“And how is the clever Mr. Mizi?” enquires the strange young man at last, and Jabavu says: “I do not know who you are.”
At this the young man laughs and says: “My name is Jerry, so now you know me.” Jabavu’s steps quicken, and Jerry’s feet move faster also.
“And what will clever Mr. Mizi say when he knows you climbed out of his window?” asks Jerry, in his light, unpleasant voice, and he begins to whistle softly, with a smile on his face, as if he finds his own whistling very nice.
“I did not,” says Jabavu, and his voice quivers with fear.
“Well, well. Yet last night I saw you go into the house with Mr. Mizi and Mr. Samu, and this morning you climb out of the window, how is that?” asks Jerry, in the same light voice, and Jabavu stops in the middle of the road and asks: “Why do you watch me?”
“I watch you for Betty,” says Jerry, gaily, and continues to whistle. Jabavu slowly goes on, and he is wishing with all his heart he is back on Mrs. Mizi’s mattress in the kitchen. He can see that this is very bad for him, but he does not yet know why. And so he thinks: Why am I afraid? What can this Jerry do? I must not be like a small child. And he says: “I do not know you, I do not want to see Betty, so now go away from me.”
Jerry says, making his voice ugly and threatening: “Betty will kill you. She told me to tell you she will come with her knife and kill you.”
And Jabavu suddenly laughs, saying truthfully: “I am not afraid of Betty’s knife. She talks too much of it.”
Jerry is quiet for a few breaths, he is looking at Jabavu in a new way. Then he, too, laughs and says: “Quite right, my friend. She is silly girl.”
“She is very silly girl,” agrees Jabavu, heartily, and both laugh and move closer together as they walk.
“What will you do next?” asks Jerry, softly, and Jabavu answers: “I do not know.” He stops again, thinking: If I return quickly I can climb back through the window before anyone wakes, and no one will know I climbed out. But Jerry seems to know what he is thinking, for he says: “It is a good joke you climb out of Mr. Mizi’s window like a thief,” and Jabavu says quickly: “I am not a thief.” Jerry laughs and says: “You are a big thief, Betty told me. You are very clever she says. You steal quickly so that no one knows.” He laughs a little and says: “And what will Mr. Mizi say if I tell him how you steal?”
Jabavu asks, foolishly: “And will you tell him?” Again Jerry laughs, but does not answer, and Jabavu walks on silently. It takes some time for the truth to come into his head, and even then it is hard to believe. Then Jerry asks, still light and gay: “And what did Mr. Mizi say when you told him you had been at the shebeen and about Betty?”
“I told him nothing,” says Jabavu, sullenly, then he understands at last why Jerry is doing this, and he says eagerly: “I told him nothing at all, nothing, and that is the truth.”
Jerry only walks on, smiling unpleasantly. Then Jabavu says: “And why are you afraid of Mr. Mizi . . .” But he cannot finish for Jerry has whipped round and glares at him: “Who has told you I am afraid? I am afraid of that . . . skellum.” And he calls Mr. Mizi names Jabavu has never heard in his life.
“Then I do not understand you,” says Jabavu, in his simplicity, and Jerry says: “It is true you understand nothing. Mr. Mizi is a dangerous man. Because the police do not like him for what he does, he is very quick to tell the police if he knows of a theft or a fight. And he is making big trouble. Last month he held a meeting in the hall, and he spoke about crime. He said it was the duty of every African to prevent skokiaan drinking and fighting and stealing, and to help the police close the shebeens and clean up Poland Johannesburg.” Jerry speaks with great contempt, and Jabavu thinks suddenly: Mr. Mizi does not like enjoying himself so he stops other people doing it. But he is half-ashamed of this thought; first he says to himself: Yes, it would be good if Poland Joahnnes-burg were cleaned up, then he says, hungrily: But I like dancing very much . . .
“And so,” Jerry goes on calmly, “we do not like Mr. Mizi.”
Jabavu wishes to say that he likes Mr. Mizi very much, and yet he cannot. Something stops him. He listens while Jerry talks on and on about Mr. Mizi, calling him those names that are new to Jabavu, and he can think of nothing to say. And then Jerry changes his voice and asks, threateningly: “What did you steal from Mr. Mizi?”
