by Sue Rabie
It was May, and curled up beside her were two young children.
‘Children make more heat than adults when they sleep,’ M’Kathle told David. ‘They kept her alive, even when I myself thought she would die.’
David wasn’t listening.
The horrors of the night before were all suddenly coming back to him. Mark being shot. Du Plessis and Malan murdered. Their own escape from Jake and Kyle in the irrigation canal and the subsequent harrowing walk through the snow.
He managed to get halfway to his feet before the dizziness set in, before he found himself swaying.
M’Kathle steadied him with a hand to his chest. ‘You should rest,’ the induna cautioned. ‘Like your friend.’
‘How is she?’ David croaked.
M’Kathle held him by the elbow. ‘She sleeps. When she wakes and eats she will be as new.’
Thank God, David thought. But what about the others? What about Mark?
He forced himself to his feet, clutching the blanket to his waist.
‘I have to go,’ he told M’Kathle, squeezing his eyes shut as he felt sweat break out all over his body.
‘You are not well enough to go anywhere else today,’ M’Kathle said. ‘You must stay here, you are welcome in my house.’
But David wasn’t listening. ‘I have to get back to the others,’ he said. ‘I have to warn them.’
David lurched across to the line of clothes.
‘Warn them about what?’ the old man asked.
David shook his head. He didn’t know how to explain, didn’t know how to get the old man to understand. He tried to work out where to start, how to begin, but another voice interrupted before he could speak.
‘He has to go back to his white friends. Our fires and women are not good enough for him,’ Inga Ngubane said sardonically, from his place by the door.
A blanket had been nailed over the inside of the opening, and neither David nor M’Kathle had seen the man enter.
‘I told you he wouldn’t bring any more food,’ the son said to his father with scorn in his voice. ‘He comes only when he needs help, or when one of his own is in trouble.’
David groaned inwardly. He was too tired to defend himself. It was better not to argue, it was better just to get his things and go.
He tugged on his jeans, steadying himself against the wall as he did so. Pain flared, his body protesting.
Inga frowned angrily when David didn’t respond.
‘Who did that to you?’ M’Kathle asked, indicating the bruise that darkened David’s face where Kyle had hit him. ‘And why?’
David tugged on his shirt and then his jacket, it was still slightly damp around the cuffs and collar.
‘Because I would not do what they asked of me,’ he told them.
He did not meet M’Kathle Ngubane’s gaze as he answered. Instead he searched around for his boots and socks.
‘Who are “they”?’ M’Kathle asked.
David’s boots were at the fire, the leather steaming. ‘The two men we saved from the bus,’ he said.
‘And what did they want from you?’ asked Inga harshly.
‘They wanted me to take them back to the bus,’ David told him, as he tugged on the socks and boots.
Inga frowned contemptuously. ‘And you did not want to do that, and for that they hit you?’
David was silent for a while as he tied his laces. He stood when he was finished, then for the first time looked at Inga as he spoke. ‘They shot Mark Werner,’ he said. ‘They killed Sergeant Du Plessis and Jacob Malan. Then they used May to force me to do what they wanted.’
There was stunned silence. Du Plessis and Malan were well known to M’Kathle and Inga. Mark was well liked in the community.
Father and son glanced at each other worriedly and then began to speak in subdued tones.
David left them to it. He went to May’s side and bent down to see how she was doing. She was sleeping comfortably, the two youngsters next to her also asleep and quite oblivious to the discussion going on. David lifted the blankets. May was also naked, but David was more concerned about frostbite.
He pulled the blanket back over her shoulders when he was satisfied, then stood up.
M’Kathle and Inga were still in discussion.
‘I have to go,’ he told them, interrupting their conversation. ‘I have to get back and warn the others. I have to stop Kyle and Jake.’ He glanced at May. ‘Will you look after her?’ It was an appeal to the older man.
M’Kathle nodded. ‘She will be safe with me,’ he told David.
