Tandia

by Bryce Courtenay

  She had slept fitfully, the matter of Mama Tequila's pink school uniform never quite leaving even her subconscious. In the month since Patel's death much had changed for her. She found herself increasingly gregarious in the company of the girls and a special friendship with Juicey Fruit Mambo was rapidly developing She felt entirely safe with him around her, a new feeling for her, and one which she found simply wonderful. With Juicey Fruit Mambo it was the way she had always believed it might become with Patel. But she was still a shy, frightened little girl and today the best friend in the world couldn't help her, she was on her own. Juicey Fruit Mambo would drive her to the school gates and from that moment on she was alone. She cringed inwardly as she thought about it. She was going to be the laughing stock of the whole school and she had no doubt she would be held up to ridicule in assembly by Miss Naidoo.

  Tandia went down the hall to the bathroom to shower and to clean her teeth. After she'd completed her toilet she returned down the quiet passage, the smooth, polished yellowwood floors cool on her bare feet. Her own room was on the furthest end of the long corridor and she had to pass the rooms of all the sleeping girls except Hester. As she walked past the door to Sarah's room she noticed that it was slightly ajar and she moved over to close it. Mama Tequila, for reasons she had never explained, insisted that the girls sleep with their bedroom doors closed. Tandia's hand was on the door knob and, on a sudden impulse, she opened Sarah's door a little further. The room smelled of cigarettes and slightly stale perfume; on the dresser beside the bed was an empty half-jack of brandy and a used glass. Sarah was naked, lying on her side facing the door, her sheet kicked into a crumpled heap at the end of the divan bed. Tandia started to withdraw in embarrassment but then held still. There was something vulnerable about the way Sarah lay, she had her knees tucked up and she sucked on her thumb like a child. In repose her scrubbed face, small round breasts and slender shoulders made her look younger than she was.

  Sarah suddenly opened her eyes, seemingly from a deep sleep. She showed no surprise whatsoever at Tandia's presence in the room. She turned over and reached for the Wesclock which rested on the floor beside the bed. 'Christ, Tandy, it's only a quarter to six, go back to bed, it's still night time.' She sat up and reached for the sheet, pulled it up over her body and rolled over in bed, turning her back to Tandia.

  'I couldn't sleep, I'm used to getting up early.' She turned to go but suddenly blurted out, 'Sarah, what am I going to do!'

  Sarah groaned and turned back to face her, 'What's the matter with you kid, can't a person get some sleep around here?' Tandy flushed and started to apologise, backing out of the door. 'I'm only playing, jong. Come and sit here,' Sarah said, patting the divan beside her.

  Tandia walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed as Sarah propped herself up onto one elbow. 'C'mon, kid, you better tell me, are you in trouble or something?'

  'It's Monday, Sarah, I've got to go back to school today!'

  'So? You got new everything, you should be very excited, you a very lucky girl, what Mama T did was nice.'

  'Sarah, the school colours are brown! A brown gymslip and white blouse. Mama Tequila has made everything in pink!'

  'You mean you the only one in the whole school with a pink uniform? Why didn't you tell Mama T?'

  Tandia shook her head. 'I wasn't supposed to know, it was a surprise, remember? Sarah, what am I going to do?' Sarah looked at Tandia. School carried no cherished memories for her, she had left at eleven and her impression of her time there was one of constant harassment, punishment and humiliation. 'Simple, man, don't go. Wait till Juicey Fruit drives away and then don't go in. Go to the bioscope, there's a good picture at the Odeon, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, they got a ten o'clock matinee.' She reached for her bag on the dresser beside the bed. 'Here, I'll give you some money.'

  'But Sarah, I want to finish school. Mama T said I could do that. They all going to laugh their heads off, all the girls and the teachers too. Miss Naidoo is going to send me home, and then what?'

