Tandia

by Bryce Courtenay

  Mama Tequila looked up at Tandia, her eyes slits of polished anthracite buried in a bed of mascara and false eyelashes. 'Whores' troubles, Miss Tandy. Geldenhuis wants you!'

  It was Wednesday in the longest week of Tandia's life. Wednesday afternoons, from after lunch until five, Mama Tequila called 'Pay and Lay Day'. It was the time at Bluey Jay she kept for the cops, all of whom were required to arrive strictly by appointment and on time.

  The procedure was simple. One cop in and one cop out. The first police officer at Bluey Jay would drive his car to the back of the big old house, the next to the front. When the second arrived the first was already waiting in his car and when the second had been taken indoors the first drove off. This way Mama Tequila could payoff and if necessary accommodate six dishonest policemen in one afternoon.

  On this Wednesday there would be only Geldenhuis. Much to Mama Tequila's annoyance he had insisted he be the only person at Bluey Jay that day. All the girls had been given the afternoon off to do their Christmas shopping in Durban and had left before lunch in the Packard. Packed like herrings in a tin, with a scrunch of skidding back tyres on the gravel and squeals of laughter, Juicey Fruit Mambo roared off with Mama Tequila's entire sex inventory. By half past one he had returned and waited at the cattle gate for Geldenhuis to arrive.

  Geldenhuis arrived at Bluey Jay a little after two and apologised to Mama Tequila who met him at the door. 'Sorry, Mama Tequila, but that cheeky bladdy kaffir of yours stopped me at the cattle gate and had a look in the boot! I don't know what he expects to find there.'

  Mama Tequila laughed. 'A policeman, maybe?' Despite himself, Geldenhuis grinned. Then he abruptly cleared his throat. 'We alone here, hey?'

  She nodded. 'Josie, she's the cook, I told her not to come today. The black servants all gone home to their kraal and the girls in Durban doing Christmas shopping. Only you and me and Miss Tandy, ja and of course, Juicey Fruit Mambo, who will stay at the gate until you come out again.' Geldenhuis pushed past Mama Tequila' further into the hall. 'I think I'll jus' take a look myself. Do you mind?'

  Mama Tequila spread her hands. 'Help yourself, we got nothing to hide here, Sergeant.'

  'Detective Sergeant,' Geldenhuis corrected, grinning. 'You don't get it for nothing, you know. Stay in the bar, okay? I just want to have a quick deck for myself.'

  'Miss Tandy will also be in the bar when you get back,' Mama Tequila called after him. In her eight years at Bluey Jay her authority had been absolute and now, for the first time, she felt like an alien. It was like being back in a BB-TM during wartime when the military or naval police would just walk in and open doors and walk out again without even giving her the time of day. People like that had no respect. Mama Tequila wasn't a woman who put a lot of trust in life; she knew that in the process of living it you did more picking yourself up and dusting yourself off than tapdancing. She had long since discovered it didn't do to harbour grudges. The world was full of bastards and hating them was a time-consuming and poorly paid business. But there had to be exceptions, and Geldenhuis was developing in her mind as one of them. The spoiling of Tandia by him upset her greatly, although she wasn't prepared to admit this, even to herself.

  The moment Mama Tequila had mentioned Geldenhuis's desire for her, Tandia had begun to shake. She had placed the glass she'd been polishing onto the counter where it rattled momentarily as its base landed imprecisely, her shaking hand misjudging its surface. 'Please Mama Tequila, don't make me do it, not to him! Anyone, even old Coetzee or Mr Perfect Lay! Please! I beg you!' A darkness had formed inside her head and around her eyes and she had gripped the edge of the bar counter so her knees wouldn't collapse under her.

  Mama Tequila had taken the bottle of Cape brandy from the counter and, picking up the glass, she had poured a dash of brandy into it. 'Here, drink. Drink all of it.' Tandia had taken the glass and swallowed the brandy. The shock to her system had been enormous as the fiery liquor hit her throat. 'Come sit here, Miss Tandy.' Mama Tequila had said, patting the bar stool next to her.' Tandia, her eyes watering from the effect of the brandy, had lifted the bar counter and come to sit beside Mama Tequila.

  The large woman had lifted her brandy balloon. 'Time's come, baby. Them's the breaks. I kept my word to Or Louis. Now you finished school you owe me, you hear?'