‘Father!’ objected Inga. ‘We cannot keep her here. She is just another mouth to feed. I will not be responsible for a stranger in the house when so many of our own people are suffering.’
M’Kathle nodded, almost as if in agreement. ‘You will not be responsible for her,’ he told his son. ‘I will take on the responsibility myself. You will have your own needs to worry about.’
Inga frowned. ‘What do you mean?’ he asked.
M’Kathle shrugged. ‘We cannot let this man go out on his own after all he has done for us.’ The old man smiled again. ‘So you will go with him.’
‘You don’t expect me to help him!’
M’Kathle glanced at the fire and pointed to the small pile of wood beside it. ‘Who brought you the wood for the fire?’ he asked. ‘Who brought you the food for your belly?’
Inga flung an arm at the fire. ‘The wood is nearly finished! The food is almost gone!’
‘Hmmm,’ M’Kathle said, nodding. ‘And yet you are warm and full.’
Inga threw his hands up in protest, but M’Kathle would have nothing more of his temper. ‘I have spoken,’ he reprimanded his son gently. ‘You will go, and if you can you will come back with the rest of the wood and food.’
The last part of the statement was more of a question than an order, and David realised M’Kathle was addressing him.
‘Yes,’ he said, trying to clear his head. ‘I will come back.’
‘He lies,’ Inga seethed. ‘He will not come back for us.’
‘I will,’ David said. ‘I know where they are going.’
He thought of Kyle, of what he would have done after he and May had escaped, of how far ahead they were and where they would be by now. Four hours. Even if they had become lost, even if they deviated from the road and spent half of that time backtracking, they would have eventually found their way to the farm. The Werner’s farm was just off the road they would take to get to the bus, the house visible for miles around because of its location in the lee of a gradual slope at the base of a hill.
But maybe they had bypassed the Werner’s farm. Maybe they had driven straight on to the bus.
No, he didn’t think so. With him and May gone, Kyle would need new hostages.
And Anri didn’t know how dangerous they were. She would fight them … she would resist in her usual fiery way. They would kill her. They would kill Miriam too.
They would use Michelle.
M’Kathle saw his sudden concern, saw the sweat break out on his face once more.
‘You worry about someone?’ he said. ‘You worry about the ones you left behind?’
‘The women …’ David whispered. ‘There are three women and a boy alone at the farm.’
M’Kathle touched David on the elbow. ‘Then you must go now,’ he said, ‘and you must take my son and his gun with you …’
Twenty-One
❄
Anri stood on the stoep, a blanket wrapped tightly around her shoulders as she waited for David and the grader.
He would come back, she was sure of it.
But when?
Things were not good inside.
The boy was deteriorating, his temperature up and the fever worsening. They had piled blankets high over his body to stop his shivering and Miriam was doing her best to keep him comfortable, but they all knew they were fighting a losing battle.
Miriam was proud of the boy, who had not complained or c
ried once since falling ill. He was uncomfortable, and scared, and even delirious sometimes, but he was never needy. He had even managed to say ‘please’, when he asked for more water, and ‘thank you’, when she had tucked the blankets closer around his body.
He never spoke to Michelle.
Although Michelle had said she was trained as a nurse, she had spent very little time looking after the boy. Siyabonga seemed to withdraw even further into his fevered silence when she was in the room. Instead, she had gone outside to wait for the grader through the long night while the boy slept fitfully.
From what Anri could tell Michelle hadn’t slept, even when Miriam went to her in the middle of the night and argued that she wasn’t doing anyone any good watching for the grader in the dark, Michelle had just shaken her head, and carried on waiting, just as Anri was doing now.
Sometimes both of them would keep a lookout, sometimes only Michelle, but it had been Anri who had been up early that morning, and so it was Anri who saw it first.
‘The grader!’ she shouted down the passage. ‘It’s back!’
Michelle and Miriam hurried to the front door to watch the grader plough its way through the fresh snow that had fallen during the night.
