The Witchdoctor's Bones

by Lisa de Nikolits

  Kate stared at Rydell. “My word.” She was sorry she had opened this particular can of worms and was desperate to stop the flow of conversation.

  “There’s more,” he said. “After a fight between husband and wife, the one who is beaten is likely to take revenge by killing their child. And, on various occasions, parents smother their children and cast them away in the desert, or bury them alive without remorse. Murder is an amusement and is considered a praiseworthy act. When fathers and mothers become too old to be of any use, or can no longer take care of themselves, they are abandoned in the desert to be devoured alive by wild beasts.”

  Kate was not sure if she were more disturbed by what Rydell was saying or by the manner in which he was speaking, and she wondered if he was harmlessly strange or really dangerous. He refused to look at her while he spoke and he leaned forward in his seat, his face bright red, with beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

  “Good heavens,” she said, slumped down, resigned to her fate of having to listen to detailed of acts of torture.

  “Yes. And there is no good reason except for fun. They do it for fun, your peace-lovers.”

  “Timeout, Rydell. I must ask you this,” Kate was curious despite her intention to end the conversation. “You said you came because of the Bushmen. Why, then? You like their brutality?”

  “No.” Rydell spat on her with his vehemence. “Sorry,” he wiped her arm with a cold, damp touch. “I’m here because the book said ‘there is love in all their marriages.’ In all their marriages. The explorer, James Chapman, said that ‘although they have a plurality of wives, which they also obtain by purchase, there is still love in all their marriages, and courtship among them is a very formal affair.” He came to a standstill at last and fell silent. “If I’m to understand you correctly, you’re here to find a Bushman wife?” Kate joked.

  “Yes,” Rydell whispered, “but you can’t tell anyone. I’m swearing you to secrecy. Promise me you won’t tell anybody. I don’t know why I told you. I shouldn’t have told you.” He folded his arms tightly, visibly distressed.

  “Of course I won’t tell anybody,” Kate said.

  Rydell was reassured and Kate’s seeming empathy encouraged him to confide further.

  “I’ve got money, you see. I’ll be able to pay for a good wife. But now I’ve changed my mind anyway, because I’ve already found what I’m looking for and she will be The One. It’s all changed now. But I’m not going to say anything else to you, I’ve said too much already. I don’t know why I talked to you so much.” He said the last with resentment as if it was Kate’s fault, and that she had tricked him into revealing his secret.

  He shook his head violently, turned his back to her, and stared out of the window. Kate, disconcerted by his sudden anger, tried to make some sense of what he had said, but at that moment, Jono pulled over at a gas station for a washroom stop and to fill up with petrol.

  Inside the Opei Take-Away Café adjoining the gas station, the group studied the hand-written menu behind the counter. “Toasted mince, pork trotters, vetkoek, meatball, chakalaka wors, quart chicken, pork ears, pap and vleis, Vienna sausage, hot dog,” Eva read out loud. “Boewewors roll, russian roll. Look, it says ‘egg’, just like that, ‘egg’ one rand fifty. And don’t forget the chicken burger, toasted burger, and chicken macaroni.”

  “Stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni,” Richard said absently.

  Helen glanced at him. “What are you talking about?”

  “Rydell. Remember he said that last night. The macaroni reminded me.”

  “Hmmm, yeah, I’d forgotten.” Jasmine said. “Definitely not playing with a full deck of cards, that one.”

  She waved to Kate and Marika, “We’re over here.”

  Kate pointed Marika in the direction of the gathered group.

  “Simba chips,” Marika said dreamily, “roar with flavour. And Willards Big Corn Bites, Eet-Sum-Mores, Marie biscuits, Sparletta Sparkling Grenadilla.”

  “Is she delirious?” Richard asked Kate.

  “I’m fine,” Marika objected, “just stressed about my lost luggage which I really was stupid enough to think would be here this morning. I mean if they found it yesterday, why isn’t it here? How’m I supposed to manage without any of my things? The sun’s like a blowtorch on me in the bus, and I don’t have a hat or any cool clothes, my jeans are suffocatingly hot and I wish I had sandals and I’m so uncomfortable on a hundred levels. And Harrison … let me tell you, that man can talk.”

