Harare North

by Brian Chikwava

  Farayi talk talk talk.

  'You talk too much,' me I tell him straight and square and he get the score.

  Aleck arrive from his job and the moment he walk into the house Tsitsi and Farayi is on good behaviour. Tsitsi stop giggling too much and Farayi tie his bundle of firewood tight.

  Aleck have the high head of someone that is used to giving orders and the sharp eyes of grown-up school head boy; someone that have perfect the style of squinting his eyes before making them quick and hard judgements. I greet him like any other blazo when he come into the kitchen. He smile. One of them tight smiles that Londoners flash at you and leave you not sure if they want to smile at you or if they have change they mind.

  He pick cup and walk to sink to drink water. It's his step that tell everything – here is head boy that has turn into proud hard man as he take on the world and take stranded likkle girls like Tsitsi under his wing. Many Zimbabweans in London only care for they stomachs and will never do that kind of thing. Maybe he was also Boy Scout.

  After getting bread out of his bag and putting it in cupboard, Aleck head upstairs to his room.

  Shingi appear just when me I am thinking that I should go back to Paul and Sekai. I'm with Tsitsi in the kitchen. He is very hard to recognise after such long. His boots is covered with mud. Looking through his thick-rim owl glasses he blink in funny way when he see me. Whatever Harare North have do to him, I have no way to tell. At the bottom of his glasses' left lens, one crack that once try to scream out in all directions is lying frozen and all them glass fragments holding in place.

  At first we don't know what to say to each each. Then he smile and prod prod me with his stump finger in that playful way of his; that is his way of show fondness because Shingi don't do hugs. It feel funny when he stab stab you with his stump finger. They have to cut Shingi's finger at hospital after he get bite by puff adder at school. That's why he have stump.

  The meal that Shingi cook me is the wickedest. He is in good form because he is happy I'm here. Soon we is alone in the kitchen and the comrade is laughing and telling me food jokes about what I should eat when I'm in Harare North.

  He also tell me not to worry about Paul and Sekai; I can sleep here tonight.

  We can share my bed, Shingi say. Now he tell me about how he always go trawling through them neighbourhood's bins and skips finding good things that wasteful Londoners throw away.

  Most of them things you can fix if they is not already in perfect working order, Shingi say with big ginger. That's how he find his mattress.

  All evening Shingi is in form. Everyone in the house is feeling intimidate by our loud friendship – big laughs, banging of kitchen cupboards and clanking of pans as Shingi wash things. Tsitsi and Aleck who have one room each upstairs stop coming out now. Farayi is in they room, keeping to his corner since I tell him that he talk too much.

  Then Aleck come down with headmaster kind of face and tell us to keep the noise down.

  When we start eating the sadza and stew that Shingi have cook, we have already whip each each into big happiness and end up doing some old food game that we play years ago at school. But we have to whisper to each each so others don't get disturbed. The game – you have two chances to guess the original source where the food come from and if you fail then the other person possess you and can order you to bring him food for morning break period until he fail to make right guess.

  Food have always been our game. It is also source of trouble. And the reason Shingi always lose the game at school is because me I always know where the food he bring is coming from. That's because when we is ten, I discover everything about the food habits at his home. It happen when we come back from school with Chamu. Chamu have just become Shingi's new stepbrother in funny way because Shingi's second mother have now decide to get married for second time to bus conductor who have already move in. The conductor don't want to make more babies because he have his son Chamu and is only interested in front bum – that's the kind of mouth the whole township throw around. Me I am in habit of leaving Shingi and his new brother at they doorstep because Shingi's mother, MaiShingi, don't like me because I make Chamu and Shingi do mischief. But one day, because MaiShingi have gone somewhere, Shingi take me inside they ground-floor flat to hang out. And then Chamu discover that his mother have forget to lock the door to she bedroom.