  Sarah sat up in the bed and took Tandia into her arms. 'Come now, Tandy, it's not so bad, sticks and stones can break your bones but words can never harm you.' Tandia had wrapped a towel around her when she'd come from the bathroom and her shoulders were bare. 'Sometimes it's good to be different, Tandy.' Sarah kissed Tandia gently on the top of the shoulder and then as gently on the neck. 'When you on the game, being different is normal.' Her hand pulled at the folded towel between Tandia's small, firm breasts and opened it up. Tandia's heart was pounding. Sarah's hands seemed to be melting her body as though years of tension were being run through her caressing hands. Tandia had never felt like this before, it was as though her body had grown another dimension, had become another place. Sarah's tongue was caressing her neck and then moved downwards to her breast, 'Sshhh! don't say anything, Tandy, everything will be orright.'

  For a long time afterwards Tandia lay in Sarah's arms, her body filled with the warmth of loving. Even after her breathing had quietened down she wanted to lie there long enough to be able to fold her feeling into an emotional envelope she could store in her subconscious against hard times.

  Sarah stirred. 'Go now, Tandy, when they laugh at you in school, jus' remember, you a proper woman now, you know things they don't know, they can't do nothing to hurt you, they all stupid girls in their brown gymslips, you hear?' Juicey Fruit was waiting for her in the kitchen and when she arrived he sat her down at the head of the table and placed a plate of steaming mealiemeal porridge in front of her, pushing the milk jug and the sugar closer to it, fussing like an old umFazi. Next he brought Tandia two pieces of already buttered toast.

  'Thank you, Juicey Fruit Mambo.' Tandia was not used to being waited upon.

  'You very beautiful today, Missy Tandy.' Tandia was unable to look Juicey Fruit Mambo in the eye lest she betray her feeling about the bright pink gymslip. 'You too, Juicey Fruit Mambo.'

  Juicey Fruit had on a pink shirt and a red bow tie and he wore two gold sleeve bands just above the elbows. The creases in his black trousers were perfect and his black shoes were highly polished. He was obviously pleased that Tandia had noticed his careful colour co-ordination and his gold incisor teeth shone as he smiled at her. 'Mama T she give to me dis shirt, long, long time ago, it is very beautiful I tink.'

  They left Bluey Jay at half past seven. Tandia was very quiet sitting next to Juicey Fruit Mambo in the front of the Packard. He had tried to make her sit in the back but she had protested which, in the end, seemed to please him. As they were coming down from the Berea towards the port Juicey Fruit Mambo glanced at her. 'Missy Tandia, why for you are not happy for going to school?'

  Tandia bit her lip, but a tear ran down her cheek as she stared resolutely through the windscreen. 'Juicey Fruit Mambo, he also very sad when you not happy today.' He glanced at her. 'Why you cry, Missy Tandy?'

  Tandia could contain herself no longer. 'Ag, Juicey Fruit Mambo, you can't understand this thing. In the school the clothes the girls must wear is brown,' she plucked at her gymfrock. 'Like this but only brown.'

  'But pink more pretty than brown?'

  'Ja, I know, but they don't allow it. I'm going to get into terrible trouble and everyone will laugh at me!' She covered her face with her hands.

  Juicey Fruit Mambo drew the car to a halt at the kerb. 'Missy Tandy, Mama Tequila she spend much, much money for dis clothes for your school. Dey not laugh for dis clothes, Missy Tandy. Dis clothes is for new!'

  Tandia realised that he was deeply worried by her distress but was quite unable to comprehend the significance the colour of her gymslip and blouse had. 'You are right,' she said. 'Come now, we must go or I'll be late.'

  Juicey Fruit Mambo pulled away from the kerb; he knew the matter remained unresolved, there were some things about women which he could never hope to understand, and it was better not to try. He guided the big Packard smoothly through the narrow back
streets and finally turned into Prichard Street, drawing up outside the school gates. He suddenly saW what Tandia had meant. Hundreds of girls were milling around the playground and moving through the gates; all wore identical clothes, a brown gymslip, white blouse, short white socks, brown shoes and a brown beret. He put the car into gear and started to turn the steering wheel so when a gap in the traffic arrived he could move off. He had no idea what to do except he knew he couldn't leave Tandia to go in alone in her pink uniform. 'What you doing, Juicey Fruit Mambo? I must get out here.'

  'No, Missy Tandy…' His voice was cut short by an urgent banging on the window on Tandia's side of the car. They both turned to see Sonny Vindoo looking at them. He carried a big brown package under his arm and indicated that Tandia should roll down the window.