  “So can Rydell,” Kate said. “Marika, you are pale you know.”

  “Ag, really, I’m fine. Good lord, man,” she said peering into the glass counter, “look at that food. Please, let me assure you that most South African food does not look like this. These could be movie props for a bad axe-murderer story.”

  They resisted the local delicacies offered by the café but raided the ice-cream freezer. Marika bought a Marlboro cowboy hat for thirty rand and headed outside to find Jono, with Kate jogging at her side.

  “You have a hat, I see,” Jono said. “Good idea. I just got off the phone with South African Airways and they want you to tell them any identifying marks or labels on your luggage.”

  Marika stopped deadstill in the hot sun and looked over at the aloes with their fire-red flowers and at the small African children playing on the swings, screaming with laughter. She was trying her best not to get upset.

  “But Jono,” she said, scuffing the dusty ground with her foot, “you said yesterday that the luggage had been found and that it was on its way? Now they want to know what it looks like? That means they haven’t found it.”

  “Yes, that is what they told me yesterday and this is what they are telling me today. Take Treasure’s cell phone and try to text message the woman at SAA; she said you have her number.”

  “Why must she use my cell phone?” Treasure argued, “I’ve hardly got any money left on it and I’m waiting for an important call.”

  “Because I do not have any money left on my phone either,” Jono was insistent, “and I cannot buy a card here. I thought I could. I used up my time by calling SAA.”

  “Great,” Marika said. She wanted to sit down in the thick red dirt and weep. “My luggage is lost, I’m in the middle of nowhere, and between the two of you, I can’t even phone anyone.”

  “Do not worry,” Jono said, “we will get a phone card at the next stop. It is a bigger town there and I am sure it will be fine.”

  “Jono, we go into the desert tonight and I don’t have a sleeping bag or any clothes, or any toiletries or a torch or anything at all. How will they get it to us if they haven’t even found it yet? We’re two days away from the airport now. There’s no way it’ll get here in time.”

  “Do not worry,” Jono repeated. “It will be fine. Now we need to get back on the bus so that we can continue our journey. Everybody! Back on the bus!”

  “What are you going to do?” Kate asked Marika sympathetically.

  “I’ve got no idea. I feel sick about it. I wish I could sit next to you,” she whispered to Kate. “Harrison’s killing me! He won’t shut up for a second.”

  “I bet Rydell’s way weirder than Harrison, I’ll tell you about him later. Listen, try not to worry about your luggage, we’ll make a plan, okay? You’re not alone in this.”

  The bus jolted off the sand back onto the tar road. Jono and Treasure were arguing. “You should have given Marika your phone,” Jono said, hanging onto the steering wheel while he spoke.

  Treasure was obstinate. “I am waiting for a call.”

  “A call that will never come. Do you think I am stupid? Aikona. Do you think I do not know that he left you and you cried all night? You pick bad men, Treasure.”

  “At least I have a love life. And now you have fallen in love with your American princess, what foolish dreams do you have in your head? S
he’s got a boyfriend, she told you.”

  “Treasure, she is Canadian and I know she has a boyfriend at home. You are just angry because she has got a man and you do not. But that is not the point. You should have given Marika your phone. She is very worried about her luggage.” He looked at her. “You are pregnant, is that not so?”

  She stared at him, picked up a copy of Cosmopolitan and put her feet up on the dashboard.

  “Maybe,” she said quietly. “Okay, so yes.” She sighed. “I’m not in the mood for all these people. And that Harrison, I tell you Jono, he makes me so angry. ‘Wash this like this, wash this like that.’ He’s obsessed.”

  “Yes,” Jono agreed. “He is like that with me too, always asking me how many kilometers we are going and exactly when we will arrive and depart. But we must be patient. It is our job to put up with these people. I know it is not easy.”

