing each other if they went back and forth. It was tempting to go back to the Spa and wait for her there, but then that would be a pretty mean thing to do. Vivienne had been a brick and they’d got on very well, though it just occurred to Amie that she’d learned nothing about her new friend’s private life. She’d guessed that she came from England, but apart from her taste in films, clothes and the fact she worked for the embassy in Apatu, she’d given no personal information away, not even her exact age. Amie surmised she was in her mid to late thirties, maybe a couple of years older than herself. She probably knows everything about me, thought Amie as she squirmed in the seat trying to get comfortable, even down to my time of birth. She fiddled with the air vents, trying to get some cool air through the car.
This was getting ridiculous, she had to know what was going on, she’d walk over and ask the policemen at the door.
She locked the car carefully before making her way over to the mall entrance, but long before she reached it the policeman shouted at her to go back to the car.
“Go! Go!” he bellowed. “Stay away, it is dangerous. They shoot you.”
“Who will?” Amie shouted across to him. He didn’t answer her but one of the ambulance crew did.
“There’s a gang in there,” he yelled, “they’ve taken hostages, but that’s as much as we know.”
“Thank you.” Amie backed away from the path to the doorway, headed left and approached the parked ambulances along the kerb.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” she said to a young medic.
“All the time,” he replied with a sigh. “Guns are easy to come by here and ...”
They both jumped as gunshots were heard from inside the centre.
“The police won’t hang around talking to them for long,” he told Amie pulling her behind the ambulance. “They’ll wait for a while and then go in with all guns blazing. I pity the poor hostages if they’ve taken any. They usually do as bargaining tools. Seldom works though.”
More shots rang out. Then two men hurtled through the glass doors out into the car park firing at random. They were closely followed by several policemen who returned fire hitting both men in the back. They dropped to the ground moaning and shrieking while they were handcuffed, none too gently, Amie noticed.
“Time for us to move, I guess,” the medic said. After a quick glance at Amie’s left hand, he felt in his pocket and brought out a business card. “Look, call me,” he said, “be fun to get together in a calmer place. Or do you have a boyfriend?”
“No. No. I ... er ... don’t, but ...”
“I’m Gerrit,” he grinned, then pivoted in response to a shout to get the stretchers inside, leaving Amie a little flustered. It dawned on her she’d been hit on by an ambulance man, and had been about to protest she was a married woman only to realise, with a lump in her throat, that now she wasn’t. She was a widow. She had no intention of calling him but there was nowhere to throw his card in the clean, rubbish-free car park so she stuffed it in her pocket. Still she dithered wondering whether to try and go inside or wait out here for Vivienne. In the end she went back to the car, climbed in and kept her eyes on the door.
There was no sign of any activity until suddenly the medics came rushing out wheeling stretchers which they collapsed and loaded into the ambulances.
Amie leapt out of the car, but was too late to identify the injured people on the gurneys. From the brief glimpse she had, she couldn’t even see if their heads had been covered; they didn’t transport dead bodies in ambulances, did they? She saw two more ambulances head round to an entrance on the far side of the car park. They reappeared and then raced back out driving off with lights flashing and sirens blaring. Amie could never have reached them in time even if she’d run as fast as the wind. She decided to wait where she was and be there for Vivienne when she came out.
Two more vehicles arrived. To Amie they looked like morgue vans. They drove sedately into the car park and disappeared around the corner.
The police were shepherding members of the public out into the late afternoon sunshine; many looked dazed and shaky. Two little girls were clinging to their weeping mother, and a group of teenage boys walked past in silence.
She watched people leave, get into their cars and drive away. Amie noticed that there wasn’t a car guard in sight; they, too, had had a bad day.
The trickle of people slowed until only a few exited the shopping centre. Then finally, the automatic doors ceased to open and close. The policeman guarding the entrance had disappeared so Amie decided to go inside and see if she could find Vivienne.
She first made for the public toilets but they were deserted. In fact, the whole centre was empty and felt more than a little creepy. Amie’s sandals made little tapping sounds as she wandered along the wide marble halls, peering in shops, looking down side corridors, and even peeking behind counters.
“Hey, you!” a patrolling security guard yelled. “Out! Now! Centre closed!”
�
��But I’m looking for my friend,” Amie approached him. “She was in here and now I can’t find her!”
“No one to stay in here.” The security guard was quite firm, and seizing Amie by the arm, he marched her towards the nearest exit.
Amie pulled away. “No! You don’t understand. She might be hiding somewhere, maybe she doesn’t know it’s safe to come out. Please, please, let me go and look for her.”
The man didn’t even bother to reply as he manhandled her out of the door locking it securely behind her.
12 WHERE IS VIVIENNE?
Amie realised with a jolt that she’d been bundled out on the far side of the centre and there was nothing for it but to walk all the way round back to the car. Maybe Vivienne would be there waiting for her, she thought, trudging past the now empty parking bays of yet another car park. When she turned the corner, there was their hired car, alone and deserted – no Vivienne in sight. In fact, there was no one to be seen at all.
Amie dithered for a few moments then unlocked the driver’s door, climbed in and started the engine. The only thing she could do was go back to the Spa, but she didn’t think for a moment that her friend would be there either.
It took Amie some time to find the Spa again. As a passenger, she hadn’t paid much attention to the roads, and by the time she drove through the front gates she was hot, sweaty and worried sick.
The front reception area was deserted so she went straight to her room. No Vivienne. Amie dropped onto her bed and put her head in her hands. What was she going to do now? It would make sense to ask for help from the owners here, but she’d only just realised that she didn’t even know Vivienne’s last name. How stupid could you get; she’d never thought to ask. No one had ever addressed her room-mate by her surname, not at the airport, nor at the car hire, nor at the Spa.
Amie jumped up and went over to Vivienne’s case. She felt guilty prying into possessions that weren’t hers but this was an exception. There was no handbag of course, Vivienne had taken that with her when they went shopping. There was nothing in the main suitcase either, just a few empty plastic bags, but Vivienne’s small carry on case was a different matter. It was securely locked.
Amie in Africa Box Set 1 Page 77
