Tandia

by Bryce Courtenay

  Under similar circumstances, a white crowd would have been loud and demanding, impatient with the tedious paperwork performed by a battery of clerks recruited from elsewhere who sat under the bluegum trees behind portable tables. It was well into the morning yet none of the bodies had been processed for release and some of the people had been waiting since dawn. But Africans are familiar with the despair of waiting and they'd come expecting no less. The people of Sharpeville had not yet indulged in the luxury of anger; overcome with grief they waited, confused and beaten in the still hot autumn day, for the white man to restore their dead to them.

  Peekay, who'd phoned earlier for an appointment, arrived with Tandia at precisely eleven o'clock to be met by the white mortuary official, Klopper.

  Klopper had a nickname among the Africans, who called him 'Inkosi Asebafa, Lord of the Dead'. He liked this name a lot and lost no opportunity explaining it to any white person he might meet. Klopper was about as big in the dead-body business as you could get and held absolute power in Soweto which, he was fond of pointing out, housed Africa's largest mortuary.

  His presence in Sharpeville on temporary transfer from Soweto to take charge of body sorting was an indication of how seriously the government regarded the matter of the previous day's massacre. Klopper was not easily intimidated and he wouldn't stand for any nonsense. He was just the sort of man to have on hand when you were thinking of having a massacre and wanted a calm, orderly aftermath.

  Peekay had met him before when he'd been a witness in the Tom Majombi case. Klopper seemed to him to be a man obsessed with death, though in his mind he seemed only to equate it with the black people. He had witnessed so many violent and unnatural deaths - the stabbings, mutilations, muggings, ritual murders, clubbings and domestic beatings which make up' the daily count of the dead in the black townships - that he seemed to have forgotten that people die of natural causes, or for that matter, that white people die at all.

  He didn't see the Sharpeville massacre as any more than destiny catching up with another sixty-nine kaffirs. It wouldn't have occurred to him to blame the white police officers involved for the incident. White men do their duty and sometimes kaffirs become dead as a consequence. There was nothing wrong with that.

  He was standing outside the mortuary scratching his balls and enjoying the late morning sun when Peekay and Tandia drew up. Klopper was an obese, ruddy-complexioned man who, despite being completely bald, gave the impression of being overly hirsute. He affected an untidy beard roughly trimmed about two inches below his chin. Coming up to meet it, as though it was stuffing spilling out of a rent in his chest, a wild tuft of white hair mixed into his beard. His arms, too, were covered with thick, almost matted black hair and the short sleeves of his open-neck shirt were rolled as far up his arms as they'd go so his biceps appeared to balloon out of them like Popeye arms. He was at least six feet tall but possessed the legs of someone a foot shorter, so his ballooned torso seemed precariously balanced, as though it was always about to topple from its unsteady and undersized pinning. This impression was reinforced by a strong smell of brandy, suggesting that he might be somewhat tipsy. Klopper looked dangerous, as though he had been designed for violence.

  He drew his right hand from his trouser pocket and raised it casually in greeting at Peekay and Tandia's approach. 'Goeie more, Advokaat, it's a nice day after the rain last night, hey?' Klopper's voice was cheerful, though his greeting seemed to ignore Tandia completely.

  'Good morning, Meneer Klopper,' Peekay said, smiling, though his voice was formal. He turned to Tandia. 'May I introduce you to Miss Patel, my legal partner.'

  Klopper offered his hand to Peekay, still ignoring Tandia. The two men shook hands briefly whereupon Klopper's fat fingers plunged back into the interior of his khaki trousers to resume their jiggling. His head slightly. to one side, squinting, he examined Peekay, as though trying to read his thoughts. Finally he smiled, showing a lot of gold in his mouth but no laughter in his small, black eyes. 'If you want trouble you must go some place else, you hear? The trouble here is over yesterday already. Today is all peace and quiet.' Tandia felt the anger rise up in her. It wasn't Klopper's rudeness - she was prepared for that - but this mocking tone. She'd cried for Juicey Fruit Mambo most of the previous night and by early morning she was back in control of herself. By the time Peekay picked her up in Hymie's Mercedes for the drive to Vereeniging, he'd been surprised at her composure.