  Treasure sighed again and opened her magazine. “I keep waiting for my Prince Charming to come on one of these holidays,” she said. “Waiting for him to tell me that I’m his bride and that he’s come to take me home to his mansion with as much hot running water as I like and many rooms for my child. Children. But it is like dreaming of winning the lottery. Haw! Jono, the next stop, I am buying a lottery ticket. I have more chance with that.”

  In the back of the bus, a fierce argument had broken out between Sofie and Stepfan. It started out with Stepfan playing devils’ advocate to Sofie’s left-wing politics but it soon became nasty and eventually Kate had enough and she stood up. “Come on, people,” she called out. “What is with all this racket?”

  “We are having a discussion,” Sofie paused for breath.

  “No, you’re not, you’re arguing and very loudly too. Why don’t you both wait until you can walk somewhere far away from the rest of us and you can shout to your heart’s content? In the meanwhile, it’s very unpleasant.”

  The rest of the group cheered.

  “Political discussion frees the mind,” Sofie objected.

  “Not when it’s a shouting match between two people with opposite opinions,” Kate said. “Now, you two talk about something else or change places, I mean it.”

  “I do like a strong woman,” Stepfan smiled wolfishly. “You look like Sandra Bullock. Has anyone ever told you that? When she was younger, I mean.”

  Kate ignored him and sat down next to Rydell who had not said one word to her since they had returned to the bus.

  They arrived in Springbok in the early afternoon.

  “An announcement, everybody!” Jono addressed the group who were eager to get off the bus. “This is the last big town before we cross the border from South Africa and go into Namibia and the desert. You should buy enough water to last for at least a day and a night. We are going to need a lot of supplies.”

  “I’ll have to buy things to sustain me for the rest of the trip,” Marika said to Kate. “My luggage is dead.”

  Kate nodded.“I’ll help you,” she said.

  Eva leaned across the aisle. “Me too,” she offered.

  The three of them went shopping while Harrison insisted on helping Treasure and Jono with the groceries. Rydell vanished down a side alley while the rest of the group set off to explore the town.

  Marika grabbed a sleeping bag, a spare blanket and a hasty selection of clothes. “I came on this holiday in search of adventure,” she said wryly to Kate and Eva as they entered a pharmacy, “and I’m certainly getting that in spades. Although I’ve got to admit, lost luggage wasn’t quite what I had in mind.”

  “You’re doing wonderfully,” Kate picked up a can of Black Mamba deodorant. “What a great name for a deodorant!” She gestured around the pharmacy. “I love how this store is called a chemist. When I first arrived, I thought chemists were traditional African shops.”

  Marika laughed. “Understandable.” She gave a small shudder. “All that stuff Jono was telling us last night made me remember something. When I was young, I was always off exploring places other white people wouldn’t be seen dead in, and I came across a bag of witchdoctor’s bones. It was a little black bag and it came with a guide on how to throw the bones – that’s what they call it, throwing the bones, to tell the future. I was so excited, I rushed home and showed our housekeeper, Anna, who was horrified. She told me that I was inviting great evil into our lives and that she didn’t want to be in the house as long as I had that bag of bones.”

  “What happened?” Eva and Kate were keen to hear.

  “Strange things started to happen almost immediately. Pictures fell off my bedroom walls in the middle of the night, or I’d wake to find that ornaments and books had moved. And then when my two goldfish died, I panicked and I asked Anna what to do and she and I buried the bones out in the veldt.”

  “And the trouble stopped?” Eva asked and Marika nodded.

  “It stopped. So, my dears, we must be respectful of the African ways. Those who use them in ignorance will be brought to task and those who use magic for ill will pay the price.”

  “Maybe I can find some magic to help me get my poems back,” Eva looked hopeful.

  Marika laughed. “Eva, the magic lives inside you. I’ve got everything, let’s pay.”

  They went to the cashier and Kate got into a conversation with the tiny woman behind the counter, explaining Marika’s lost luggage woes.