  Tandia hadn't tried to protest as she fought to conceal her fear. Mama Tequila had taken her hand. 'Tandy, sometimes we got to do things we don't like. That goes for everyone, but most all for women and even more, most of all, for coloured women. When you live in the white man's world that the rules. It's no use crying, no use saying it's unfair, because you wasting your time. Okay, so you got to learn the rules better, you got to be more clever than they are. You got to be better than the white man at being a bastard.

  You hear what I say, child?'

  Tandia had nodded. The burning sensation of the brandy had left a warm glow in her stomach. 'Mama T, I'd rather fuck a dog!' she said fiercely.

  Mama Tequila's head had jerked back in astonishment. She had never heard Tandia use a coarse word. She had stared at her in amazement; then her face had broken into a huge smile. 'Miss Tandy, so would I, baby! But sometimes you got to fuck the dog shit instead!'

  Mama Tequila had kept Tandia busy in the bar until late the previous night. Mr Dine-o-mite and the Singh brothers, cousins of the famous Jamal Singh, and a friend were the other regulars that night. With them they had brought two Indian businessmen from the Transvaal who, apart from going upstairs for a while, spent the evening marvelling at the beautiful old house and happily paying for double Scotches. Around eleven, when the two Transvaal wallahs were too drunk to make much sense and one of them complained of having his Scotch watered, Mama Tequila looked suitably shocked and used this as an excuse to send them all packing. The Singh brothers apologised profusely, insisting on paying for four extra Scotches to make up for the bad form of their Transvaal friends and leaving a ten-bob tip for Tandia. A little after eleven o'clock that night Mama Tequila closed Bluey Jay down for the night and Tandia was free to go to her own room.

  Tandia found herself running down the corridor as she drew closer to her room. The panic, kept at bay all evening, was rising up in her like a dark presence. There was no escaping, she would have to sleep with Geldenhuis, and she was about to drown in the misery of this thing inside her. She closed the door behind her and rushed to the window, sure that she was about to suffocate. At the window she took great gulps of night air until after a while the feeling in her settled down to the old heaviness, the great big round stones in her belly.

  Tandia stood by the window. Outside the night was silver, like the first night she'd arrived at Bluey Jay; and once again the moon was full and she could see it through the leaves of the wild fig tree. The room in the early December heat was warm and a mosquito buzzed around her head. She let it be; mosquitoes, for some reason, never bit her. The ache inside her was so intense it seemed to swell outwards, filling the room. A wave of panic swept over her and she found herself on the window sill and in a single step outwards into space she had climbed onto the huge old branch that grew right up to it. The moment she found herself in the tree she felt a strange relief overcome her. She was alone in a secret place, and with the leaves concealing her from the rest of the world the moonlight turned the space around her into a cocoon of silver. Tandia sat there in her own space unable to cry. In the early hours of the morning she crept back into her small room and collapsed on the bed where she rolled herself up into a ball and clutched Apple Sammy to her breast, sleeping fitfully until she was wakened by a wood pigeon calling in the branches of the fig tree.

  Geldenhuis came back into the bar and sat on a stool at the far end of the bar, nearest the door. 'Howzit, Tandia?' he said casually. Then he turned his attention to Mama Tequila. 'I never realised it was such a big house and also so posh. I never been in a nicer place than this. I reckon B. J. Vorster himself wouldn
't have a better house. A beer please, Tandia.'

  'Detective Sergeant, you know better. It's Miss Tandy, that how all the girls is addressed in this place.' Tandia froze. Mama Tequila was treating her exactly like one of the girls, like a whore.

  'Ag, man, with us it's different. We know each other from old times, hey Tandia?'

  Tandia placed a glass of lager on the bar in front of him, not responding to his question.

  'All the same, that the way we do it here. If you want to use this house you got to understand the rules.'

  Geldenhuis laughed. 'Okay, you win.' He reached for the beer in front of him and, lifting it up, downed the entire glass in one go.

  'Would you like another beer, Detective Sergeant Geldenhuis?' Tandia asked softly.

  'No, man, I'm in training. One beer a day, that's all I'm allowed.'

  Mama Tequila clapped her hands. 'We got a special treat for you, Detective Sergeant, you and Miss Tandy. You've got the Jade Room, a very beautiful room, all green, everything in it is green to go with Miss Tandy's dress and also her eyes.'