“I steal from Mr. Mizi?” says Jabavu, amazed. “But why should I steal there?” Jerry grabs his arm, stops him, and says: “That is rich man, he has a store, he has a good house. And you tell me you stole nothing? Then you are a fool, and I do not believe you.” Jabavu stands helpless because of his surprise while he feels Jerry’s quick fingers moving as light as wind through his pockets. Then Jerry stands away from him, in complete astonishment, and, unable to believe what his own fingers have told him, goes through every pocket again. For there is nothing there but a comb, a mouth-organ, and a piece of soap. “Where have you hidden it?” asks Jerry, and Jabavu stares at him. For this is the beginning of that inability to understand each other which will one day, and not so long distant, lead to bad trouble. Jerry simply cannot believe that Jabavu let an opportunity for stealing go past; while Jabavu could no more steal from the Mizis or the Samus than he could from his parents or his brother. Then Jerry decides to put on a show of belief, and says: “Well, I have been told they are rich. They have all the money from the League in their house.” Jabavu is silent. Jerry says: “And did you not see where it is hidden?” Jabavu makes an unwilling movement of his shoulders and looks about for escape. They have reached a cross-roads, and Jabavu stops. He is so simple that he thinks of turning to the right, on the road that leads to the city, with the idea that he may return to Alice and ask her help. But one look at Jerry’s face tells him it is not possible, and so he walks beside him on the other road that leads towards Poland Johannesburg. “Let us go and see Betty,” says Jerry. “She is a silly girl, but she’s nice too.” He looks at Jabavu to make him laugh, and Jabavu laughs in just the way he wants; and in a few moments the two young men are saying of Betty that she is like this and like that, her body is so, her breasts so, and anyone looking at the two young men as they walk along, laughing, would think they are good friends, happy to be together.
And it is true that there is a part of Jabavu that is excited at the idea he will soon be in the shebeens and with Betty, although he comforts himself that soon he will run away from Jerry and go back to the Mizis’, and he even believes it.
He expects they will go to Betty’s room in Mrs. Kambusi’s house, but they go past it and down a slope towards a small river, and up the other side, and there is an old shack of a building which looks as if it were disused. There are trees and bushes all around it, and they go quickly through these, and to the back of the place, and through a window which looks as if it were locked, but opens under the pressure of Jerry’s knife, which he slides up against the latch. And inside Jabavu sees not only Betty, but half a dozen others, young men and a girl; and as he stands in fear, wondering what will happen, and looking crookedly at Betty, Jerry says in a cheerful voice: “And this is the friend Betty told you about,” and winks, but so Jabavu does not see. And they greet him, and he sits down beside them. It is an empty room which was once a store, but now has some boxes for chairs and a big packing-case in the middle where there are candles stuck in their grease, and packs of cards, and bottles of various kinds of drink. No one is drinking, but they offer Jabavu food, and he eats. Betty is quiet and polite, and yet when he looks at her eyes he knows she likes him as much as before, and this makes him uneasy, and he is altogether uncomfortable and full of fear because he does not know what they want with him. Yet as time passes he loses his fear. They seem full of laughter, and without violence. Betty’s knife does not leave her handbag, and all that happens is that she comes to sit near him and says, with rolling eyes: “Are you pleased to see me again?” and Jabavu says that he is, and it is true.