  But now, simply by opening his mouth, this huge, stupid Boer with his fat guts spilling over his belt and his fingers working his elasticized testicles brought back her distress. He seemed to typify everything Juicey Fruit Mambo despised. Even in death this gross human had dominion over him. She struggled to fight back her tears, but the anger she felt threatened to overpower her. 'Tonight!', she comforted herself, 'tonight Gideon meets to launch Umkonto we Sizwe, Spear of the Nation. Please God let them allow me to be the first woman to join!' she prayed silently.

  She'd left Peekay's flat in Hillbrow very early that morning. Gideon had been called to an all-night ANC meeting and Peekay had taken her to his flat in Hillbrow from the office soon after the news of Sharpeville had come through. He'd spent the night trying to comfort and calm her. Tandia had been too distraught to resist when Peekay had held her in his arms and rocked her and soothed her with quiet, reassuring words. At one stage he'd tried to sing her to sleep with a Zulu lullaby. He had a nice voice, clean and unselfconscious and the melody with its beautiful Zulu words was so hauntingly familiar that she fantasised that her own Zulu mother must have used it, sung to her when she was an infant.

  Later, when the sparrows were beginning to chirp in the eaves directly above his top-floor window, when Peekay thought she'd fallen asleep, he stretched her out and covered her with a blanket and slipped a pillow under her head. Then she'd felt his lips touch her brow as he whispered, 'Sleep now, sweet Tandia. Sorrow has a season, but it will pass.' Then she'd heard the squeak of a loose floorboard under the carpet as he tip-toed from the room; soon after, she'd heard the shower running.

  With Peekay out of the room, Tandia started to cry again, this time not knowing whether it was for Juicey Fruit Mambo or herself. Peekay's barely sensed kiss and the manner of his words were the gentlest thing she could ever remember happening to her. They contrasted so with Gideon's words when, less than an hour after the news of the Sharpeville massacre, Madam Flame Flo had phoned to say that Juicey Fruit Mambo was among the dead. Tandia had become almost hysterical and Gideon made very little attempt to comfort her. 'Tandia, Mambo was a Zulu. He died like a Zulu should die. I would be happy to die like him. He will be happy, his shadows will be happy and the people of his isigodi, they will be happy. There is no need for grief!' He'd spoken as though he was giving her an instruction, a lesson in how he expected her. to behave; and then, without touching her, he'd left her for an urgent meeting at Moroka township.

  Soon after dawn, despite Peekay's protests that he must take her all the way to Meadowlands, Tandia insisted he only drive her to Johannesburg Central where she proposed to take a non-European taxi home. When Peekay had looked upset, she'd explained, 'Peekay, they rise early in the townships. By now the place is bustling with people hurrying to catch an early train. What do you think my neighbours will think if I arrive at my doorstep at dawn dropped off in a big black car by a white man?'

  Peekay grinned, suddenly understanding. 'About what my neighbours would think if they'd seen you leaving my doorstep at dawn?'

  'No wonder you're such a crackerjack barrister!' Tandia said, trying to sound cheerful.

  Tandia needed to go home to bathe, to change into a black dress, and to pick up a brief she'd been working on. Peekay would pick her up around mid morning, using the intervening time to get a court order to have Juicey Fruit Mambo's body removed for burial in Zululand. This would normally have been extremely difficult, if not impossible in the time, but it had been quickly arranged af
ter a phone call to Magistrate Coetzee.

  The taxi had only just pulled away and she was fumbling in her bags for the keys to her house when a youth of about sixteen appeared suddenly at her side. Tandia gave a start. 'Hi Tandy, long time no see.' The boy had a nice smile and it was obvious he was friendly. Then Tandia recognized him.

  'Johnny Tambourine!' Despite her distress she was glad to see him.

  'When we heard about Sharpeville and you didn't come with Juicey Fruit Mambo last night, I told the others to go away. I thought, for sure, something bad has happened.'

  'Oh, Johnny they killed him. They shot him!' She began to cry again.

  'Don't cry, Tandy,' Johnny Tambourine put his hand on her shoulder and, taking the key she was holding from her hand, he opened the front door of her little house. 'Sit, I'll get you some water or something.' He looked about him, trying to decide where the kitchen might be.

