by T. M. Clark
‘How come?’
‘It was locked from the inside. She was between all the workers and the door. I tried to protect her with my body, but they had shovels, gwaza and knobkieries. They were like tokoloshe and wouldn’t listen because they had bad, bad news, and they were ngxama. Angry.’
‘What news?’
‘Jacob Ntuli, their representative, was killed during the night. Men came to his ikhaya, dragged him outside and beat him in front of his wife and children, then when he was dead, they drove away.’
‘That’s terrible,’ Enoch said.
‘The workers, they said it was a Sunshine Gold Mine bakkie. They are saying that Baas Andy organised for Jacob to be silenced.’
‘Surely the police were called?’ Enoch said. ‘They will catch and punish whoever was responsible.’
‘They do not believe that the police would do anything about one more black man who was dead. They are busy with more important matters.’
‘But when they had gone into the building, how did the mine stop the riot if you were hurt?’
‘The police came with the inja, but only after they had got inside the building. Madam Sarah and I were on the outside. Still, I was lying on top to protect her. I do not know what happened. When they got through the door, I dragged madam around the corner so that they could not hurt her anymore.’
‘I am thankful for you trying to look after my madam, for attempting to keep her safe. I am indebted to you for taking it all on yourself to protect her with your life. You are not a young man, you will not get better fast from this beating. I will make sure that you have food and blankets in the hospital. Where is your wife and family? I can arrange for them to come here,’ Enoch said.
‘Your madam was lucky to have you in her life,’ Sammy said and told him where to find his wife.
Enoch nodded. ‘I was lucky she was in the life of my white brother-but-one. But there is much I do not understand in what you have told me. I need to know who locked my madam out of the building? It is their fault that she is dead. They share equal blame with the miners who hurt both of you.’
The old man looked down. Understanding what Enoch was asking, but obviously torn between loyalty to his baas, the man who ensured he got paid, and telling the truth.
Enoch had his answer. ‘Was there anyone else inside the building with Baas Andy Pryor?’
Sammy slowly shook his head.
CHAPTER
28
‘So you see, your mother, she was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, and crushed by the workers when they were rioting,’ Enoch said.
Chloe slumped back on the log.
‘The manager of the mine, Andy Pryor, he caused the dispute, and then had the main instigators of the work stoppage beaten. Which in a country only just turned from white to black rule, was the worst thing to do. About a month after Sammy left hospital, his wife came to Delaware to tell us that men had come in the night, and he was also dead now.
‘Your father, he visited Pryor at the mine and told him to pay compensation for Sarah’s death and to Sammy’s family, because he knew that Pryor had caused both deaths. But Pryor refused. Mike told Pryor that he needed to understand what it was like to have everything you love torn away from you because of the stupidity of another man. Pryor just laughed at him.
‘So, Mike and I, we decided to teach Andy Pryor a lesson. We invited Nick to join us, as the plan really needed three people to make it work. Nick had lived through a lot in the Scouts. He was unbreakable, and he was reliable, but mostly, his mind was strong. He saw things during the war, and yet he would sleep through the night. His hands, I never saw them shake. He is like Mike, a good man. But we underestimated Nick’s resolve. He would not have anything to do with the raid we had planned. He tried to talk us out of it. He told us that it would not work, and it was unfair on you two if we also died that day, or worse, if we were caught. That you both only had one parent each now, and that we needed to think of that, not Sarah. She was already dead, and nothing could hurt her anymore.
‘On the day we went to raid the payroll of the mine, he stayed at Delaware to protect you two. We left Nick with documents signing over guardianship of Chloe, and a promise to look after Xo as he was already sixteen, along with instructions to leave the country if anything went wrong. To take you guys to safety.
‘Mike knew that Grace would never leave the farm, so he could not leave Chloe to her, as much as the decision pained him. He did not want Chloe to hear anything bad in the papers or at school if we failed. Nick could keep you two away from the fallout if we were caught, he swore he would.’
