All the while her mother was just looking at her, with no sign of emotion. VaPfocho slept on the reed mat, hands under the head. Now, she propped herself up with some difficulty and listened, ears alert as a hare.
Natasha felt her heart move inside her. Today, she was cheerful and healthy. If only I could be able to control my temper, Natasha scolded herself.
‘What did you do?’
‘I cried out your name, Mother.’
VaPfocho chortled. She fell into vigorous coughs. She stretched and wriggled on the reed mat. Natasha rushed to her side and knelt down next to her. She wrapped her mother in her arms.
VaPfocho showered squirts of mucus on her and herself. When she calmed again, Natasha wiped her mother’s breast with her dress.
‘Get away,’ VaPfocho hissed as soon as she got a supply of air. ‘Get away.’
She wasn’t polite.
‘I was only trying to help,’ Natasha retorted. Temper clouded her.
‘I was only trying to help,’ VaPfocho mimicked.
‘Mother!’
‘Yea.’
‘The water is waiting.’ She tactically avoided another row.
She reflected deep as she prepared water for her mother. These ups and downs in her spirits were killing her. She wanted to understand the world from her perception. She needed peace. She was failing.
‘Whatever, she’d say to me. Whatever she’d do to me. Whatever happens. I’d be here, loving better than yesterday. All the mistakes are mine. My mother is always right.’
She looked into her faults and realized that her mother wasn’t wrong. She was sorry for the burden she had put on her. She noted, and almost got shocked, that almost all of their arguments had always been about whether or not Natasha should do something.
Chapter 14
The rumour spread like a bushfire that a woman was putting up her own hut. It became common knowledge that Natasha was occupying a hill without permission. Some women Natasha met at the well remarked that it was a bad omen.
A messenger came to tell Natasha and her mother that they were wanted for a hearing at the headman’s kraal. Natasha told her mother: she’d dash off and hear what he had to say.
VaPfocho swore by her dead father, that she had no child who’d go anywhere. Asked if this wasn’t a breach of contract, she replied she was going to see the headman herself. Natasha feared for the health of her mother. All that walking up and down gullies! On her return she would be in a fit of coughs again. They resolved to go together.
But VaPfocho asked for brew before they left.
They approached the headman’s kraal and there before them unfolding like a scene from a cinematic episode were children coming out of the huts and women looking from behind granaries. A couple of girls took them to the higher place where the men were! They took places into direct soil. A girl came with a reed mat too late. VaPfocho sat comfortably into the earth. Natasha stirred and sat in the outskirts of the reed mat.
The headman spoke. ‘It’s a good thing you came to see me on a short notice. I didn’t want to bother you. Indeed as we understand you’re not feeling well these days, VaPfocho. Your pain is our pain.’
VaPfocho twisted her mouth into an ugly grin.
‘The issue, as you might guess is of the hut you’re putting up the hill.’ He gestured in the East. He paused and looked timidly at VaPfocho’s mouth.
He continued, ‘I understand your plight and duty, young girl.’ He gazed at Natasha. ‘I still find it a bad omen, with all the men around here that you’re putting a house on your own like that. I don’t want things like that happening here in my land.’
Natasha was approached by a number of the boys. They pointed out she was too old. Really, most of them were just past eighteen. They could do her a favour, they said, and marry her. That way they’d save her from life’s awkwardness. A woman needs a man, they said.
One of the boys was the headman’s son. No, it wasn’t a single one of the headman’s boys that approached her, actually. He had a lot of boys, this headman. The headman was simply saying: Natasha get married. Your husband will look after you and your mother. And then she’d get a piece of land. That was the way it was supposed to be done in Tuzuka. You don’t waste time here, to build another life somewhere. It’s bred here and destroyed here. You build your career inside a man and a string of children.
‘Besides,’ the headman continued, ‘your conduct there is wrong. You’re occupying the people’s land without permission. You know when it comes to that I’m helpless in defending you.’