  “Ag nee Mevrou, I’m sorry for you,” the tiny, prune-wrinkled woman commiserated and she grinned toothlessly at Marika, her eyes bulbous behind her coke-bottle glasses. “Eina, that would hurt, having to spend this money again.”

  “Ja, it hurts a lot,” Marika agreed. “How much time’s left before we have to get back on the bus?” she asked Kate who was trying on sunglasses.

  “We’ve still got twenty minutes,” Kate said.

  “Those look great on you.” Marika said. “You’re very Audrey Hepburn you know.”

  “Oh, I’m so not.” Kate went bright red. “Audrey Hepburn was a tiny toothpick of a woman compared to me. Did you hear Stepfan call me Sandra Bullock? Right, with this big gap between my teeth.”

  “A gap is sexy,” Eva said. “But I agree with Marika, you’re more Audrey than Sandra. Audrey with long hair.”

  “I’ll buy these sunglasses and the deodorant,” Kate handed the money to the tiny woman and they all left.

  “Look there,” Kate bobbed her head vigorously towards a small street in between an abandoned construction site and some old buildings. “It’s Rydell, but what is he doing?”

  “Looks like he’s stalking something,” Marika said, peering down the street.

  They watched him disappear out of sight.

  “He’s the weirdest person ever.” Kate shook her head.

  They tried to see if they could spot him again but he was gone. “I must tell you all the crap he told me, about how the Bushmen are the lowest form of human filth but he’s here to find one for a wife.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “Yes. I’m telling you, he’s very odd. He’s got this terrible ancient book that he’s learned off by heart and he keeps quoting from it. He’s totally freaky. ”

  “Maybe he’s socially inept and very shy?” Marika offered but both Kate and Eva snorted.

  They went inside a liquor store where Marika bought a bottle of Old Brown Sherry and they wandered back out into the sunshine. “We’ve still got enough time to check out that Rasta market stall over there,” Marika said, “I admit it freely, I’m a souvenir-addict.”

  “I’m not as interested in souvenirs as photographs,” Kate said, “Cam used to complain that I took too many pictures but now I’m free to take as many photographs I like.”

  “That’s the spirit,” Marika said, grinning, and they lugged their bags towards the Rasta stall.

  In the shady quiet of a garbage-strewn street, Rydell washed the blood off his hands under a t
ap and felt better. The cold water turned the red dust, mixing with the blood, into brown mud.

  Rydell had wanted to go shopping with Treasure and Jono but Harrison beat him to it. Rydell was beginning to think he would have to do something about Harrison. He watched the three of them disappear into the grocery store and a blinding rage overcame him. He dug his nails into the palms of his hands as hard as he could and pierced the pad of his thumb but he quickly realized he was going to need more than that.

  He set off at a jerky pace to seek privacy and an innocent victim, sensing it would not be difficult to find either. He was right and, his heart pounding at the thrill of the chase, he quickly got his hands on what he had been looking for: a small runty dog who was happy to receive attention and never realized the warm caressing hands would end his life.

  “Good puppy, good puppy,” Rydell rubbed the little stray’s back, amused by the wagging tail and innocent naïveté. He ran his hands over the thin body, digging deeper and deeper until the dog let out a sharp yelp and tried to scramble away.

  “No escape stupid dog, no escape.”

  He took his time venting his frustrations and once he had cleaned up, he was a poster child for sunny self-control. Back on the bus, he still could not look at Harrison without wanting to spit and he was reassured to see that Treasure seemed to find Harrison’s attentions as irritating as he did.

  He closed his eyes and thought there had to be a way for him to get close to Treasure. He would find a way.

  The group crossed the border into Namibia in the late afternoon and cleared customs without mishap although Kate made some of the others nervous by boldly photographing everything.

  “I don’t fink it’s a good idea for her to have her camera up the nose of every bleedin’ official,” Mia whispered to Richard in the lineup, “what with us and the contra on board. She’s getting on my nerves.”

  “I’m not worried,” Richard said, although he looked ill at ease. “They don’t have any reason to search the bus or go through all our belongings but you never know.”