‘Nick was going to be my guardian?’ Chloe asked.
‘Only if we were caught, or dead, and that did not happen. Mike and I, we used our horses. We hurt Pryor where it counted. In his pocket. His only love was money, gold. That is what he held dearest. We took the gold as ransom for compensation for the death of Sarah and Sammy. But then things went wrong.
‘Maria got shot by the guards, and fell on top of Mike. He took her full weight when she rolled over him. Where most people would have died, his love for you, Chloe, was too strong. He would not leave you an orphan. Instead, he lived as a vegetable to pay for the crime. But Maria, she got up, like a true war horse. I pulled Mike onto Monsoon and Maria followed, she did not even scream then. When we got to the truck, I got them inside.
‘In the end, we lost both Maria and Monsoon. They were injured badly by the guards but had kept going. I could not save them and treat Mike, so I had to shoot our horses in the cattle truck, and then I brought Mike home, past the police who were rushing towards where we had just committed the crime. I did not think Mike would live, not with the weight that he had taken on his head, but I did not want to get us caught.
‘I should have gone to the hospital first, but instead, I came home. Nick and I, we cleaned Mike up so that he wouldn’t be suspected by the police, then I drove him in the bakkie to the hospital, and said that he had fallen from his horse while riding on the farm. Nick stayed at Delaware to look after you and Xo. Nick helped me to bury both horses that day, after I got back. Well, you know that part.’ He looked at Nick.
‘But you got the gold from Andy Pryor for the ransom?’ Chloe asked.
Enoch nodded his head. ‘Before I could contact Pryor and call him out for the ransom money, I found out that he was dead. So I buried the gold. I paid some money to Sammy’s wife every month until she died last year. I know that on that day, not only did I lose my best friend, but I lost my soul. Because what was supposed to be returned could not, and therefore I had stolen. I had become a thief.’
Chloe and Xo both sat still, staring at Enoch. Nick squeezed Chloe’s hand.
‘That day—Chloe, you lost not only your mother and everything good that she stood for, but you lost your father, too. That gold, it is payment alright. It is payment from Pryor for three souls.’
‘What happened to Andy Pryor?’ Chloe asked.
‘The workers of the mine took care of him. When he would not pay them, they came looking for him again, and he was not so lucky that time round. He had told the papers he believed it was an inside job and his workers did not deserve to be paid, that they had already taken enough gold. He never even accepted responsibility for Sarah’s or Sammy’s death. He died believing that he was a victim, but knowing that his precious gold was vulnerable. The next manager who came in paid off all the workers, and then shut down the mine. There were rumours that Andy Pryor had been embezzling from the mine, too, but Grace has followed the story and passed on the parts I needed to know about. Even after all this time, nothing has been proved, and the mine sits quiet and empty.’
Chloe pulled her hand out of Nick’s. ‘Nick, you knew that they were going after the gold and you chose not to be a part of it? Not to help them?’
‘Nick felt strongly that it was not the right way to go about sorting out the problem,’ Enoch said. ‘Please remember—we never meant to keep it. It was o
nly meant as ransom until Andy Pryor admitted publicly that he was responsible for Sarah’s death. Nick was never onboard with the idea of the robbery, nor the ransom and threatening of Andy Pryor. I cannot even remember if we told him that part. Mike was too consumed with grief and wanting revenge on Andy to consider the law, and I would have done anything I could to help Mike, even if it meant that I was going to do something crazy like we did.
‘Nick was right. He said if we were patient we could find another way to hurt Pryor, but we wouldn’t listen. In the end, there was a lot of gold, much more than we thought there would be. Much more than for just the wage run of the mine. We never found out why there was so much there—I think that there was some truth in the rumours of Andy Pryor embezzling, and we happened to stumble into it. The only problem then, was if I went public with the find, Mike and I would be punished for our part, and whoever else had their fingers in the same pie as Pryor would never be held accountable either.’
‘I would kill Pryor myself if he wasn’t dead already,’ Chloe said fiercely.