‘So you’re saying I shouldn’t put up that hut, Headman?’ VaPfocho spoke for the first time. She curled her legs beneath her.
‘No, that’s not what I’m saying, Grandchild,’ he denied vehemently. ‘It’s up to you to decide to continue or not. But you’re both women and a home is put up by a man.’
‘So why did you call me here?’ VaPfocho insisted.
‘So that I could advise you on this problem that you’re brewing, Grandchild.’
‘Oh yeah, that too. The problem I’m brewing?’
Natasha saw the brew begin to work!
VaPfocho rose, quick as a girl. ‘That’s not what you’re saying, James.’ The headman changed into James instantly.
VaPfocho stared into the headman’s face.
‘What you’re saying headman is: I’m a witch.’ She pointed at the headman. The headman recoiled.
The headman called to his wives to hold her. For a man shall not hold a wife who’s not his! The women rushed at VaPfocho. They stopped as a torrent of words rushed at them, too.
‘Yea, I’m a witch. If it weren’t for me, people wouldn’t die in this land.’
All eyes on her, she walked listlessly around and before them.
‘You James,’ A finger at the headman again. ‘And all your dirty wives tell me: where did you put five children? Five children!. Tell me, where did you put them: five children? It’s Pfocho. Fine, it’s Pfocho. Today, a human-eating python is found in your granary. Who keeps it there? It’s Pfocho again, isn’t it? Don’t just sit there, tell me. And you James, ever since you came back from Joni, your trunk has never been opened. Twenty years, and it’s very closed. Go on, say something. Say, it’s Pfocho’s.’
Natasha had heard these tales before. Witchcraft and Wizardry, her mother and the headman. It confused her. She didn’t want to believe it. It was ridiculous. Yet it raged so loud around her. It was a powerful rift in Tuzuka that would rift the best of relations and friendship. She had never imagined though she’d ever hear it shouted in her face like this, like a Sunday sermon.
Natasha bowed her head in embarrassment.
There was an icy silence when she said it.
She added. ‘No one wants me here. Godfrey’s wife’s death, it was I. Godfrey’s child’s death it was I. Everything you pile it on me, won’t you take some James?’
She stood still in her wake. She glared at the headman.
Unexpectedly, and much to everyone’s surprise she started at the buttons of her shirt. She struggled with it only momentarily. The shirt fell to the ground. Her flesh, pale as ashes emerged from it.
‘VaPfocho,’ wailed the headman as he realized it was the skirt that was coming next.
There was a wave of disapproval. There was commotion. A rush of feet in different directions as everyone tried to be the first to leave the place. The headman mixed with his wives and children as they fled without dignity.
VaPfocho ground her teeth in anger. She scowled. She spat and walked around the place naked.
‘Sons and daughters of witches,’ she called at their back.
Natasha raised her face. All the while, she had her face bowed. Now, she came to confront her mother and her brutal reality.
VaPfocho shouted all the way back to the carpenter’s home. The headman’s wives and children followed the soliloquy until it was out of earshot, and told the tale many years after.
Chapter 15
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The two poles she carried were the wrong type. The carpenter saw them as he was going around his fields. He advised her. After a week they will be sagging from their own weight. In a fortnight, termites would be eating the timber. After that, it would take just a small wind to knock them to the ground.
She started to work in dead earnest. She stole tricks from the carpenter’s huts. She’d find thorny, hard wood. It was not easy. Firstly, the carpenter’s wife was not always not using the sharp panga. And for the supporting wood, the sharp panga wasn’t adequate for chopping down the trees. She had to borrow the carpenter’s axe. The carpenter had doubts on whether at the end of the day his axe would be as sharp as when she had set out with it.
And it had become so embarrassing for Natasha to borrow anything in those days. It increased her sense of helplessness. And as time progressed, she realized she had to borrow almost everything.