  We go into bedroom and go straight for them stockpiles of food that MaiShingi have hide under she bed before she go out because she fear them boys' appetite in she absence. Condensed milk, sugar, bread, margarine, Mazoe orange drink – all is up for grabs. After big feast, we turn our attention to the sadza and okra that MaiShingi have leave for Chamu and Shingi on the coal stove in the kitchen. Later we rub our swelled stomachs and go kak kak kak.

  But when MaiShingi discover that she bedroom have been raid she get super vex, telling Shingi he should write letter to his uncle Sinyoro and tell him that he is living large here, being keep well fed and is also busy thiefing from she. Sinyoro was MaiShingi's big brother and the one that take care of Shingi's school fees because he was schoolteacher and have lot of money.

  Then she turn to Chamu and bury him under with heap of them words: yari yari yari I don't know where this come from, it is not from your father's side of family and also not from your mother's side because even if she was shebeen queen, she never thief one single cent from anyone.

  She end by threaten to kick both of them out of she house. All this heap of trouble after she have straighten them out with long piece of sugar cane.

  From then on, every time Shingi bring food to school, me I only have to say it come from under his mother's bed and Shingi most of the time have lose the food game. I possess him. I still possess him.

  5

  Sekai give me hard time about where I have been. I tell her that I decide to sleep over at friend's house because he promise to find me job but she keep going on yari yari saying don't I know that I am not allowed to work in this country. And Paul don't say nothing even if he is the one that tell me to look for graft.

  'Is there somewhere secret that you are stashing the bread because I don't understand how since you arrive it disappear so fast?' Sekai ask me when things have calm down. Now this style of sliding tackle that she is tearing into me with, me I don't know what to do with it. If I find graft and start making money, me I can sniff sniff that she is going to report me to immigration people. And if she don't do that, then she is going to start charging me big rent and food money and I will spend all my life working to pay rent and will never be able to go back.

  On Monday evening Paul is still not back from his graft by nine o'clock and Sekai now go to night duty leaving the phone unlocked. I tell Shingi the whole story and the kind of style that Sekai playing on me here and how she give me hard time because I don't sleep in they house on Friday night. And Paul don't even say anything as if he have nothing to do with it. Shingi just going kak kak kak and say that's the reason he move out of his cousin's house; things get funny and air in the house fill-up with of funny silences.

  I have not even ask him and Shingi say that if I want graft maybe I can try the company that he know in Wimbledon because they is looking for more labour; they don't make big deal if your papers is not OK. Now I am full of big cheer. Me I just want to find my money and then boom, I disappear, I tell him.

  Last year, before I leave Zimbabwe, if you wanted US$5,000 you have to find £2,777.78. The exchange rate was 1.80. Last week it stand at 1.89. Maybe in few months exchange rate jump to 2.5.

  I get the graft on the spot but because I don't have no safety boots, they say it is best if I start when I have buy pair of boots. That is because they rules say 'no safety boots, no job'. On the way back home, now me I see that I have one fat problem staring straight into my face: Sekai is going to sell me out to them immigration people, I know. She have not tell me nothing but after reasoning hard me I can hear it loud and clear inside my head what she want to do.

  I talk to Shingi
about this trick problem. Me I have not even ask for anything and he say he is going to talk to Aleck. Aleck will have to hit me £25 per week for rent, Shingi tell me after talking to Aleck. Me I don't mind as long as he don't take away all my money and I end up working in this country for ever.

  In the morning I am alone inside the house; Paul have gone to work very early and Sekai not yet back from night shift at St Thomas' Hospital. She usually crawl in at about 10am, so inside the house it's quiet.