‘No, Chloe. There has been enough killing,’ Enoch said. ‘This was never meant to affect you and Xo. It was a mistake, and this family has paid a big enough price.’
Chloe shook her head. ‘That son of a bitch. He took my mother and father from me. I’m thinking that if I could get my hands on just one of the workers who hurt my mum, I would string him up,’ she said as she slammed her fist into her open hand.
Enoch stood up, walked to her and wrapped his arms around her. He held her as she sobbed into his shoulder. ‘It’s not fair, Enoch. It’s not fair.’
‘No, it is not. But do not blame the workers. You need to know that your mother was never supposed to be hurt. She was not their target. Pryor failed to keep her safe that day, like he should have,’ Enoch said as he comforted her. ‘There is no use trying to take revenge, learn from what happened to Mike and me. Learn from us that sometimes friends can be right about an outcome, even if you are blind to it and do not want to listen. Nick was adamant that there was a way we could prove that Pryor was guilty, but we did not want to take the time, we wanted instant gratification. To Mike and me, it was a simpler solution that appealed: he hurt Sarah, and we wanted him to hurt too.’
‘You could’ve been killed,’ Xo said quietly.
Enoch looked at his son. ‘Mike was my brother. Skin colour never mattered to us. He would have looked after you, and we might even have landed up in the same town in South Africa looking for help to try to fix me if it had happened the other way round.’ He reached out his hand, and Xo stood up and put his arms around both Chloe and Enoch.
‘We still have the same problem. If we give the gold back, Dad’s sacrifice is worth nothing,’ Chloe said.
‘If we give the gold back, then some other fat cat will profit from it,’ Enoch said. ‘The mine will never admit responsibility for your mother’s death. And even now, returning it will not bring her back, will not undamage your father. Only if you decide to use it, it should ensure that we can always look after those who need help, like Sammy’s wife.’
‘Half of it is yours,’ Chloe said. ‘What are you going to do with it?’
‘This was never about me owning any of the gold. I am just sorry that Pryor never acknowledged that he was the one responsible for Sarah’s death. The mine should have been held accountable instead of all the workers. What happened after that night—Mike getting hurt, me burying the gold, destroying Nick’s faith in us—none of that was ever supposed to happen.’
Chloe released her hold on Enoch and sat back down. ‘We have bars of gold buried at Delaware—that’s what I see in my nightmares. You are burying gold. All this time I thought maybe you had buried someone.’
‘No. Never. We did not murder anyone,’ Enoch said. ‘Nick and I buried the horses, and he did not want to know where the gold was buried. I did not even show you and Xo because I did not want you tainted by it. Even if something happened to me, you were better off not knowing.’
‘So, we have bars—as in multiple bars of gold?’ Chloe asked.
‘Yebo,’ Enoch said.
‘How do we cash it in without getting caught? Melted down, we could sell it, launder it into cash, and use it?’ Chloe asked.
‘You need to think on this very carefully,’ Enoch warned. ‘The glitter of gold and wealth from it is alluring, but some might believe that if you touch that gold, your soul is as dirty as mine, who stole it. Some might believe your father and I earned it. It’s all a matter of perspective. You need to carefully consider the price you would be willing to pay, should the need arise,’ Enoch said. ‘I have not told you about the gold to make you see dollar signs in your eyes. I have told you because if I die on this journey home, I need to know that your nightmares have stopped, Chloe, and that I have made peace with both of you, that my spirit will not become trapped here on earth, and that one day, with much hard work, I will be forgiven by my ancestors for the foolish thing that Mike and I did.’
Chloe looked from Enoch to Nick and back again. ‘So, if I go and dig up that gold, I’m damned in both your and Nick’s eyes? Is that what this is all about?’
‘You need to understand that when we get to Zimbabwe, the SAP might stop coming after me—but there is always a chance that the Zimbabwe Republic Police could for the theft of that gold, and while none of the men that we shot with the tranquilliser darts died, they were very sick for a long time afterwards.’
