Alexander McCall Smith - No 1 LDA 3 - Morality for Beautiful Girls

by Morality for Beautiful Girls(lit)

  Rose took up residence in the servants' quarters in the back yard. This consisted of a small block of two rooms, with a shower and toilet to one side and a covered porch under which a cooking fire might be made. She slept in one of the rooms, while her two small children slept in the other. There were other, older children, including one who was a carpenter and earning a good wage. But even with that, the expenses of living were such as to leave very little over, particularly since her younger son had asthma and needed expensive inhalers to help him breathe.

  NOW, COMING home after dropping off Mma Makutsi, Mma Ramotswe found Rose in the kitchen, scouring a blackened cooking pot. She enquired politely after the maid's day and was told that it had been a very good one.

  "I have helped Motholeli with her bath," she said. "And now she is through there, reading to her little brother. He has been running round all day and is tired, tired. He will be asleep very soon. Only the thought of his supper is keeping him awake, I think."

  Mma Ramotswe thanked her and smiled. It had been a

  month since the children had arrived from the orphanage, by way of Mr J.L.B. Matekoni, and she was still getting used to their presence in the house. They had been his idea--and indeed he had not consulted her before he had agreed to act as their foster father--but she had accepted the situation and had quickly taken to them. Motholeli, who was in a wheelchair, had proved herself useful about the house and had expressed an interest in mending cars--much to Mr J.L.B. Matekoni's delight. Her brother, who was much younger, was more difficult to fathom. He was active enough, and spoke politely when spoken to, but seemed to be keener on his own company, or that of his sister, than on that of other children. Motholeli had made some friends already, but the boy seemed shy of doing so.

  She had started at Gaborone Secondary School, which was not far away, and was happy there. Each morning, one of the other girls from her class would arrive at the door and volunteer to push the wheelchair to school.

  Mma Ramotswe had been impressed.

  "Do the teachers tell you to do this?" she asked one of them.

  They do not, Mma," came the reply. "We are the friends of this girl. That is why we do this."

  "You are kind girls," said Mma Ramotswe. "You will be kind ladies in due course. Well done."

  The boy had been found a place at the local primary school, but Mma Ramotswe hoped that Mr J.L.B. Matekoni would pay to send him to Thornhill. This cost a great deal of money, and now she wondered whether it would ever be possible. That was just one of the many things which would have to be sorted °ut. There was the garage, the apprentices, the house near the °'d Botswana Defence Force Club, and the children. There

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  was also the wedding--whenever that would be--althoug Mma Ramotswe hardly dared think of that at present.

  She went through to the living room, to see the boy seate beside his sister's wheelchair, listening to her as she read.

  "So," said Mma Ramotswe. "You are reading a story to yoi little brother. Is it a good one?"

  Motholeli looked round and smiled.

  "It is not a story, Mma," she said. "Or rather, it is not proper story from a book. It is a story I have written at school, and I am reading it to him."

  Mma Ramotswe joined them, perching on the arm of the sofa.

  "Why don't you start off again?" she said. "I would like to hear your story."

  MY NAME is Motholeli and I am thirteen years old, almost fourteen. I have a brother, who is seven. My mother and father are late. I am very sad about this, but I am happy that I am not late too and that I have my brother.

  I am a girl who has had three lives. My first life was when I lived with my mother and my aunts and uncles, up in the Makadikadi, near Nata. That was long ago, and I was very 1 small. They were bush people and they moved from place to place. They knew how to find food in the bush by digging for roots. They were very clever people, but nobody liked them.

  My mother gave me a bracelet made out of ostrich skin, with pieces of ostrich eggshell stitched into it. I still have that. | It is the only thing I have from my mother, now that she is late.

  After she died, I rescued my little brother, who had been buried in the sand with her. He was just under the sand, and

  I scraped it off his face and saw that he was still breathing, i remember picking him up and running through the bush ntil I found a road. A man came down the road in a truck and when he saw me he stopped and took me to Francistown. I do not remember what happened there, but I was given to a woman who said that I could live in her yard. They had a small shed, which was very hot when the sun was on it, but which was cool at night. I slept there with my baby brother.

  I fed him with the food that I was given from that house. I used to do things for those kind people. I did their washing and hung it out on the line. I cleaned some pots for them too, as they did not have a servant. There was a dog who lived in the yard too, and it bit me one day, sharply, in my foot. The woman's husband was very cross with the dog after that and he beat it with a wooden pole. That dog is late now, after all that beating for being wicked.

  I became very sick, and the woman took me to the hospital. They put needles into me and they took out some of my blood. But they could not make me better, and after a while I could not walk anymore. They gave me crutches, but I was not very good at walking with them. Then they found a wheelchair; which meant that I could go home again. But the woman said that she could not have a wheelchair girl living in her yard, as that would not look good and people would say: What are you doing having a girl in a wheelchair in your yard? That is very cruel.