  'Thank you, Johnny, I'm fine,' Tandia sniffed, rubbing her swollen eyes. 'I must look a mess,' she smiled through her tears. 'I didn't know you'd seen Juicey Fruit Mambo. Please sit, I'm being rude.' She moved to sit on the edge of a small sofa and pointed to a chair.

  'Ja, only yesterday, we made a deal, we done some business.' Johnny sat casually on the arm of a chair that matched the design of the sofa, crossing his legs to show a pair of bright red socks which matched his cardigan. He seemed a young man very much in control.

  'Business? You had some business with Juicey Fruit Mambo?'

  Johnny Tambourine scratched his head, then realized he was still wearing his cap. He removed it from his head, placing it on the chair beside him. 'Ja, we got a contract to look after you. Me an' Dog Poep Ismali an' Flyspeck Mendoza an' Too Many Fingers Bembi, all four, we going to protect you from now on; it's all agreed and signed for.'

  Despite considerable effort on her part, Tandia was unable to persuade Johnny Tambourine that she was perfectly safe on her own. Exhausted from lack of sleep and in some exasperation, she'd finally agreed to a trial week under the protection of the four boys. It was another wonderful, typical ham-fisted Juicey Fruit Mambo scheme wrought out of his love for her and the least she could do was pretend to go along with it until the boys grew tired of the game and went back to loitering, three-card scams, mugging and petty theft.

  Johnny Tambourine considered that his job had started right there and then and he'd come with her in the car to Sharpeville, sitting quietly in the back seat of the car while she and Peekay confronted Klopper.

  'We've come to identify one of the deceased and to arrange for the removal of his body, Meneer Klopper,' Peekay said politely to the large man.

  Klopper removed his hands from his trouser pockets and to their surprise came to attention; then he lifted himself onto his toes, which caused him to wobble dangerously as he leaned over them. The entire performance was meant to intimidate. 'I must say, man, you don't look like a relation of anybody we got here, Advokaat.' Klopper stabbed a blunt finger in Tandia's direction, acknowledging her presence for the first time. 'Not her too! We only got black kaffirs here. Who was it who died? The garden boy or the house girl at your place, hey?'

  Peekay removed an envelope from the jacket of his suit. 'He was a friend,' he said quietly. He handed the envelope to the big man. 'It contains a court order entitling me to make a positive identification and, gives me authority to remove the body.'

  Klopper smiled. Taking the envelope and holding it by the corner he tapped it several times into the open palm of his left hand. 'That's nice. A friend, hey? A white man who has black kaffir friends,' he squinted down again at Peekay, 'That Tom Majombi, you know the kaffir who become dead in the Geldenhuis trial, he was your friend also, hey?' He laughed suddenly and turned to Tandia. 'I would be careful if I was his friend, you hear? All his kaffir friends, they become dead!' He stressed the word kaffir, making it obvious that it included her. He continued to look at Tandia, a thin smile on his fat face. 'You hear what I'm saying?'

  Tandia held his stare. It was an impertinence she might not have been allowed had they been alone. Even now, the years of conditioning made her feel guilty. Guilty for what? She wasn't sure, for being born? Why was it she felt this life-or-death need to hold the fat white man's insolent stare? How could this animal intimidate her? Klopper ignored the flap of the envelope he- was holding and, without looking, nipped a corner with his thumb nail and began tearing about a quarter of an inch off the top, his fingers working deliberately as though he was in no hurry to open it. Tandia held his gaze, though the need to look away was becoming almost irresistible. She felt like a small bird mesmerized by a, snake and,. inwardly, she was screaming for the eye contact to come to an end. When Klopper had tom a thin sliver of paper off the top end of the envelope he finally dropped his gaze, inserting a fat thumb and forefinger pincer-like into the envelope to withdraw the court order. He unfolded the paper and appeared to look at it for a moment. 'Edward King George Juicey Fruit Mambo?' He read it slowly and aloud. Then without looking up he added, 'Here, man, some kaffirs got blerrie funny names!'

  'Inkosi Asebafa, Lord of the Dead! That's not a funny name?' Peekay shot back.

  Tandia grinned and Klopper looked at him coldly, his small dark eyes hostile. His voice was clipped as he spoke. 'You done your homework as usual, I see, advokaat. Most of the dead here, you know, they haven't got any papers.' He grinned, seeming to brighten up. 'They left their passes at home, that's what this whole kerfuffle is all about, man! Do you have papers for the kaffir who has become dead?'