They waited breathlessly as the grader approached, the driver angling the big yellow vehicle straight towards them over the snow-mantled front yard.
There go my roses, Anri thought, and then promptly forgot about the plants as she realised Jake was driving the grader and not David.
Jake’s face was smeared red. With blood, Anri realised, as he turned the engine off and began climbing from the cab.
Something was wrong. She knew it straight away.
‘Where’s David?’ Anri called down to them as Alex Kyle joined Jake. ‘Where’s my husband?’
Neither man replied. They started towards the stoep, faces blank, fists held at their sides.
‘Miriam,’ Anri turned slightly to address her. ‘Go inside. Stay with the boy.’
Miriam glanced at her strangely, but did as she was asked.
Anri waited for them, slightly in front of Michelle, so that if anything went wrong she could push her out of the way.
But she didn’t get a chance.
Alex Kyle walked up to her, Jake close behind him, and as they reached the top step in front of Anri, Alex Kyle hit her.
It came without warning. One minute she was staring up at him, defying him to give her bad news, to tell her that there had been an accident, that David and Mark were hurt, and the next she was on the ground, her face smarting.
She lay there for a moment, her hand on her cheek, confusion clouding her thoughts. Then Jake gripped her by the arm and hauled her up. ‘Come on, missus,’ he snarled down at her. ‘Breakfast time!’
Anri had a moment to look back and see what was happening to Michelle before she was pushed through the door.
Michelle stood beside Alex Kyle, his hand on her shoulder as he watched Jake usher Anri forcefully inside.
❄
Jake kept Anri busy in the kitchen.
He pulled a switchblade from his jacket pocket and she had no option but to do as he ordered. First he made her heat some water so he could wash the blood off his face, then he made her cook him breakfast – eggs, bacon, toast and whatever else she could find in the fridge.
‘Hurry it up!’ he ordered, as she stirred sugar into his coffee. ‘I’m hungry.’
‘Where are the others?’ she tried again.
‘Keep quiet!’ he yelled at her, waving the switchblade in front of her face. ‘And when you’re finished with those eggs fetch that black woman and that boy out here!’
Anri held her retort in check, fighting back the tears.
They were tears of fury, not self-pity, her mind tumbling over itself as she flipped the eggs in the pan.
The horses.
If she could get out of the kitchen without Jake noticing she could make a dash for the stables. All she had to do was get a bridle and saddle on one of the horses and she could ride out of here.
But not without Miriam, the boy and Michelle. She couldn’t leave them behind.
Her frustrations increased as she dished up the breakfast.
‘Now,’ Jake said as he stabbed at the bacon with a fork, ‘go fetch your friends. We’re going for a little drive.’
Anri started at his words. ‘Where?’ she asked, hoping he wouldn’t lash out at her while he was concentrating on the food. ‘For how long?’
‘Out there,’ he jabbed with the switchblade towards the front of the house where the grader waited. ‘And for as long as it takes.’
He smiled as he scooped a whole fried egg into his mouth.
‘The boy is sick,’ Anri argued. ‘If he goes out there in his condition he cou …’
Jake slammed the point of the knife into the table.
It shivered there, vibrating as he wiped his sleeve over his mouth to catch the dripping egg yoke.
‘I could kill him now if you like?’ he suggested, still smiling.
Anri stared at him in horror. ‘You wouldn’t,’ she whispered. ‘You can’t, he’s just a boy!’
Jake forked the second egg into his mouth. ‘I can,’ Jake said, the yoke dripping onto the table, ‘and I will.’
❄
They sat together, Miriam’s arm around the boy’s shoulders, his hand clutching her coat. Miriam had already dressed for bad weather, and had dressed the boy as well. He was wrapped in a bright pink padded jacket with lots of pink fluff at the collar. It was one of Anri’s daughters’ jackets. He had a blue scarf around his neck and a grey beanie on his head. Overlarge gloves protected his hands.
