Edge of the Rain

by Beverley Harper

  The Chief of the village of Molepolole, which included much of the country west of the village, listened intently while Alex sought his permission to use tribal land. He heard Alex out in silence.

  ‘It is true,’ he said, not looking at Alex but at the forty or so men also listening, ‘I am not using this land.’

  Alex held his breath. As a resident of Bechuanaland, he was entitled to ask for use of land. As a white, it was no foregone conclusion it would be granted. He could, if he had wished, make an offer to buy the land from the British administration. This would have been time consuming and, with independence being proposed, not necessarily granted. Going directly to the Chief was the best way he could think of to gain quick access.

  ‘Do you have cattle?’ One of the elders spoke to him.

  ‘No, rra. I have no cattle.’

  ‘Then why do you want the land?’ the Chief asked.

  This was the tricky bit. He did not wish to raise false hopes. Later, if their find was worth it, the entire village of Molepolole would benefit. But it was too soon for such announcements. ‘I wish to buy cattle.’

  The Chief smiled inwardly. This man was a fool. The reason he had not used the land himself was because there was no feed on it. His cattle had nearly starved. Besides, the area was bad lion country. He looked at the men listening. ‘Does anyone object?’

  There was a general shaking of heads. They all knew cattle would not thrive on this land.

  ‘If I allow you to use this land, what will you give me?’

  Alex swallowed a burst of anger. The Chief had no right to ask for anything. Keeping the anger from his eyes he replied, ‘What would the Chief want?’

  Shouted suggestions erupted from the crowd. The Chief held up his hand for silence. ‘One beast every year and the land is yours. If you fail to use it I will grant it to someone else.’

  Thanking the man profusely Alex made to leave but the Chief smiled at him. ‘You may start to use the land as soon as you deliver the first beast.’

  He took the problem to Jacob. ‘I’ll sell you one of my beasts. If you can’t afford it you can pay me when you get rich.’ Judging by his face, Jacob did not think Alex would get rich. ‘By the way, someone was here looking for you the other day.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Don’t know. Marthe spoke to him. She gave him directions to the cattle post. Young oke, about your age. Marthe didn’t get his name. He was in a bit of a hurry.’ Jacob frowned. ‘He scared her a bit. She says he’s been in an accident of some kind. Weird looking.’

  Alex returned to the cattle post. Jacob promised to deliver one steer to the Chief on his behalf. It was early evening by the time he reached the shack. Marv didn’t look too pleased to see him. ‘Where the hell have you been?’

  Alex filled him in. ‘I’ll have to go back either to Gaberones or Mafeking. Somehow, I have to get prospecting rights for the area. Nobody wants to help. Mafeking seem relieved to be getting rid of the files but Gaberones have nobody to take them over. They keep fobbing me off. The Department of Geological Surveys are supposedly the people to see but they’re sitting on their hands because a new Department of Mines is in the pipeline. I keep hearing the name Segokgo but I can’t locate the man. I tell you, Marv, it’s impossible to get decisions at the moment. They’re all waiting for the elections next March.’

  ‘But the Chief has said we can use the land?’

  ‘For cattle, yes. I didn’t tell him about the diamonds.’

  Marv shoved his hand in his pocket. ‘Probably just as well.’ He held out his hand. ‘I’ve found these but they’re not exactly leaping out of the ground.’ He had perhaps twenty small diamonds in his hand.

  ‘Maybe we’re still looking in the wrong place. Okay, we know they’re here somewhere but we haven’t cracked it yet. Perhaps there’s a bigger deposit further west.’

  ‘The first stone we found was the best.’ Marv dropped the results of his labour into an envelope. ‘It’s bloody hard work out there, man. Is it worth it?’

  ‘Patience, my friend. Have faith.’

  ‘Faith!’ Marv looked sour. Then. ‘I’ve been doing some thinking.’

  ‘That could be dangerous,’ Alex grinned. ‘Just kidding. What are you thinking?’

  ‘Where am I going? I’m twenty-eight and I’ve got nothing to show for it. I drift from one thing to the next. It’s time I got serious.’

  ‘What brought this on?’ Alex thought he knew, he just wanted to hear Marv say it.

  Marv looked shifty. ‘Nothing.’