  'No, I don't, but we can identify him quite easily.'

  'Identify him?' Klopper looked surprised. 'You can't identify a kaffir without papers, man!'

  Peekay sighed. He could have kicked himself for making the crack about Klopper's African name. 'The deceased is quite distinctive looking, he has two gold-capped incisor teeth and a large zig-zag scar across his skull.'

  'Gold teeth and a zig-zag skull? We got no one who become dead who looks like that!'

  Klopper's response was clumsy. Peekay knew instantly that the Boer knew all along that they'd come for Juicey Fruit Mambo.

  'I'm sure you have, Meneer Klopper, he's very large, six eight, six ten maybe? You couldn't miss him.'

  Klopper's voice was casual, almost uninterested as he spoke. 'Oh, that one? Ja, I remember now! It was the zigzag head, when you said about the zig-zag head, that got me mixed up.' He paused just long enough for the effect, looking directly at Tandia. 'That part was blown away when he become dead.'

  Tandia gasped and Peekay put his hand around her shoulder and squeezed her lightly. It was an involuntary action and a mistake and he saw the triumphant smirk on Klopper's face. 'We have an ambulance coming, Meneer Klopper.' Peekay withdrew his arm from around Tandia's shoulders and looked at his watch, 'any minute now. I'd like to sign for him please!'

  Klopper shook his head as though he was genuinely regretful. 'I'm sorry, any other one you can have. Just say a name and you can have any other kaffir who has become dead yesterday, but not this one. The kaffir with the sharp gold teeth, I definitely got strict instructions from high up not to release him.' He handed the court order back to Peekay.

  'This is ridiculous, Klopper!' Peekay said, dropping all pretence at politeness. 'I've got a court order, until it's rescinded it's valid. Who gave you the order to retain the deceased?'

  Klopper seemed not in the least upset by Peekay's pointed manner. He' could quite easily have told Peekay to mind his own business, but instead he smiled, 'As a matter of fact a friend of yours, advokaat. A good friend of yours,' he grinned, enjoying the moment. 'Lieutenant Geldenhuis, it was him, he personally left the instructions.'

  'Jannie Geldenhuis? Lieutenant Jannie Geldenhuis?' Peekay corrected.

  'Ja, I think it will soon be Kaptein Geldenhuis. It was a brave thing that he done yesterday against all those drunk, dagga-smoking, murdering black bastards!'

 
'Brave thing!' Tandia could contain herself no longer, 'Jesus! Can you believe it?'

  Klopper turned surprisingly quickly for a man his size and stabbed his finger at Tandia, 'Hey! You! Kaffir! You shut your mouth, you hear? You take God's name in vain again you in lots of trouble!'

  Tandia looked at him defiantly then turned and walked back to the car, too distraught and angry to remain with Peekay. Johnny Tambourine opened the door from inside and she sat beside him. Inside the car she gave vent to her feelings. She was snorting with indignation, her nostrils flared as she fought to keep down her anger, 'I'll kill him, I'll kill the fat white pig!' she hissed.

  Johnny Tambourine put his hand on Tandia's shoulder and chuckled pleasantly, 'That's why you got us, Tandy,' he said quietly. 'Hey man! I told you, we got a contract.' From the seam running down the side of his shaped tsotsi trousers Johnny Tambourine withdrew a sharpened bicycle spoke. 'Me, really I'm a knife man. Flyspeck Mendoza, he's the professional, he can use a spoke, cut spine with it better than a surgeon. When the time comes, Flyspeck will do it for you.'

  Tandia shuddered, 'Johnny, you mustn't do it! Klopper's just an ignorant Boer, there are thousands like him.'

  'He's dog shit in the sun, Tandia!'

  'Johnny you're here to protect me; that doesn't mean you've got to kill everyone who insults me! Here, I'm a coloured person, a black like you; if we did that, in one month all the white people in South Africa would be dead!' Peekay knew better than to follow after Tandia. He'd already compromised himself earlier by physically touching her in the presence of Klopper. The fat mortician would have seen it as a weakness, even worse, a perversion, and would have totally lost respect and become wholly recalcitrant.