  I know that Sekai is not so hot on me coasting around in they house during the day, eating they bread and eggs. Even if I am happy to have new graft, I have not forgot the kind of mouth she been throwing around in them past weeks. At one time before I learn that I am not allowed to work, me I tell she that I don't know where to start to look for graft. Yari yari yari yea when people is in Zimbabwe they fill the air with cries saying they want to come to the big lights but once they is here you find them blinking like lost goats, that's what she say to me. That make me disappear into the toilet and close the door behind me with big force on that day. Even while inside toilet I hear she talking to Paul about how, like many of them Zimbabweans who don't know what else to do in the UK, I am only going to end up becoming one of them BBCs – British Buttock Cleaners – looking after old people that poo they pants every hour. She also say she think that my uncle should not have buy me plane ticket so I can run away from the police in Zimbabwe. I should have just face trial, that's the kind of mouth she throw around.

  Me I can stand anything that Sekai throw at me if I want but this morning when I remember that only some few days ago she have even say President Mugabe is stubborn old donkey and will chase away all rural people from they villages if he can find emeralds or diamonds there, me I get out of bed, pack my bag, kick sausage dog out of my way and go down to the garage to buy gallon of petrol for them. The sofas, beds, sausage dog – I want to soak everything. I have already pack my suitcase and I am thinking whether to start with lounge or they bedroom when I remember that they is my relatives and that old Paul help me get to Brixton. So without doing nothing, me I drag my suitcase out of they house.

  When I am halfway down the street I remember that them streets in that area is always full of dog kaka. So I go back to the house and get the big screwdriver that Paul use for DIY. I need something to scrape it off in case I have accident and step on dog kaka.

  Aleck have small small hands but he have been in London for four years and is the guru and big man in the house. He is shop assistant in Croydon but can point them places if you want something; he know which is best markets to buy clothes from and also know many Zimbabwean contacts if you want to send things back home. He is also the one that point Shingi in right direction so he get graft in Wimbledon.

  First day in the house – Aleck come from his graft in the evening and go straight to his room upstairs without saying nothing to me, Shingi, Tsitsi and Farayi as we talk in the kitchen. After half-hour he call me to his room. It's like those days at school when headmaster call you to his office.

  He is lying on his bed, you know like tired big tycoon, and is busy sending messages on mobile phone. There's Nike shoes and shirts in disorder all over floor of his room and pictures of people that play for Arsenal on the wall opposite his bed. And one picture of him, all alone on the other wall and looking square at them Arsenal football players like they belong to him. Chelsea is better team.

  He is busy smiling to himself and sending messages and keep me waiting so me I stand there not knowing what to do with my hands. I can't even walk because I will make noise on them floorboards because I am wearing them safety boots that Shingi have buy for me today since I promise I will pay him back when I get paid.

  When he finally finish sending them messages Aleck throw his phone down on bed with pretend carelessness.

  'Right,' he say to himself as he sit up on his bed and lean against wall to show that now is time for serious talk. He start by telling me about them house rules that is on kitchen door and then go on to talk other things; that we have to clean up so the house don't get dirty. That I can find mattress for myself in the skips. Shingi have already say it's OK for me to share his bed until I find mattress.

  * * *

  The first thing you should know when you live in Harare North: if people tell you something cost X, remember to allow 25 per cent for them things that have been hide. Rent is supposed to be £25 per week; Aleck say that's true but we have to add another £5 per week for the electricity and gas to make £30 per week.

  Another thing: always push for them more favours because if you don't then you don't get nothing. Aleck say he is going to be nice to me and give me soft landing by not charging me any rent for this week because we is already in the middle of it. I ask him if he maybe also give me soft landing for next week because me I am still new native in town and need more time to find my feeties; he don't answer but scratch his jaw slow to show that he is reasoning about it.

  By the time we hit the weekend he have tell me it's OK if I take another week of soft landing. This is big scoop, even if Aleck tell me this with voice that sound like he is mourning this decision. Before Aleck agree I have been asking Shingi to push Aleck for me but he say that he have use up all his favours for this week because he have ask Aleck for too many things. We don't want to use them up all our favours all the time or else something big happen that require us to use favours and if we have use them all then we is in trouble, Shingi warn me. But if I had listen to him I would have end up snoozing and losing.