‘You shot them with tranquilliser darts?’ Xo asked.
‘Yes. The darts were Nick’s idea so that we did not kill anyone by accident. We removed a lot of the opioid, too, so we wouldn’t overdose anyone. It just took a while for one or two of them to go to sleep, so we could load the gold, and they got a radio message off that they were under attack. That was the part we underestimated in the whole plan. But looking back, I am glad that we never killed any of the guards.’
‘That you know of. This doesn’t mean I’m not still mad at you for doing such a stupid thing, Dad,’ Xo said.
Enoch cupped the back of Xo’s head and put his forehead against his son’s. ‘I’m still mad at me, too.’
Nick sat next to Chloe. He had both his hands resting underneath his chin, and he stared deep into the fire.
Chloe shook her head. ‘All these years of nightmares, of being scared of something that wasn’t real. And now finally knowing that you didn’t kill anyone, Enoch, that I don’t have to lie to protect you if anyone asks. I should feel relief, and I do, but it’s tinged with a sadness that you took so long to trust Xo and me and tell us the whole story. I suppose it all doesn’t matter now. Not when it’s all nothing compared to the reality of knowing that now we’re out in the open, on the run and definitely being hunted by a psychopathic killer.’
* * *
The luggage they were leaving behind was safely stored in the cave where they’d camped. Thornbushes had been piled up to hide the entrance once again, and all the tracks around brushed away so that anyone who came looking would hopefully not see that they had sheltered there for almost a week.
The feed that they’d left by the side of the road had already been scattered, and what hadn’t been eaten by the elephants and horses would be found by the other animals of the bush soon enough.
They assembled their horses and pointed them in a north-west direction as they began their slow walk home.
With Khululani not needing a horse, that left them five horses, seven people and lots of luggage, including a fair share of ammunition that they wouldn’t leave behind, to move through the bush.
Filipe scouted in front on foot. He carried his backpack and his AK-47 for protection as always.
Enoch led Kimberlite, who was packed with travel gear, then Chloe, with Mike sitting astride Diablo. Enoch had fashioned a strap to keep Mike’s legs in the stirrup, so he was basically attached to his saddle. Mike looked around as if he knew where they were going. Next was Ethel sitting nervously on Pampero’s back, and final
ly Xo followed with Marin and Sirocco. Nick, at the rear, was constantly checking for signs that the Caçador Escuro or anyone else might be following them.
The horses were loaded like pack mules of another era, and Enoch, Xo and Nick each wore backpacks. There was one strapped onto the outside of Marin’s load, ready for Khululani when he caught up with them.
They walked for several hours at a steady pace along the track that the elephants had left, which kept them heading north, and while they went through thorn-tree forests, they saw their first big baobab tree, with its huge bottle bottom, sticks of branches reaching for the hot African sun. There were remnants of the blossoms that hung downwards. The once white petals were already browning, and some had slid down the pistils and fallen to the ground. A small duiker was eating in the shade of the great tree, but quickly darted away when it realised they were close.
‘Good thing we are passing here during the day. These trees stink at night when they are in flower,’ Enoch said.
‘I’ve never seen one flower,’ Chloe said as she gazed up into the tree, with its green leaves high above her.
‘You see those big green nuts? They open at night and the flowers come out, ready for the insects and bats to pollinate them.’
‘I remember eating these with Dad, and you, Xo, do you remember?’ Chloe said.
‘I do,’ Xo said. ‘They were bitter.’
‘Look at the marks on the trunk,’ Chloe said, ‘what do you think did that?’
‘Bullet holes,’ Nick said as he walked closer to have a look. ‘Someone used this tree for target practice. Doesn’t seem to have gone too far in, the fibres are pretty tough,’ Nick said as he ran his hand over a few of the marks.
‘Guess we will start to see more as we enter into the lowveld area,’ Enoch said, turning his back on the tree and carrying on.
They walked through thickets of bush, then on into an open area of sporadic grasslands, where Enoch called a break under some large trees at the edge.