by Solomon, Barbara H. (EDT); Rampone, W. Reginald, Jr. (EDT)
I think, said Themba, as if he hadn’t managed it, they’ll perhaps come loose under the jack. Together they pushed aside the clutter in the boot, the toolbag, an old rug and what looked like a brand-new Nikon camera, shifted these to lift out the spare, and in a jiffy the car was jacked up, the old wheel off, the new one fixed.
Themba was wiping his hands on his trousers as they got into the car. The windows rolled down simultaneously. Together they spoke their scrambled words of thanks, then her voice above his, laughing It’s so good of you I don’t know what . . . and the man’s, Yes, that was a devil of a wheel, thank you man, and one day I’ll be the one to roll a stone out of your path hey.
Again the noise as their voices merged, and the key turned and the Merc started up, and it was as if from a distance, joining the gibberish of thanks, that he heard a thin sound coming from an unknown place inside and distinctly the words, Please sir, madam, have you please got some rand? Then the scramble in pockets, in the handbag, and two sets of white hands dropped the notes—Yes of course, ag shame man, sorry we just weren’t thinking—into the bowl of his very own prosthetic hands.
His hands were on fire. Themba stuffed a burning note into each of his pockets, felt the fire running down his legs and back up through his body, so that he sprinted home with the repetition of his own voice in tinny echo, Please sir madam have you please got some rand some rand some rand . . .
Mrs. Matsepe dropped her dishcloth right there on the floor and followed the boy, a streak of fire she could have sworn, into the room where the youngest was already asleep. Themba whipped the money out of his pockets, two twenty-rand notes, and threw them on the bed.
It’s for you, he whispered, from the people on the road. I helped them change a wheel.
And they gave you money?
Themba dropped his eyes. Some rands, some rands, some rands, echoed in his head. He said slowly, watching his hands curve once again into a cup: I asked for the money. From mlungu in a Merc. I begged.
With her eyes fixed on the boy, on the face twitching with shame, Mrs. Matsepe took the notes, folded them together, then tore them, carefully, into halves, into quarters, into eighths, and again, into tiny scraps of paper that she held aloft, clenched in fists, before showering them onto the bed.
(The following pages constitute an extension of the copyright page:)
“The Museum” by Leila Aboulela. Used by permission of the Gerhert Company.
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“Civil Peace” by Chinua Achebe. From Girls at War and Other Stories by Chinua Achebe, copyright © 1972, 1973 by Chinua Achebe. Used by permission of Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.
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“Civil Peace” by Chinua Achebe. From Girls at War by Chinua Achebe. Copyright © 1971, 1972, 1973 by Chinua Achebe, used by permission of The Wylie Agency.
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“A Private Experience” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. From The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Copyright © 2004, 2009 by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, used by permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.
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“A Private Experience” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Excerpted from The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Copyright © 2009 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Reprinted by permission of Knopf Canada.
“Two Sisters” by Ama Ata Aidoo. From No Sweetness Here. Copyright © 1970 by Ama Ata Aidoo. Reprinted by permission of the author, Ama Ata Aidoo.
“First Kiss” by Doreen Baingana. Used by permission of Doreen Baingana. “First Kiss” was first published in 2005 in the author’s collection Tropical Fish: Stories Out of Entebbe published by University of Massachusetts Press, and in paperback as Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebbe in 2006 by Harlem Moon/Random House.
“Another Day at the Office” by Steve Chimombo. First appeared in WASI: The Magazine for the Arts, Volume 19, Number 2. Subsequently, it appeared in the author’s collection Of Life, Love, and Death. Used by permission of the author.
“Inkalamu’s Place” by Nadine Gordimer. Reprinted by the permission of Russell & Volkening as agents for the author. Copyright © 1971 by Nadine Gordimer.
“Cages” by Abdulrazak Gurnah. Copyright © 1992 Abdulrazak Gurnah. Reproduced by permission of the author c/o Rogers, Coleridge & White Ltd., 20 Powis Mews, London W11 1JN.
“Lomba” by Helon Habila. From Waiting for an Angel by Helon Habila. Copyright © 2002 by Helon Habila. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
“Earth Love” by Bessie Head. Copyright © Bessie Head, taken from The Cardinals: With Meditations and Short Stories, 1995. Reproduced with the kind permission of Johnson & Alcock Ltd.
“Effortless Tears” by Alexander Kanengoni. From Effortless Tears. Copyright © 1993 by Alexander Kanengoni. Reprint by permission of the author and Baobab Books.
“Cardboard Mansions” by Farida Karodia. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Lemon Orchard” by Alex La Guma. Copyright © Alex La Guma 1967. Reprinted by permission of Pearson Education.
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“The Second Hut” by Doris Lessing. Reprinted with the permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc., from African Stories by Doris Lessing. Copyright © 1951, 1953, 1954, 1957, 1958, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1972, 1981 by Doris Lessing. All rights reserved.
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“The Second Hut” by Doris Lessing. Copyright © 1951 Doris Lessing. Reprinted by kind permission of Jonathan Clowes Ltd., London, on behalf of Doris Lessing.
“Mrs. Plum” by Es’kia Mphahlele. From In Corner B by Es’kia Mphahlele, copyright © 2006 by Es’kia Mphahlele. Used by permission of Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
“Who Will Stop the Dark?” by Charles Mungoshi. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Middle Door” by Grace Ogot. From The Other Woman and Other Stories by Grace Ogot. Copyright © Grace Ogot, 1992. Reprinted with permission from East African Educational Publishers Ltd.
“Under New Pastoral Management” by Tanure Ojaide. From The Debt-Collector by Tanure Ojaide. Copyright © Tanure Ojaide 2009. Reprinted with the author’s permission.
“The Power of a Plate of Rice” by Ifeoma Okoye. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Voice of America” by E. C. Osondu. From Voice of America by E. C. Osondu, (pp. 205–15). Copyright © 2010 by E. C. Osondu. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
“The Suit” by Can Themba. Reproduced by permission of Penguin Books South Africa. © The Estate of Can Themba. “The Suit” in Requiem for Sophiatown, Penguin Books (SA) (Pty) Ltd., 2006.
“Minutes of Glory” by Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Reprinted by permission of Ngugi wa Thiong’o and the Watkins/Loomis Agency.
“N2” by Zoë Wicomb. From The One That Got Away by Zoë Wicomb. Copyright © 2008 by Zoë Wicomb. Reprinted by permission of the author.
* “The Second Hut” by Doris Lessing. Reprinted with the permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc., from African Stories by Doris Lessing. Copyright © 1951, 1953, 1954, 1957, 1958, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1972, 1981 by Doris Lessing. All rights reserved