  Tandia was dressed in one of Marie's green satin dresses that went to just below the knees. The thin shoulder straps set off her shoulders and the curve of her breasts. Mama Tequila had made her wear lipstick and a little eye shadow, and it made her look more grown up. Tandia was utterly desirable and Mama Tequila had never seen her look more beautiful. 'May God forgive me,' she thought.

  'Not the green room. I don't like green!' Geldenhuis said suddenly.

  'But we made it ready.' Mama Tequila smiled. 'This is my house, Detective Sergeant Geldenhuis. We like to give our guests the best. I insist you take the Jade Room.'

  Geldenhuis turned on Mama Tequila. His eyes narrowed. 'I wasn't born yesterday, you know! Not the bladdy Jade Room, you hear?'

  Mama Tequila looked contrite as she fanned herself. 'I'm sorry, Detective Sergeant, we like things to be nice. Perhaps the Pink? The Pink Room, it's very nice also.'

  'Ja, okay, the Pink is orright.' To conceal his anger he turned to Tandia and attempted a smile. 'Come, show me where is the Pink Room, Tandia.'

  Mama Tequila raised her glass to her lips. 'Miss Tandy,' she said softly, as though speaking to herself.

  Geldenhuis followed Tandia up the wide sweeping staircase which led to the client wing of the big old house. Her heart was beating furiously, but somehow the fact that Geldenhuis seemed to be making no attempt to be nice made it easier. She would just lie still and think about being up in the branches of the wild fig tree in the moonlight, floating inside the silver cocoon, hidden even from herself. Mama Tequila had given her a tube of lubricant gel. 'You use this, Tandy, and breathe hard you hear, hard as anything!' She had demonstrated, bringing her voice up to a series of sobbing gasps. Then they think you liking it and it's over quickly.'

  They entered the Pink Room, the pride of the brothel. It was a room designed for dalliance but not one in which to spend too much time. The pinkness overwhelmed a person as an aphid might feel finding itself suddenly thrust deep into the petals of an overblown rose. To' compound the incarnadine feel of the room, a strip of mirror about three feet wide and six long was fixed to the ceiling so that the entire room was reproduced in its reflection. In the very centre of the mirror was a small circle of clear glass no more than three inches in diameter. Looking directly into the mirror with the myriad details of the room reflected into it made it impossible to see the circle, but fixed neatly into it was the lens of a reflex camera.

  'This a very nice room, better than the green one, I think,' Geldenhuis said, standing in the centre of the room with his hands on his hips and looking about him in a proprietorial manner. 'Why did the old cow want us to have the green one?'

  'The Jade Room, it is also nice,' Tandia said, starting to remove the satin bedspread. She folded the spread neatly and looked down at the pink satin sheets which fitted perfectly without a wrinkle, precisely turned over at the top. Geldenhuis crossed the room and entered the small shower recess. She could hear him pull back the pink plastic shower curtain. When he entered again he'd removed his tie, and unclipped his Sam Browne belt and police revolver, which he now placed on the vanity table beside the bed.

  Tandia kicked off her high heels. She wasn't wearing stockings and only wore a pair of panties under Marie's dress. She moved over to where Geldenhuis stood and started to undo the brass buttons on his tunic.

  The sequence of a seduction was familiar to Tandia, as it had been discussed often enough at the chew-the-fat chats. Tandia removed Geldenhuis's khaki tunic and placed it on a hanger in the wardrobe; then she returned and unbuttoned his shirt. Geldenhuis had started by putting his hands around her tiny waist but now he put both his hands on her bottom, one on each buttock, and began to massage. Tandia knew she was supposed to gyrate her hips and move in closer to him, pretending to be sexy, but she couldn't do it. She peeled his shirt over his shoulders and waited for him to remove his hands from her bottom so that she could slip the sleeves away from his arms. But he let the shirt hang from his waist and continued to pummel her bottom. 'C'mon, Tandia, be a little responsive, man. I like you, I want you to like me also.'

  'Let me take your shirt off, Detective Sergeant.' Geldenhuis removed his hands and pulled the sleeves away from his arms. He quickly moved towards the wardrobe to hang his shirt up. 'You can call me Jannie when we like this, you hear?' Tandia nodded her head. Geldenhuis stood in his pants and boots with his torso bare. He was a medium-sized man and he carried no fat. The muscles on his stomach were clearly defined above a trim waist, and his torso widened out into big, well-muscled shoulders. In boxer's terms he looked like a puncher, as though he might carry a knockout in both hands, a left-right combination which could put an opponent flat on his seat with a look of surprise on his face.