Miriam had found a scarf and gloves for herself, and as Anri came closer she handed her a jacket and gloves. ‘I think we will need these,’ Miriam said, a sad look in her eyes. She knew they would be leaving, that the men had come specially for them. ‘What do you think they want?’ she asked.
Anri bent down in front of the boy and tugged his jacket tighter around his shoulders. ‘I don’t know,’ Anri told her. ‘But don’t worry,’ she smiled, ‘they won’t hurt us.’
Miriam glanced at her, raising an eyebrow at her reddened cheek.
Anri shrugged. ‘They need us,’ she told Miriam.
‘Need us?’ Miriam echoed. ‘What would they want us for? What about your husband, and Mr David?’ She looked at the boy, not wanting to alarm him but needing to say it anyway. ‘If they needed someone, for whatever reason, why not use them, why come back for us?’
Anri didn’t know, nor did she want to imagine.
Why had Jake and Alex Kyle come back?
‘They’ve come back for something,’ she thought out loud.
‘Or someone …?’ Miriam said.
❄
They left the bedroom reluctantly, Miriam carrying the boy easily on her hip and Anri dragging the warmer clothes on quickly.
‘Outside!’ Jake commanded as soon as he saw them in the passageway.
They hurried to the front door, Jake crowding them from behind as he ordered them down the stairs and towards the horsebox.
‘What about Michelle?’ Anri chanced as he pushed her up the ramp. ‘What have you done to her?’
Jake laughed. ‘I haven’t done anything … yet!’ He sniggered as he peered over his shoulder towards the house. ‘That’s Kyle’s department.’
He shut them in the horsebox, still sniggering to himself.
The two women looked at each other as they waited in the box, the stacks of provisions still filling most of the space. The boy sagged onto a bag of mealie meal. Eventually Miriam and Anri sat too, Miriam putting her arm around the boy’s shoulders to try and protect him further from the cold. There wasn’t much room, and it became even worse when Michelle arrived.
She climbed into the horsebox through the groom’s door, not looking at Anri or Miriam.
Behind her came Alex Kyle.
He shut the small door, banged on the side of the box to ind
icate they were ready, then stared blank faced at Anri as he waited for Jake to start up the grader.
Anri glanced away.
She didn’t want to look at him, didn’t want to imagine what he had done to the poor girl.
Michelle sat down in a corner, her back towards Anri and her long hair falling forwards across her face. Anri flinched. She felt she had betrayed the girl. She should have tried to protect her, should have at least protested when Alex Kyle took her away to do heaven knows what to her.
❄
Michelle didn’t speak one word the entire time they travelled from the farm to their destination.
No one did.
Anri wasn’t sure how long it took. Fifteen minutes perhaps until the grader stuttered to a halt.
Kyle immediately opened the groom’s door and stepped out into the snow, then he put out his hand for Michelle to follow.
Anri was surprised the girl obeyed without question.
She was also surprised Michelle actually took the outstretched hand and let him help her out the horsebox. What had Kyle done to her to make her so obedient? What had he threatened her with?
She watched through the narrow slit between the hinges of the half open door as Jake, Kyle and Michelle walked through the snow towards a large shadow looming in the white wasteland.
It was a bus. The bus Miriam and Siyabonga had been on.
Anri stared as the men began kicking at the snow piled up at the base of the bus, watched as Jake got down on his knees and began scooping big armfuls away from the cargo bays beneath the vehicle.
Kyle got down to help.
And then so did Michelle.
Anri watched in confusion. Why was she helping them? Did she even know what they were looking for?
They rummaged around for quite some time, all three of them digging for something, dragging out the occasional suitcase or bag only to toss it aside and continue the search.
And then Jake found it.
It was a big blue suitcase. Anri watched as the two men, Michelle with them, argued over the case because it had somehow been ripped and was no use any more. They found a replacement bag, dumped the contents of the satchel into the snow and hurriedly repacked the contents of the case into the new bag.