Later they go to the Township and see the film show, an
d Jabavu is lifted clean out of his fear into a state so delirious that he does not notice how the others look at each other and smile. For it is a film of cowboys and Indians and there is much shooting and yelling and riding about on horses, and Jabavu imagines himself shooting and yelling and prancing about on a horse as he sees it on the screen. He wishes to ask how the pictures are made, but he does not want to show his ignorance to the others who take it all for granted. Afterwards it is midday and they go back, but in ones and twos, secretly to the disused store, and play cards. And by now Jabavu has forgotten that part of himself that wishes to become like Mr. Mizi and be Mrs. Mizi’s son. It seems natural that he should play cards and sometimes put his hand on Betty’s breasts, and drink. They are drinking kaffir beer, properly made, which means it is illegal, since no African is allowed to make it in the Township for sale. And when evening comes Jabavu is drunk, but not unpleasantly so, and his scruples about being here seem unimportant and even childish, and he whispers to Betty that he wishes to come to her room. Betty glances at Jerry, and for a moment rage fills Jabavu, for he thinks that perhaps Jerry, too, sleeps with Betty when he wishes—yet this morning he knew it, for Jerry said so, and then he did not mind, he and Jerry were calling her names and a whore. Now it is all different, and he does not like to remember it. But Betty says meekly, Yes, he may come, and he goes out with her, but not before Jerry has told him to meet him next morning so that they may work together. At the word “work” everyone laughs, and Jabavu too. Then he goes with Betty to her room, and is careful to slip in through the big room filled with dancers at a time when Mrs. Kambusi is not in it, for he is ashamed to see her, and Betty humours him in everything he does and takes him to her bed as if she has been thinking of nothing else ever since he left. Which is nearly true, but not quite; she has been made to think by Jerry, and very disagreeably indeed, of her disloyalty and folly in becoming involved with Jabavu. When she first told him he was much angrier than she had expected, although she knew he would be angry. He beat her and threatened her and questioned her so long and brutally that she lost her head, which is never very strong at any time, and told all sorts of lies so conflicting that even now Jerry does not know what is the truth.
First she said she did not know Jabavu knew Mr. Mizi, then she said she thought it would be useful to have someone in the gang who could tell them at any time what Mr. Mizi’s plans were—but at this Jerry slapped her and she began to cry. Then she lost her head and said she intended to marry Jabavu and they would have a gang of their own—but it was not long before she was very very sorry indeed she had said that. For Jerry took out his knife, which unlike hers was meant for use and not show, and in a few moments she was writhing with inarticulate terror. So Jerry left her, with clear and certain orders which even her foolish head could not mistake.
But Jabavu, on this evening, is thinking only that he is jealous of Jerry, and will not support that another man sleeps with Betty. And he talks so long of it that she tells him, sulkily, that he has learned nothing yet, for surely he can see by looking at Jerry that he is not interested in women at all? This subtlety of the towns is so strange to Jabavu that it is some time before he understands it, and when he does he is filled with contempt for Jerry, and from this contempt makes a resolution that it is folly to be afraid of him, and he will go to the Mizis’.
In the morning Betty wakes him early and tells him he must go and meet Jerry in such and such a place; and Jabavu says he does not wish to go, but will return instead to the men of light. And at this Betty springs up and leans towards him with frightened eyes and says: “Have you not understood that Jerry will kill you?” And Jabavu says: “I will have reached the Mizis’ house before he can kill me,” and she says: “Do not be like a child. Jerry will not allow it.” And Jabavu says: “I do not understand this feeling about Mr. Mizi—he does not like the police either.” And she says: “Perhaps it is because once Jerry himself stole money from Mr. Samu that belonged to the League, and . . .” But Jabavu laughs at this and embraces her into compliance, and whispers to her that he will go to the Mizis’ and change his life and become honest, and then he will marry her. He does not mean to do this, but Betty loves him, and between her fear of Jerry and love for Jabavu, she can only cry, lying on the bed, her face hidden. Jabavu leans over her and says that he longs only for that night so that he may see her again, a thing that he heard a cowboy say on the pictures which they all visited together, and then he kisses her long and hard, exactly as he saw a kiss done between that cowboy and the lovely girl, and with this he goes out, thinking he will go quickly to Mr. Mizi’s house. But almost at once he sees Jerry waiting for him behind one of the tall brick huts.
Jabavu greets Jerry as if he were not at all surprised to see him there, which does not deceive Jerry in the least, and the two young men go towards the market, which is already open for buying, although it is so early, because the sellers sleep on their places at night, and they buy some cold boiled mealies and eat them walking along the road to the city. They walk in company with many others, some on bicycles. It is now about seven in the morning. The house-boys and cooks and nannies have gone to work a good hour since, these are the workers for the factories, and Jabavu sees their ragged clothes, and how poor they are, and how much less clever than Jerry, and cannot help feeling pleased he is not one of them. So resentful is he against Mr. Mizi for wanting him to go into a factory, he begins to make fun of the men of light again, and Jerry laughs and applauds, and every now and again says a little bit more to spur Jabavu on.