  'So far so good,' Tandia thought to herself, knowing that the hard part was yet to come. She moved back to stand in front of Geldenhuis and, as his hands went out to hold her, she knelt down on the carpet in front of him and started to undo his bootlaces. She worked the laces very loose so that the boots would come away easily. Then she removed his boots and socks and placed them beside the bed the way she had been shown.

  Still on her knees Tandia undid the fly-buttons on Geldenhuis's trousers and then unclipped the waistband. Hooking her thumbs into each side of the waistband she pulled downwards until her thumbs included the elastic band of his underpants. Then in a single movement she pulled both garments down to his ankles…She waited, her eyes downcast, while he stepped out of them. Tandia was terrified of raising her eyes, as she knew she eventually must do. She had never seen an erection other than the one represented by Herman the Hottentot. Mama Tequila had explained that the next bit was essential. Tandy, some men, they not clean, they got things, maybe a little sore or something, even very small it dangerous, you hear.' She had picked up Herman the Hottentot and showed Tandia where to look. Then she had placed her forefinger and thumb around the base and run them firmly along the satin-smooth length of sneezewood to the carved bulbous tip. 'You do like this, you milk it and watch. If a drop comes out that clear like water you okay, but if it milky, even a little bit cloudy, you finish and klaar with this man, you hear?' Tandia was now aware that to make this examination she must pretend to 'fondle' Geldenhuis, to pretend she was indulging in foreplay, and she knew suddenly that this was something she simply couldn't do.

  Instead, averting her gaze, she half-turned as she rose, so that by the time she stood erect she had her back to Geldenhuis. She brought her hands around and unhooked her dress at the back and pulled down the zipper to reveal the curve of her beautiful back. Then she pulled her dress down over her thighs and, taking her panties with her, she stepped out of Marie's dress.

  Tandia now stood completely nude with her back to Geldenhuis, terrified to turn around. She could sense him moving towards her and her heart beat furiously.

  'Magtig!
You're beautiful!' she heard him say and then, almost in slow motion, the nightmare of the cemetery started all over again. Geldenhuis reached out and grabbed his tie from the vanity table. With his free hand he gripped her by the back of the neck and pushed her hard so that she fell sprawling across the bed on her stomach. Then he grabbed her arms and brought them behind her back, tying them together at the wrists using his necktie.

  'Don't shout, you hear! If you shout or scream, I promise I'll kill you!' Tandia's hands were securely tied and she felt his hand press down into the small of her back as it pinned her down. She turned her head to see him again reach towards the vanity table beside the bed and withdraw his service revolver from its holster. 'Lie very still or you a dead kaffir, you hear?' Tandia was close to fainting with terror when she felt the sudden cold of the barrel between the crease of her buttocks. She jerked involuntarily. 'Lie still, dammit!' The cold steel worked closer in, then she felt a terrible searing pain as the' barrel was pushed into her anus. She gasped and then screamed. But Geldenhuis anticipated her and slammed his cupped hand across her mouth, cutting the scream short. He jerked her head back and held her. 'You scream just once more and I pull the trigger you black bitch!' He held her head pulled back until she was forced to relax and then he took his hand from her mouth and allowed her head to collapse back onto the bed. The barrel hadn't moved and, apart from the pain, she felt as though she was about to become incontinent.

  When Geldenhuis spoke again his voice was calm. It was the same reasonable tone. she remembered from the interrogation room of the Cato Manor police station. 'What's this I hear about going to the university, hey? I thought we talked about that? Remember? When I told you we don't like swart slimmetjies. Clever kaffirs just make trouble. Why do you want to make trouble for me, Tandia? Why, hey? I told you I was your friend. But now, all of a sudden, now you want to go to the university to study law? That's a very dangerous precedent. I don't think we can allow such a dangerous precedent.' He was exerting a steady downward pressure on the revolver so, as he talked, the barrel moved further and further inwards. 'In fact, I can definitely say, we not going to allow this precedent.' She heard Geldenhuis sigh heavily. 'Tandia, you make me sad, you hear? First you break your promise to me. I ask you to tell me the names of people who come here, but you never did that. Now you want to go to the university, when already I told you I don't like swart slimmetjies!' She felt the downward pressure of the barrel; the pain was making it hard for her to concentrate. 'I think maybe I wasting my time on you, I should just pull the trigger now and shoot the shit out of you.' He laughed, 'What you say, hey? What's another dead kaffir anyway?'