  The third thing: never listen too much to propaganda from people like Sekai telling you that your mother's village is going to be take over by mining company that belong to some minister. You always know more than you believe in but always choose what you believe in over what you know because what you know can be so big that sometimes it is useless weapon, you cannot wield it proper and, when you try, it can get your head out of gear and stop you focusing. Soon you lose the game and end up dying beyond your means in Harare North, leaving behind debts and shabby clothes. I have hear all these kind of stories.

  You see now I was right to ask for soft landing, I tell Shingi. He don't say nothing; the week has end and now Aleck have give me more soft-landing time. Also, after three days of working in Wimbledon I have now been paid my wages but for funny reason the company that we graft for have put me on emergency tax code and thief away heaps of my money; the money that I get paid all go to Shingi to pay for the boots that he buy me. Me I explain to Shingi how this emergency tax code thing is big con because that's too many Mars bars already.

  On Saturday morning we is still lying in bed and this Zimbabwean woman called MaiMusindo come to our house. She is big woman with small head, hard-bitten face and tongue that is like old shoe leather. She have been in England for maybe twenty years and come to our house on the morning of my first Saturday there. She work at the African hair salon with them Ghanaian, Nigerian and Kenyan women who is also specialists in all styles. It's them salon woman that provide midwife help in the salon back room when Tsitsi give birth to she baby.

  MaiMusindo is frightful woman. Before she arrive Aleck and Tsitsi have been restless, running up and down the stairs getting ready.

  MaiMusindo used to be spirit medium; she still do rituals and is in touch with them mudzimu, the spirits. She don't look like anything that work in hair salon. When she talk, she speak slow, you can't hurry she; she can even wave death away like it is some nuisance fly. But Tsitsi say that she is the fastest weaver in the salon. She carry the spirit world with she and wear this old funny air that force you to pay attention to every word that she say because it come out and drop like stone falling on concrete floor.

  'Mamuka seyi?' Aleck greet she at the door.

  She shuffle into the house in flowing layers of clothes and red dustcoat as Aleck lead she into the kitchen with his hands clasped together in respectful way. Tsitsi follow and the kitchen door is closed.

  Shingi say MaiMusindo i
s old-school kind of Zimbabwean who think she hold all the wisdom and want to help everyone. She want to help Tsitsi since the day they meet at Brixton market. That was the day when MaiMusindo is buying vegetables at crowded stall and Tsitsi is also looking for tomatoes. When MaiMusindo's mobile go off and she let rip in old and deep Shona, Tsitsi nearly jump on the old woman with big rural happiness. That's what homesickness do. Tsitsi – she don't know how to keep things inside – she roll out she whole story and MaiMusindo now think she can help. MaiMusindo want Aleck to help Tsitsi go back to she aunt but Aleck is busy all the time and have no time, that's how Farayi see it. But MaiMusindo don't understand that she is sticking she nose in people's business; Tsitsi's aunt is not going to like this style, me I know.

  Aleck come out of the kitchen talk looking like he regret that he take this Tsitsi thing under his wing. His neck is deep inside his shoulder with stress.

  Even if it was me who have take Tsitsi into house because of sympathy me I will not want to take she back to family that have mess up she life like this. She is damaged goods and things like this can cause lot of vex and leave heaps of trousers ruined from all the pacing about and shouting between family members. Even worse, Tsitsi's aunt is going to accuse Aleck of trying to ruin she marriage by pushing Tsitsi back into she house.

  MaiMusindo walk out of the kitchen and throw in this mother kind of greeting into our room.

  'Makadii ko vana vangu?'

  'Tiripo makadii,' Shingi and Farayi answer like choirboys.

  'Takasimba?'

  Farayi jump up and lug his firewood bum out of our room to go and greet she properly. Shingi also feel oblige to follow and go to stand by our door. Me I hang back because I don't know this funny woman.