So begins the most bewildering, frightening and yet exciting day Jabavu has ever known. Everything that happens shocks him, makes him tremble, and yet—how can he not admire Jerry, who is so cool, so quick, so fearless? He feels like a child beside him, and this happens before they have even begun their “work.”
For Jerry takes him first to the back room of an Indian trader. This is a shop for Africans to buy in, and they may enter it easily with all the others who move in and out and loiter on the pavements. They stand for a while in the shop, listening to a gramophone playing jazz music, and then the Indian himself looks at them in a certain way, and the two young men slip unnoticed into a side room and through that into the back room. It is heaped with every kind of thing: second-hand clothes, new clothes, watches, and clocks, shoes—but there is no end to them. Jerry tells Jabavu to take off his clothes. They both do so, and put on ordinary clothes, so that they may look like everyone else; khaki shorts, and Jabavu’s have a patch at the back, and rather soiled white shirts. No tie and only canvas sandals for their feet. Jabavu’s feet are very happy to be released from the thick leather shoes, yet Jabavu mourns to part with them, even for a time.
Then Jerry takes a big basket, which has a few fresh vegetables in it, and they leave the back room, but this time through the door into the street. Jabavu asks who the Indian is, but Jerry says, curtly, that he is an Indian who helps them in their work, which tells Jabavu nothing. They walk up through the area of kaffir shops and Indian stores, and Jabavu looks marvelling at Jerry, who seems to be quite different, like a rather simple country boy, with a fresh and open face. Only his eyes are still the same, quick, cunning, narrow. They come to a street of white people’s houses, and Jerry and Jabavu go to a back door and call out that they have vegetables for sale. A voice shouts at them to go away. Jerry glances quickly around: there is a table on the back verandah with a pretty cloth on it, and he whisks it off, rolls it so fast that Jabavu can scarcely see his fingers move, and it vanishes under the vegetables. The two walk slowly away, just like respectable vegetable sellers. And in the next house, the white woman buys a cabbage, and while she is fetching money from inside, Jerry takes, through an open window, a clock and an ashtray, and these are hidden under the vegetables. In the next house there is nothing to be stolen, for the woman is sitting on her back verandah knitting where she may see everything, but in the next there is another cloth.
Then there is a moment which makes
Jabavu feel very bad, though to Jerry it is a matter for great laughter: a policeman asks them what they carry in the basket, but Jerry tells him a long, sad story, very confused, about how they are for the first time in the city and cannot find their way, and so the policeman is very kind and helps them with good advice.
When Jerry has finished laughing at the policeman, he says: “And now we will do something hard, everything we have done so far has been work for children.” Jabavu says he does not want to get into trouble, but Jerry says he will kill Jabavu if he does not do as he is told. And this troubles Jabavu for he never knows, when Jerry laughs and speaks in such a way, whether he means it or not. One minute he thinks: Jerry is making a joke; the next he is trembling. Yet there are moments, when they make jokes together, when he feels Jerry likes him—altogether, he is more confused about Jerry than about anyone he has known. One may say: Betty is like this or that, Mr. Mizi is like this, but about Jerry there is something difficult, shadowy, and even in the moments when Jabavu cannot help liking him.
They go into a shop for white people. It is a small shop, very crowded. There is a white man serving behind the counter, and he is busy all the time. There are several women waiting to buy. One of them has a baby in a carriage and she has put her handbag at the foot of this carriage. Jerry glances at the bag and then at Jabavu, who knows quite well what is meant. His heart goes cold, but Jerry’s eyes are so frightening that he knows he must take it.
The woman is talking to a friend and swinging the carriage a little way forwards, a little back, while the baby sleeps. Jabavu feels a cold wetness running down his back, his knees are soft. But he waits for when the white man has turned to reach something down from a shelf and the woman is laughing with her friend, and he nips the bag quickly out and walks through the door with it. There Jerry takes it and slips it under the vegetables. “Do not run,” says Jerry, quietly. His eyes are darting everywhere, though his face is calm. They walk quickly around a corner and go into another shop. In this shop they steal nothing, but buy sixpence worth of salt. Afterwards Jerry says to Jabavu, and with real admiration: “You are very good at this work. Betty told the truth. I have seen no one before who is so good so soon after beginning.” And Jabavu cannot help feeling proud, for Jerry is not one who gives praise easily.
African Stories Page 62