  ‘Oh yeah!’

  Marv grinned.

  Alex thumped his shoulder.

  ‘You talk about a farm. That’s what I want too.’ Marv rubbed his shoulder.

  ‘You’d be a good farmer. It doesn’t suit everyone but I think you’d find what you’re looking for on a farm.’

  Marv looked worried. ‘I’ve blown just about all the compensation money the Army paid me.’

  ‘So what? Your share of what we’ve already found will help buy you a farm. It’s more than you’d have if you stayed in the Army.’

  Marv looked marginally better. ‘Did you bring any beer back?’

  ‘Six cartons.’

  Marv narrowly missed looking pleased.

  ‘Brought you this too.’ He waved an envelope at him. It was a note from Pru.

  Marv nearly kissed him.

  ‘Aren’t you going to read it?’

  A worried frown. ‘What does it say?’

  ‘How the hell should I know?’

  Marv gave him a wide grin, then charged off to the shack to read the letter. He sauntered back outside, trying to look casual. ‘She’s staying in Gabs for a while. She’s going to try and find a job. She loves Bechuanaland.’

  ‘And?’ Alex prompted.

  ‘And nothing. That’s it.’

  ‘So?’ he prompted again.

  ‘So,’ Marv said smiling widely. ‘I’m going to Gabs this weekend.’

  Alex thumped him again.

  Marv gave him one of his narrowed eyes looks. Then, ‘By the way, a fella came looking for you a couple of days ago.’

  ‘So Jacob said. Who was he?’

  ‘Nice guy, bit odd-looking, though. Kel someone. Said he knew you a few years ago. He was really interested in what we’re doing here.’

  Kel! Alex hadn’t thought about him for years. Why would he go out of his way to look Alex up? What was that bastard up to? Whatever he told Marv, it wasn’t anything to do with an old friendship. ‘You didn’t tell him!’

  ‘He asked a lot of questions. I didn’t think you’d mind. After all, he said you knew him.’

  ‘Marv you didn’t show him where we’re digging did you?’ Alarm bells were ringing. Good old trusting Marv would be putty in the hands of someone like Kel.

  ‘He came with me one day. Asked if he could. What’s the matter? Did I do the wrong thing?’

  Alex ignored the question. ‘Did he mention how he knew I was in this area?’

  ‘He said he’d been living in Molepolole. Said he’d heard you were trying to organise a meeting with the Chief.’

  ‘Jesus, Marv! Did you say anything about prospecting rights?’

  ‘Of course.’ Marv looked at him confused. ‘Why wouldn’t I?’

  Alex scrambled up. ‘That bastard is going to try to get in first. He’s had it in for me ever since our fight. I made him look stupid and he can’t seem to forget it. I’ve got to get back to Gabs. You get back out there at first light and keep searching.’

  Alex had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. Kel, he knew, was related to some highly placed and influential people in Gaberones. If anyone could short-circuit the process of prospecting rights, he could. And if anyone would try to beat him to it out of nothing more than spite, Kel would. The information Marv had handed him on a plate would be dynamite in Kel’s hands. Everything was falling apart.

  It was ten-thirty at night when he pulled up outside Chrissy’s flat. Her lights we
re still on. He used his own key to get in. Chrissy was working at her dining-room table. She looked up, startled, when he opened the door. ‘Oh, it’s you.’

  He was hyped up by the threat of what Kel could do to him. ‘Who did you expect?’

  She laid down her pen. ‘I don’t know,’ she said tersely. ‘You seem to think you can come and go as you like.’

  ‘Chrissy.’ He stepped into the room. ‘I’m sorry I left like that. Jacob called. I barely had time to get to Molepolole. The Chief wanted to see me.’

  Pru, who was reading a book, discreetly went into her bedroom.

  Chrissy glared at Alex. ‘A note wouldn’t have taken more than thirty seconds.’

  ‘I didn’t think. I’m sorry.’

  She rubbed a hand across her eyes. She looked tired. ‘You’d better start to think, Alex. I’m not used to being taken for granted. I don’t like it.’

  ‘Christ, Chrissy, I said I’m sorry.’

  ‘Fine. Just as long as you know how I feel.’ She looked up at him, her face softening. ‘Why have you come back so soon?’