  'Nearly I am missing you! Let me get in the back.' He opened the back door of the Packard and jumped in. 'My very clever son, University of Bombay, B.A. Degree honours, businessman and also photographer, his business is in Pickering Street, it is two minutes, no more, we must go there now.' He passed the parcel over the back of the front seat to Tandia, 'Open please!' he said happily, leaning forward to look over her shoulder.

  Juicey Fruit swung into the traffic as Tandia pulled the string which held the large flat parcel together. The parcel contained a new brown gymslip, white blouse and a slightly worn brown beret. Sonny Vindoo giggled. 'I make these for you, Miss Tandy and also, the beret, which I am not making, it is left over from my daughter when she attended this excellent school.'

  Tandia burst into tears. 'Please, please, no time for tears now, must change blinking, jolly quick!' He turned to Juicey Fruit Mambo. 'You must turn here, see the shop, "Singer &

  Necchi Sewing Centre'".

  'I know this place, baas,' Juicey Fruit Mambo said. He had a huge grin on his face and his gold incisors flashed as he shared in Tandia's happiness.

  The car drew to a halt outside a small shop. On either side of the doorway were display windows; on the one appeared the Singer Sewing Machine logo and on the other the Necchi. Painted under each imprimatur were the words,

  'Sole Agency.' Several sewing machines of each brand were displayed in their respective windows. In the centre of each window set on a small easel was a large photograph. On one rested a portrait of a prosperous-looking Indian man hand-tinted in the old-fashioned manner, while on the other was a full-length colour photograph of a bridal couple. Above the door was a third sign which read: 'Jamal Vindoo - Photographer, Wedding and Family Portraits. Colour or Hand-Tinted. Apply Rear of Building.' An arrow pointed away from the door to a small lane running down the side of the building. It was a nice tidy little shop.

  Sonny Vindoo jumped from the back of the car and hoisted up his dhoti. 'Come, Miss Tandy, hurry please!'

  Tandia gathered up the parcel on her lap, got out of the car and followed Sonny Vindoo up the front steps of the shop. A young man appeared at the doorway but the little Indian pushed him aside. 'Good mornings later, Jamal!' Sonny Vindoo shouted. 'To the change room!' Tandia smiled through her tears at Jamal, whom she took to be Sonny Vindoo's Bombay-educated son, and who stood aside as she followed Sonny Vindoo into a shop which was filled with the whirring of sewing machines. At their entrance, several woman seated at the machines ceased sewing and looked up from their work. Sonny Vindoo crossed the room making for a bright orange floral curtain which hung across one corner. As he reached the curtain he held it apart. 'In here, Miss Tandy, I am waiting outside, doing guard duty.' He scowled through his steel-rimmed spectacles at the grinning seamstresses as though to indicate to them that he would not tolerate any interference or even comment.

  Tandia found herself in a small store room filled with bolts of men's suiting and bright lengths of dress material. There was just enough room for her to stand. 'Thank you, thank you, Mr Vindoo!'

  'No time for thank yous! You must hurry now, please. Any minute the school bell is clanking, then, my goodness, where shall we be then? We shall be up the bloomin Khyber Pass!' Sonny Vindoo fussed and drew the curtain back across the doorway.

  Tandia changed quickly. There were no white socks included in the parcel, but she regarded this as a small matter. She couldn't take the grin off her face, she, was saved! Mr Dine-o-mite had ridden to the rescue and at the same time had allowed Mama Tequila to save face.

  She emerged from behind the curtains looking just like any other Durban Indian High School girl. 'Over her arm she carried her pink outfit. Even her socks looked no worse than as if they'd been accidently left to soak in a bucket with some red garment which had run.

  Sonny Vindoo looked her up and down admiringly and silently congratulated himself. 'Not so pretty as before, but I think you are feeling much better, hey, Miss Tandy? It is a very great pity we do not have time for Jamal to take your photograph!'

  Tandia bent down impulsively and kissed the little man. He'd come out without shaving and the white stubble on his cheek felt like sandpaper against her lips. Kissing anyone was something she could not previously have imagined herself capable of doing, but after Sarah's room this morning everything was changed; she was loved and a woman now, and different.

