Gertrude eventually jumped in between the sjamboker and the sjambokee because it was clearly never going to end. She flinched of pain that was obviously coming from her foot.
”Umtshelile lo Talking Tom ukuthi uyathakatha?”(Did you tell this Talking Tom that you’re a witch?), Muzi asked Gertrude. She drew her head back as it creased into a sharp frown. The man turned his questioning face towards her.
“Who are you?”, she asked.
“You don’t know me yet you’re busy bewitching me?” – Muzi
“I think you have the wrong address”, she said.
“Wrong address? Where’s the fxck is my handkerchief?”
It took a short moment for her to remember and shame graced her face like a thick splash of salad dressing.
“So you know this man?”, the boyfriend scoffed. He approached the bed and went to put on his clothes. Gertrude was still tongue-tied and speechless. The guy unplugged his phone from the charger and went to fetch his braaipack from the fridge.
“Hawu—”, she tried to protest.
“Yey!”, he shot out angrily before opening the rack to take out his canned goods, the fish, the baked beans and all.
He scanned her from top to toe with disgust weighing down and hanging from his lips. He then walked past and left. Muzi was observing all of this quietly with his hands in his pockets.
Gertrude tried moving her lips to voice an explanation but nothing sensible came out.
“What? You can explain?”, Muzi asked in reproach.
“Let’s sit down so we can talk”, she directed him to the couch. His eyes were shooting bullets at her as he stared. She looked down. Only then did he start walking to the seat he was being offered.
“Please explain to me ukuth um’thakatha kanjani umuntu ongamazi? I could’ve lost my wife, my whole family...”, his voice was pained, she could hear it.
“I’m sorry. I really am. I tried finding you but Bongiwe did not give me the chance to explain to her about what happened. She is always busy”
“Finding me? What for?”, now he was confused. She sighed.
She bent her spine towards the floor and took off her brown sock. Her whole foot, starting from the toes to her ankle was swollen and black.
“What’s going on there and what does it have to do with what I’m asking you?”
“You’re blessed. I am finally paying for messing with the wrong person”, she stated with grief accompanying her tone. Muzi was now drowning in a pit of confusion.
“26 years ago, my husband left me after finding out that I was using umuthi to keep him. I remember his parting words very well”
“What did he say?”
“Uthe ngilibambe lingashoni. I thought he was going to harm me but he said my actions will come back to me one day”
Muzi kept quiet, processing this.
“All I wanted to do was to help my brother’s child. She has everything, but children and a man who deserves her. Bongiwe is too much of a beautiful woman for the lonely life she won’t admit to living”
“Help her using witchcraft?”
“Love portions and spells have always worked. That’s what I thought was right. That’s what I knew”
Muzi laughed in disdain. He stood up a moment later.
“This was a waste of time”, he said, deciding to let her be.
“Where are you going? I need your help. Please don’t go”
Muzi turned in her direction with a lifted, questioning brow. She got up with difficulty and took two limping steps towards him.
“If I don’t get a drop of your wife’s blood, this wound is going to spread and my whole body will rot”
“Happy dying days”, Muzi
With that, he left. She tried grabbing his wrist but he was too quick for her. She wiped the fast tear that raced down her cheek, thinking of how her brother must be disappointed in her. He once warned her about being all over the place with different sangomas. Did she listen? She dropped back down on the couch and took out her phone from the pocket of her skirt. She dialled Bongiwe’s number and the subscriber was, like most times unavailable.
He went out the shack and found Pope still smoking his blunt.
"Should I go fetch the body?", he asked and Muzi frowned in confusion. He shortly laughed after realizing what the Pope meant.
"Let's go. Ukuphi uThato?"(Where's Thato?)
"Somewhere around here", Pope replied as he put the key in the ignition.
Philani called Muzi's phone and he answered.
"Tell me you found her", he immediately said.
"Eish Pacman..."
"Don't give me that"
"I'm certain she is still in the country though. I'll make sure she doesn't skip but at the moment I can't find her. If she was making calls from a number we know or using her cards to swipe we'd find her. She's invisible right now"
Muzi exhaled through the nose, frustrated.
"But I did find one of the guys who was driving the garbage truck the day she and her friend escaped. I can't think of any other way they would've pulled this off. They're inexperienced"
"Where is he?"
"La endlini"(Here in the house)
"Where's your wife?"
"That one is for me to handle. Wena just arrive", Philani said and Muzi huffed out an unintentional laugh. Philani is an incurable chauvinist, always has been.