  He explained swiftly, glad she wasn’t still angry.

  ‘So you think he’ll try to stop you?’ she asked when he’d finished.

  ‘He’s a funny sort. He’s got a cruel streak. I messed up his face a bit. I guess he is still looking for revenge.’

  ‘And I guess you don’t forgive him either.’ She smiled slightly.

  ‘I thought I had. No, dammit! I had. If he stayed out of my life I’d have forgotten all about him. But this, Chrissy, what does he want from me? This brings it back. The money he stole, the fact he lied to the others about the beating, the fact he was the one up the tree in the first place and deliberately implicated me.’ He could feel himself getting angry. ‘Well fine. If he wants a fight he’ll get one. He’s the one looking for it and I won’t back away. I beat him once physically, I can beat him mentally too. He’s the one asking for it. I could have died out there.’

  A look of sudden pain crossed her face. She rose and came to him, her arms going around his waist as she leaned on him. ‘I’m glad you didn’t,’ she said softly.

  He kissed away the last of her resentment and, in doing so, his anger went with it. But not his determination.

  He was at the Department of Geological Surveys at 7.15 the next morning. The office, according to the sign over the door, opened at 7.30. At 7.27 a Motswana woman arrived and unlocked the door, closing it firmly behind her and locking it again. At 7.45 Alex banged impatiently on the door. No-one appeared. The door was finally unlocked at 8.05. The same Motswana woman apologised. ‘We are running late today.’

  Behind her, stepping through the door of an inner office, he saw Kel. Alex stared, horrified at his face. He had obviously been in a terrible accident. The right side was caved in, as though the cheekbone had collapsed. A scar, showing a botched stitching job, ran across where the bone should be, pulling the eye down so it looked droopy. His nose bent towards the scar, and his right upper lip was pulled out of shape. The overall effect was one of a permanent sneer. Kel looked over and saw Alex and his already twisted features altered as the good side stretched wide, pulling the other towards it. Alex realised with a shock that Kel was grinning.

  ‘Too late, Theron,’ he said, waving a piece of paper in his hand aloft. His voice was blurred, as though he had just come from the dentist and his mouth was still frozen. ‘That find is mine. You should tell your friends to keep their mouths shut.’ He turned back and called to whoever was in the office, ‘See you later, Uncle Ben.’ He swaggered past Alex, his lips pursed, trying to whistle but failing.

  Alex watched him go, angry that he had been tricked by the man but full of compassion that Kel had to live with that mess of a face. When he asked to see the head of the department, ‘Uncle Ben’ told the Motswana woman to inform Alex he was too busy to see anyone.

  THIRTEEN

  He did the only thing he could think of doing: he went to see the Chief. But Kel had second guessed him and had been there before him. It was immediately obvious that the Chief preferred to believe Kel, whom he knew well, to this callow youth who had deliberately lied. The man looked at Alex contemptuously and growled in Setswana, ‘What seek you at the river, jackal, when you say you don’t drink water?’ Alex’s heart sank. If he’d been mildly annoyed, the Chief would have admonished him in English, as a courtesy to his visitor. Angry, he would probably have spoken Setswana. But to quote a proverb showed Alex that the Chief was furious beyond words and didn’t care about etiquette.

  ‘I am sorry.’ To deceive the man as he had was, he knew, foolish in the extreme. Rural and tribal the Chief may have been but he did not retain his position for no good reason. Alex had hidden the truth because he did not wish to talk about riches which might not be there. The real purpose for his wanting use of the land would have become known sooner or later. He just hadn’t expected it to be this soon.

  ‘Another will use the land. You are not to go back.’

  ‘Chief . . .’ Alex pleaded, his hands outstretched.

  The Chief pulled the animal skins on his shoulders around him firmly and stood tall, staring at Alex through knowing and angry eyes. ‘You offer us but one beast. Another offers us riches. That land is tribal land. You would take our riches and say nothing. You would become wealthy and leave us with nothing when that thing you seek is rightfully ours.’

  He knew it was no use. To try and explain to the Chief how he intended to share the wealth and provide work for the people of Molepolole would fall on deaf ears. Kel and his family had seen to that. Still, he tried to warn the man.