  Like Sonny Vindoo on a Wednesday evening, Miss Tandy was a different Tandia Patel. 'Mr Vindoo, I will pay you back, I swear it!' She sighed and grinned and wanted to hug him again and again.

  'It is my great personal pleasure,' Sonny Vindoo said and then, glancing at his watch, added in a panic, 'Come, come, we must hurry like blazes!' as he made for the door of the shop. 'Farewells later!' he yelled at Jamal as he disappeared into the bright sunlight outside.

  Juicey Fruit Mambo was seated behind the wheel of the Packard, the engine of the big car running and the door on Tandia's side open for her to jump in for a quick getaway.

  Parked directly behind him was Abdulla in Sonny Vindoo's Chevrolet, who had tran-sil-meddle-tated from nowhere.

  FIVE

  Living in a brothel soon became a normal way of life for Tandia. Bluey Jay represented a grand step up for her; the dark little shed with its earth floor and constant smell of paraffin from the lamp which had been her only source of light at night was replaced by her own brightly-lit room with its divan bed and chenille bedspread, dresser, wardrobe and small painted table and chair where she did her homework. From her window she looked out into the branches of a huge old wild fig tree which had stood for a hundred years before Bluey Jay was built. One branch grew so close she could have climbed out onto it, and looking through its leaves seen the glint of the river bordering Mama Tequila's property and the five grass huts of the small African village resting beside it.

  After her recovery Tandia often walked through the hills surrounding Bluey Jay with Juicey Fruit Mambo. At first she had been appalled by the open space and the vast domed sky above her. Even the soft rustle of wind through the tall summer grass made her nervous, and the sudden blurr and whirr of a covey of quail rising in front of her would send her terrified into the arms of Juicey Fruit Mambo. Juicey Fruit Mambo, who came from a Zulu village close to the high mountains of the Drakensberg, was patient with her and tried hard not to laugh at her city ways. He told himself that he too could remember when, as a country boy, he had first seen the city with its hard, square surfaces; even the trees along the roads stood in circles cut from the concrete hardness and the air came down from the same blueness he had always known but seemed stale and stifling, and the people around him had lost the calmness in their faces. It had been as daunting to him as the countryside now seemed to Tandia. After a while he would see that she was gaining confidence and would jump from one rock to another or stoop to pick a flower or ask him the name of a bird which sang in the green kloofs of tree fern and monkey vine that grew in the creases and folds of the foothills.

  Mama Tequila, despite her seemingly benign exterior, ran a strictly ordered establishment where the rules were disobeyed at one's own risk. As she well knew, girls
who make their living on their backs have a tendency towards indulgence in food, wine, pills and Mary Jane, which was her name for boom or marijuana. Mama Tequila needed her girls alive and kicking when they turned a trick and the 'trick zombies' who worked the dockside BB-TMs were not a part of Bluey Jay. To work for Mama Tequila a girl had to be able to please a man, not simply with her body, but with her entire presence.

  At eleven o'clock every Sunday morning all the girls would meet in the kitchen for brunch. It was Josie the cook's day off, and Mama Tequila took pride in serving the repast herself.

  She would be up quite early on a Sunday morning baking bread and scones so that Bluey Jay on the sabbath always smelled of furniture polish, fresh-baked bread and brewed coffee. Her speciality was the omelette, and she would prepare her mixture in advance, thickening it with fresh cream and dusting it with finely chopped parsley. Then she'd carefully remove the rind and cut out the white strips of fat from the crispy bacon which she served with her eggs. Mama Tequila might have been fat herself, but she knew that a good brothel can afford only one fat ride. In the case of Bluey Jay this was Hester, who, anyway, was more plump than fat and whose diet Mama Tequila watched like a hawk.

  Mama Tequila called these Sunday morning meetings, 'chew the fat chats,' an expression which might have spilled over from her Mae West pose into her everyday language. Chew the fat chats were as close to democracy as Bluey Jay came. It was at these times that the girls could discuss the house with Mama Tequila, bring out any problems they might have with a regular client, or ask her considerable advice on the ways of mice and men.