  Then a man came by who said that he was looking for orphans to take to his orphan farm. There was a lady from the Government with him who told me that I was very lucky to get a place on such a fine orphan farm. I could take my brother, and we would be very happy living there. But I must always

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  remember to love Jesus, this woman said. I replied that I was ready to love Jesus and that I would make my little brother love him too.

  That was the end of my first life. My second life started on the day that I arrived at the orphan farm. We had come down from Francistown in a truck, and I was very hot and uncomfortable in the back. I could not get out, as the truck driver did not know what to do with a girl in a wheelchair. So when I-| arrived at the orphan farm, my dress was wet and I was very ashamed, especially since all the other orphans were standing there watching us come to their place. One of the ladies there told the other children to go off and play, and not to stare at us, 1 but they only went a little way and they watched me from behind the trees.

  All the orphans lived in houses. Each house had about ten orphans in it and had a mother who looked after them. My housemother was a kind lady. She gave me new clothes and a] cupboard to keep my things in. I had never had a cupboard before and I was very proud of it. I was also given some special; clips which I could put in my hair. I had never had such beautiful things, and I would keep them under my pillow, where they were safe. Sometimes at night I would wake up and think? how lucky I was. But I would also cry sometimes, because I was thinking of my first life and I would be thinking about my uncles and aunts and wondering where they were now. I could1, see the stars from my bed, through a gap in the curtain, and \ thought: if they looked up, they would see the same stars, and we would be looking at them at the same time. But I wondered if they remembered me, because I was just a girl and I had run away from them.

  I was very happy at the orphan farm. I worked hard, and Mma Potokwane, who was the matron, said that one day, if I was lucky, she would find somebody who would be new parents for us. I did not think that this was possible, as nobody would want to take a girl in a wheelchair when there were plenty of first-class orphan girls who could walk very w
ell and who would be looking for a home too.

  But she was right. I did not think that it would be Mr J.L.B. Matekoni who took us, but I was very pleased when he said that we could go to live in his house. That is how my third life began.

  They made us a special cake when we left the orphan farm, and we ate it with the housemother. She said that she always felt very sad when one of the orphans went, as it was like a member of the family leaving. But she knew Mr J.L.B. Matekoni very well, and she told me that he was one of the best men in Botswana. I would be very happy in his house, she said.

  So I went to his house, with my small brother, and we soon met his friend, Mma Ramotswe, who is going to be married to Mr J.L.B. Matekoni. She said that she would be my new mother, and she brought us to her house, which is better for children than Mr J.L.B. Matekoni's house. I have a very good bedroom there, and I have been given many clothes. I am very happy that there are people like this in Botswana. I have had a very fortunate life and I thank Mma Ramotswe and Mr J.L.B. Matekoni from my heart.

  I would like to be a mechanic when I grow up. I shall help Mr J.L.B. Matekoni in his garage and at night I will mend Mma Ramotswe's clothes and cook her meals. Then, when

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  they are very old, they will be able to be proud of me and say ' that I have been a good daughter for them and a good citizen of Botswana.

  That is the story of my life. I am an ordinary girl from Botswana, but it is very lucky to have three lives. Most people only have one life.

  This story is true. I have not made any of it up. It is all true.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  LOW SEROTONIN LEVELS

  I

  AFTER THE girl had finished, they were all silent. The boy looked up at his sister and smiled. He thought: I am a lucky boy to have such a clever sister. I hope that God will give her back her legs one day. Mma Ramotswe looked at the girl and laid a hand gently on her shoulder. She thought: I will look 1 after this child. I am now her mother. Rose, who had been listening from the corridor, looked down at her shoes and i thought: What a strange way of putting it: three lives.

  HE FIRST thing that Mma Ramotswe did the following morning was to telephone Mr J.L.B. Matekoni in his house near the old Botswana Defence Force Club. They often telephoned one another early in the morning--at least since they had become engaged--but it was usually Mr J.L.B. Matekoni who called. He would wait until the time Mma Ramotswe would have had her cup of bush tea, which she liked to drink out in the garden, before he would dial her number and declare himself formally, as he always liked to do: "This is Mr J.L.B. Matekoni, Mma. Have you slept well?"

  The telephone rang for over a minute before it was picked up.

  "Mr J.L.B. Matekoni? This is me. How are you? Have you slept well?"

  The voice at the other end of the line sounded confused, and Mma Ramotswe realised that she had woken him up.

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  "Oh. Yes. Oh. I am awake now. It is me."