  ‘Sedibana pele gaseikanngwe [the well ahead is not reliable],’ he said, startling the Chief somewhat; white men speaking fluent Setswana were not rare but ones who knew their culture well enough to quote their proverbs were. ‘I hope I’m wrong,’ he continued, ‘but I fear you have been misled. The people with whom you do business are not honest.’

  ‘Like you have not been honest?’ Cold dark eyes flicked contemptuously at him. ‘Are you telling me that I am a poor judge of people?’

  Alex gave up before he upset the Chief further.

  Even Jacob’s place was tribal trust land. The Chief told him he must leave there as well. He returned to the cattle post and broke the news to Marv.

  ‘How much do you think we’ll get?’ Marv had worked non-stop but had little to show for it. They stared at the collection of stones he had managed to find.

  ‘Enough to get us started. Not enough to keep us going.’

  Marv was satisfied. ‘I’m definitely going to buy land and farm. It’s time I settled down. Somewhere up near Francistown. My share should bring enough for me to put down a deposit. What about you?’

  ‘It’s all I ever wanted. I like the Tuli area up there. It’s good cattle country.’ He looked at Marv seriously. ‘Do you think I’m too young to get married?’

  ‘Yes,’ Marv said promptly.

  Alex was unconvinced but he said no more about the idea forming in his mind.

  They heard a vehicle approaching. Marv shoved the stones in the ashes of last night’s fire. They assumed it would be Kel.

  Alex had not anticipated just how far Kel would go to get even. A second vehicle was behind the first. White policemen jumped out. ‘They’re going to search this place,’ Kel told him smugly. ‘If you have any diamonds here they’ll be confiscated. You have been denied access to this entire area, therefore any stones you have are mine. I am now the occupier of this land.’ He waved his licence in the air.

  ‘Let me see that.’ Alex might have guessed. The licence had been back-dated by two months. Legally, Kel could demand all the diamonds they possessed.

  Marv might as well have pointed his finger at the fire. He sat down on the bricks at the side, leaning protectively over the cold ashes. But neither Kel nor the policemen knew Marv the way Alex did. They took no notice of him. They trashed the kitchen, emptied the refrigerator, overturned the beds, slashe
d the mattresses, let down the blinds and made the acquaintance of the resident scorpions with whom Marv had learned to live. Alex and Marv had to submit to a body search which Marv objected to so strenuously he was threatened with arrest. Judging by the looks which passed between the three policemen, however, they believed they were on a wild goose chase. It was Kel who urged them on. When they left empty-handed he was angry and disappointed. ‘You’ll be watched,’ he told Alex, his eyes glittering. ‘As soon as you try to sell those stones you’ll be arrested.’

  As they drove away Marv muttered, ‘That must have been some beating you gave him. Did you do all that damage to his face?’

  ‘I don’t know what happened to his face,’ Alex told Marv. ‘I didn’t do that to him.’

  Alex felt sick. He’d had such dreams. There were riches here, he could feel it. Riches for the emerging country of Botswana and enough for him and Marv as well. And now Kel and his well-connected family would reap the benefits. He held no illusions that the villagers of Molepolole would see any of the profits. People like Kel did not operate that way, despite their promises.

  It took several hours to repair the damage and tidy the mess in the shack. There was nothing they could do about the mattresses. They retrieved their hidden diamonds, wrapped them in an oily cloth and stuffed them through a slit in one of the Land Rover seats.

  They stopped in Molepolole to explain what happened to Marthe and Jacob. Marthe cried and blamed herself for directing Kel out to where they were. Jacob said, ‘Now, mother, how were you to know?’

  ‘He’s right, Marthe,’ Alex said. ‘Marv fell for his line too.’

  When they tried to pay Jacob for the ruined mattresses he refused. ‘Don’t you go insulting me like that, boy. Them plurry things were on their last legs anyway. I’ve been meaning to replace them for yonks.’ He also said they could keep the two Land Rovers.

  They would have to sell their diamonds somewhere other than Bechuanaland. South Africa was out; if they sniffed the possibility of diamonds, indeed if Britain realised there was wealth to be had, independence would be put on hold. Alex believed his country should be independent.