She dug holes onto the hill the headman had forbidden. This was land unoccupied by anybody and in the East of the village. It was a little hilly, too hard and therefore unsuitable for Agriculture. This was the reason people shunned it. But as soon as Natasha put several holes into the ground to mark out the hut, she received several threats from villagers who claimed they were yet to be given this land.
There is no land without a master.
She would trot around the whole globe and she’d still get threats everywhere. She stayed put, sometimes with polite responses. At other times she retorted with her own counter threats. This she kept away from her mother. Despite the show she had put up at the headman’s homestead, she wasn’t sure whether Natasha was to put up the hut.
Her mother came around where Natasha was putting up the hut. It wasn’t genuinely to admire the hut. It was to complain about her empty stomach more often than not. And in these cases, Natasha would dash back home to cook for her. After midday, when the sun was orange in the west she would come to spend a few hours again before she dashed off again to fetch some water in the valley. Cooking would follow in the evening.
Her back ached into the night. She could hardly sleep. Besides her, her mother groaned from the pain. Now and then she’d lumber outside to relieve herself or vomit. Natasha had to monitor her closely. Curses were hurled at her on why she was waking up in the middle of the night if she hurried outside with a calabash of water for her mother to shake the vomit off her mouth. If she didn’t, there were more curses on why she hadn’t followed her outside. Not surprisingly, the nights were as tiresome as the days she spent putting up the hut.
Asleep, at times an idea would come to her about how she had put a pole in the wrong place. She would discover yet another place in her sleep to get the woods. And when she woke up in the morning, it would be confirmed. At times though, it wasn’t the case but all this, she went through and bit and bit, she made progress.
Wadzanai came to see her.
‘I can see right through you,’ she wailed at her.
Natasha tried to cover her bottom in vain.
‘That’s not my idea of a good joke.’
‘Get away.’ She laughed heartily. Her sister descended cautiously. She had already put up a wall of thin entwined thin sticks. Now she was making her Pythagoras on the roof.
‘How are you Wadzi?’
Wadzi looked at the crooked roof critically. She shielded her eyes from the blazing afternoon sun with her hand and examined the structure. She exclaimed on several occasions.
‘That roof will fall, I tell you sister.’ She still remembered to call her sister, Natasha mused as her temper welled. ‘This is a cause of concern, I tell you. This roof is going to collapse with mother in there. I suggest you call some men to do it for you. And I don’t know, I don’t think it’s a pretty sight seeing you hanging at the edge of the sky like that with all your insides dangling below you. What about if a man comes along?’
Natasha listened to the long lecture.
‘I thought you’d help me put up the roof.’
‘How’s mother?’ Wadzi countered.
Her sister chose a place in the shade. She fanned herself to combat the heat.
‘I thought I should just pass by, and see what progress you’re making.’
‘No, that’s very nice.’
‘I’m defending you against the whole world. What I hear people say breaks the heart. It’s not a good thing being an enemy to the whole village like that.’
‘I really don’t care what they say, Wadzi. People are people; they can always say what they want.’
‘No, it’s not that. That’s not a problem. But if you have a sister who’s bound to you by blood, you expect her to do better than that.’
‘I’ve lost you. Can’t you say what you want to say in lesser words?’
Her voice dropped to a conspirator’s whisper, ‘Yolanda.’
There was an eerie sound in her ears. She feared what her sister might have to say. ‘What about her?’ Despite herself, there were tremours in her voice.
‘Surely, it beats me. But I can’t believe what I heard her saying about mother’s illness. Not from my sister.’
Natasha was afraid to ask for more. Her heart was so fragile now. It was capable of breaking with another single word.
Wadzanai continued. ‘I don’t want to believe mother got any disease from anybody who is not father.’
‘Wadzanai,’ Natasha eventually said. She smacked Wadzanai on the lap.
‘It’s nothing of my making,’ she protested vehemently. ‘I’m just restating opinions that are around.’
‘I stand on Yolanda’s side. She wouldn’t have said that.’