  Mm a Ramotswe persisted with the formal greeting. It was important to ask a person if he had slept well; an old tradition but one which had to be maintained.

  "But have you slept well, Rra?"

  Mr J.L.B. Matekoni's voice was flat when he replied. "I do not think so. I spent all night thinking and there was no sleep. I only went to sleep when everybody else was waking up. I am very tired now."

  "That is a pity, Rra. I'm sorry that I woke you up. You must go back to bed and get some sleep. You cannot live without sleep." "I know that," said Mr J.L.B. Matekoni irritably. "I am always trying to sleep these days, but I do not succeed. It is as if there is some strange animal in my room which does not want me to sleep and keeps nudging me."

  "Animal?" asked Mma Ramotswe. "What is this animal?"

  "There is no animal. Or at least there is no animal when I turn on the light. It's just that I think there is one there who does not want me to sleep. That is all I said. There is really no animal."

  Mma Ramotswe was silent. Then she asked, "Are you feeling well, Rra? Maybe you are ill."

  Mr J.L.B. Matekoni snorted. "I am not ill. My heart is thumping away inside me. My lungs are filling up with air. I am just fed up with all the problems that there are. I am worried that they will find out about me. Then everything will be

  over.

  Mma Ramotswe frowned. "Find out about you? Who will ;t find out about what?"

  L

  Mr J.L.B. Matekoni dropped his voice. "You know what I'm talking about. You know very well."

  ''I know nothing, Rra. All I know is that you are saying some very strange things."

  "Ha! You say that, Mma, but you know very well what I am talking about. I have done very wicked things in my life and now they are going to find out about me and arrest me. I will be punished, and you will be very ashamed of me, Mma. I can tell you that."

  Mma Ramotswe's voice was small now as she struggled to come to terms with what she had heard. Could it be true that Mr J.L.B. Matekoni had committed some terrible crime which he had concealed from her? And had he now been found out? It seemed impossible that this could be true; he was a fine man, incapable of doing anything dishonourable, but then such people sometimes had a murky secret in their past. Everybody has done at least one thing to be ashamed of, or so she had heard. Bishop Makhulu himself had given a talk about this once to the Women's Club and he had said that he had never met anybody, even in the Church, who had not done something which he or she later regretted. Even the saints had done something bad; St Francis, perhaps, had stamped on a pigeon--no, surely not--but perhaps he had done something else which caused him regret. For her own part, there were rnany things which she would rather she had not done, starting from the time that she had put treacle on the best dress of another girl when she was six because she did not have such a dress herself. She still saw that person from time to time-- she lived in Gaborone and was married to a man who worked at the diamond-sorting building. Mma Ramotswe wondered

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  whether she should confess, even over thirty years later, and tell this woman what she had done, but she could not bring i herself to do so. But every time that this woman greeted her in a friendly manner, Mma Ramotswe remembered how she had taken the tin of treacle and poured it over the pink material when the girl had left the dress in their classroom one day. She would have to tell her one day; or perhaps she could ask j Bishop Makhulu to write a letter on her behalf. One of my flock '. seeks your forgiveness, Mma. She is grievously burdened with a '. wrong which she committed against you many years ago. Do you remember your favourite -pink dress... ;

  If Mr J.L.B. Matekoni had done something like that--per- haps poured engine oil over somebody--then he should not : worn' about it. There were few wrongs, short of murder, which could not be put right again. Many of them, indeed, were more J minor than the transgressor imagined, and could be safely left where they lay in the past. And even the more serious ones might be forgiven once they were acknowledged. She should reassure Mr J.L.B. Matekoni; it was easy to inflate some tiny matter if one spent the night worrying about it.

  "We have all done something wrong in our lives, Rra," she j said. "You, me, Mma Makutsi, the Pope even. None of us can say that we have been perfect. That is not how people are. You j must not worry about it. Just tell me what it was. I'm sure that ; I'll be able to set your mind at rest."

  "Oh, I cannot do that, Mma. I cannot even start to tell you. | You would be very shocked. You would never want to see me again. You see, I am not worthy of you. You are too good for me, Mma."

  Mma Ramotswe felt herself becoming exasperated. "You are not talking sense. Of course you are worthy of me. I am just an

  ordinary person. You are a perfectly good man. You are good at your job and people think a great deal of you
. Where does the British High Commissioner take his car to be serviced? To you. Where does the orphan farm turn when it needs somebody to fix something? To you. You have a very good garage and I am honoured that I am going to marry you. That is all there is to it."

  Her remarks were greeted with silence. Then: "But you do not know how bad I am. I have never told you of these wicked things."

  "Then tell me. Tell me now. I am strong."

  "Oh I cannot do that, Mma. You would be shocked."