A SOFT WHITE CLOUD ~ CHAPTER SIX
‘What’s wrong?’ asked Impuku. ‘You look as if you’ve seen a ghost!’
‘That man with the felt hat in the front
seat,’ whispered Nokwazi, ‘he’s the man who attacked me yesterday!’
‘Hauw!’ gasped Impuku, running the tip of
his tongue nervously along his lips. ‘That’s
Abdul, Goodwin Induku’s man. He’s mean
and nasty.’
‘How did you know that? Who’s Goodwin Induku?’ Nokwazi wanted to
know.
‘He’s a big drug dealer. And Abdul works for him. Beka once pointed him out to me. He warned me against Abdul. And he said Goodwin Induku and his gang want
to take over our territory.’
There was a short, uneasy silence while Nokwazi
stared at Impuku.
Then Nokwazi said quietly almost to himself:
‘How are we going to get out of here?’
Impuku shook his head. ‘I don’t know,’ he said softly.
Nokwazi looked anxiously about him and wondered
how they could get out of the bus without being caught. He looked at the window but it was tightly
shut and he knew that if Abdul saw him trying to open it, he would know what he
had in mind and stop him.
The boys sat in silence, their thoughts in a
panic.
Fifteen minutes later the bus drew up at the
terminus near the large shopping centre.
The other passengers stood up and began filing out.
‘Come,’ hissed Impuku, ‘this is our
chance. We’ll hide among these people
and push our way past. We may be able
to slip out unnoticed.’
Nokwazi, with Impuku following close behind,
shoved and elbowed his way to the front.
‘Hey you!’ yelled a fat woman as the boys,
in their haste, pushed her so hard that she fell back into a seat. ‘If I get my hands on you….’ Her sentence
was left unfinished, for the boys didn’t wait long enough to hear what she had
in mind for them.
They were almost at the entrance when Nokwazi
heard a cry of triumph and a hand, like a steel clamp, gripped his right
arm. He opened his mouth to cry out
with pain but the only sound to emerge was a shocked gasp.
‘Keep quiet!’ hissed Abdul into his
ear. ‘If you make any noise I’ll kill
you.’
Nokwazi was close to weeping, not only from
fear but also because of the pain in his arm.
He turned to look at Impuku staring at Abdul in bewilderment and
disbelief.
Abdul’s eyes swept the shopping centre as if
looking for someone. Then he lifted
Nokwazi off his feet and dragged him down the steps. Nokwazi tripped and fell.
The grip on his arm was momentarily relaxed and Nokwazi wondered whether
he should try to break away, but he knew that any attempt at escape at this
stage would be sure to fail.
Suddenly Impuku, who had kept up with them,
sank his teeth into the man’s hand.
With a shrieking bellow of rage and pain Abdul snatched his hand away –
and the boys were gone, dodging through the crowds.
‘Stop thief!’ they heard Abdul shout.
No one tried to stop them and they made good
their escape.
Impuku suddenly burst out laughing. ‘Don’t look so worried, brother.’
Nokwazi stared at him in amazement. ‘Aren’t you frightened?’ he asked. ‘These are dangerous people we are working
for.’
‘But as I’ve told you before, we’re not
doing anything wrong. No one can arrest
us for standing and looking around.’ He
grinned and slapped Nokwazi on the back.
‘Cheer up!’
‘What about delivering drugs?’
‘They’ll have to catch us first.’ Impuku chuckled.
‘Come now, Nokwazi, why worry about
something that may never happen?’
Nokwazi sighed. ‘I suppose you’re right.’
Shrugging his shoulders as if to push away his thoughts, he smiled. Impuku had spoken with a confidence that
transmitted itself to him and made him feel calm again.
When Nokwazi arrived home he found his mother
had returned from work and was preparing the lunch. The food smelt good and he realised he was hungry.
‘Nokwazi!’ began his mother, wagging her
finger at him.
He looked at her in alarm. There was something in her voice that told
him she was displeased with him.
‘I sat with your teacher in the bus this
morning,’ she continued.
Nokwazi caught his breath for he knew what was
coming.
She told me that although your body has grown
strong and healthy your brain has become smaller and smaller and you are going
to fail your standard this year.’
‘Mama!’ he protested, ‘how can I study when
I have to go to work straight from school?’
‘Can’t you study when you get home? There’s enough time. Makhulu says you arrive here just before
five every afternoon.
‘But I can’t take my books to work. I leave them at school,’ he informed her.
She fell silent and was thoughtful for a moment
or so.
‘Why don’t you let Sam from next door bring
your books home? You can pay him
twenty cents a day. It’ll be worth it,’
she suggested. ‘He’ll be only too happy
to get the money.’
‘Sam’s a big bully and I don’t like him,’ he
muttered.
‘Nokwazi,
my son,’ his mother said crossly, ‘if you don’t pass your standard this year,
you’ll have to give up work. We will
just have to manage on Makhulu’s pension and on my pay. Education is far more important than money.’ She sighed.
‘Look at me. I have no education
and have to take any poorly paid job I can get. But when you’re grown up and the time comes for you to look for a
real job an education will give you a good start. One day you’ll be a smart businessman,’ she added proudly.
Nokwazi said nothing, but that night he
couldn’t sleep. He thought again about
the events of the day. Most disturbing
of all the things that had happened to him was his mother’s threat that if he
failed his standard he would have to give up work. He did not want to go back to the days before he was able to bring
some extra money into the home.
In those days he had always been hungry and
cold. He also had to admit that he
liked the feeling of being the man in the house. As far as he was concerned an education was a waste of time. Look how he was able to help his
family. Phinda’s health was
improving. Some nights she didn’t even
cough. Makhulu continued to sing as she
worked in the shanty. Even Mama seemed
happy.
Their shanty was now more comfortable than many
others surrounding them. They slept on a
better mattress and each one now had their own pillar. Also, a brighter, bigger lamp lit up the
shanty at night.
Nokwazi smiled to himself when he remembered
buying the red carpet that fitted the shanty floor from corner to corner. The lady at the second-hand shop had taken
him to a shed in the back yard and shown him the carpet that someone had
brought in that morning. It was very worn
in parts and she offered it to him at a special price. She even allowed him to take it home
straight away and to pay something for it every week. Impuku helped him to carry the carpet home. Makhulu was so excited that, after they had
laid it down on the floor so that the double bed covered most of the very worn
parts, she had dropped to her knees and kissed it.
‘You’re a very good boy!’ she exclaimed. ‘You
think of your family before yourself.’
His job had made their lives worth living and
there was no way he was going to give it up, even if it meant disobeying his
mother.
Yet, as he lay there, deep in thought, a feeling
of forboding crept into his heart. No matter
how he tossed and turned, something kept nagging at the back of his mind,
something that told him that what he was doing for money, was not right.
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Crime, Thrillers & Horror