‘I don’t blame you. At times, the most unexpected things happen in life. Anyway, did you bring anything to drink here?’ She rose and scanned around. She spotted a calabash around the newly put up wall. She had always known Natasha to put mahewu in it.
‘Anything still remaining in there?’ She walked across to the wall. Natasha watched her as she paced across the new homestead. She had now passed that moment of bloom. Her legs have grown too big on her. She no longer walked with that elegant swing of girls. Instead there was a tired touch on her. She was gone, Natasha realized again.
Natasha looked at the sun in the west. She had been sitting in the shade. She was feeling hot. The sweat that had plastered on her body now felt itchy on her. She decided she’d go and rest early.
Chapter 16
It was pure joy to see her hut proud and lonely on a hill from the valley when she came from the well in the setting sun. This was an achievement. Her skin had been scratched. Fats had been burnt off her skin in the searing heat.
One sunny morning, she carried all that they had to their new home. It wasn’t much. On the first trip, Natasha carried the reed mat and two blankets. Her mother had a tin and clay pot. Natasha returned alone on the second trip to carry a bucket of maize. It is impossible to imagine the joy this little event brought to her heart.
The hut smelled of fresh cow dung smeared against the floor. The moonlight fell through holes in the walls. Natasha lay awake feeling all the joy of success and freedom. Had they not told her this was impossible? And where now were she and her mother sleeping? She felt free too. The carpenter and his wife had been so helpful. It wasn’t fair to burden them again by staying with them considering what the entire world was saying.
She also knew she had to do more than that. She had only brought a bucket of maize. With grace, it’d last them a fortnight. She had to find food. There had been food from Non-Governmental Organizations. It was tough to find these days. It was very difficult to register to get donations: it was even more difficult to get the food. At the very least one had had to have one whom they knew along the chain of distribution.
Chapter 17
She grew into a beautiful woman. After a year, she had lost all the useless flesh. Her face smoothened. She walked with a quick gait. She hardly ever fell ill. She laughed and smiled a lot. That she did with caution, making sure she never laughed
at anyone for the wrong reasons. She loved reading, and usually at night she would lean towards the candle and read the old books and the bible.
1992 would go down in History as one of the worst years in Tuzuka. People waited patiently for rains that never came. Those who were defiant put seed in the ground. The seed never came up. A strong wind buffeted the land. The grass dried up and cattle trampled it. It disappeared completely.
People's fears were confirmed: there would not be enough to eat for the next twelve months. Natasha and her mother found themselves in a difficult situation. The price of maize shot up. That's to say nothing on that it became scarce.
Natasha made counter plans. She fenced a portion at the homestead with thorn bushes. She dug it and started a garden. This was a difficult undertaking, and she had to go into the valley to fetch water to water it.
She made a miracle. After only three months, she was able to start harvesting vegetables from the garden. She added tomatoes to it. Tomatoes attract baboons. The baboons that were often seen roaming miles away paid her a single visit and harvested her four months’ work.
Natasha was angry. 'I'll kill those baboons. I’ll kill them all, one by one until they are all finished.'
But she didn't slow down there. On the same day, she dug the garden again and put fresh seedlings in the ground. After a month, the tomatoes were ready.
When the baboons came again, Natasha was ready for them. She made a small cage, the size of a man's head. The cage was made of meshed wire, leaving a small opening just to allow a hand into it. And God knows where she found a maize cob. Natasha placed a maize cob in the cage.
She nailed the cage attractively to a tree. She waited. Indeed the baboons came again after three days. Natasha saw them descending from a mountain to reap where they hadn't sown
Just as she had expected, the male baboon saw the maize and it beat everyone else to cage. It forced its hands into the cage. The cob plus the maize, and the hand couldn't come out.
Natasha, brave as a man, came out of her hiding place. She ran like a maniac towards the male baboon, the yellow dress plastering her skin. The other baboons saw the panga shining in the air and ran for dear life shouting abuse. The male baboon, short of ideas, closed its eyes with the other hand still glued to the cob.