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Senzeni's Nativity
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Senzeni’s Nativity Pat Brickhill PARCHED ROADSIDE, grass, crackling leaves. Thorn bush covered in a thick layer of dust. Grass and scrub emaciated by hungry cattle and goats. Flat-topped acacias with stunted branches stretching out like desperate hands. Their trunks stripped bare by man and beast alike for fodder or to light fires. Dry branches, snapped off like matches, awaiting burning. Travellers could see the bus long before they heard it. Dry, dusty, warm air, the sun beating relentlessly down. People lay hidden from the heat. Now and then they rose from dark slivers of shade and squinted into the dazzling sun toward the direction the bus was expected. One woman stood slightly separated from the others . Esi was short and slim. Her head, always covered in the old-fashioned way, sported a black beret. Her unlined oval face and features were pleasant enough but overshadowed by her eyes – poignant eyes that that seen so much: love, pain, grief and death. When she saw the dust cloud rising in the distance, she bent and nudged the young woman slumbering at her feet. Then picking up her zambia, she shook it, looking past the approaching bus, past the hills to some distant place that she often visited in her thoughts. She folded the cloth neatly but automatically and placed it inside her canvas shoulder bag – the red, white and blue British Airways insignia still visible but faded after constant use and many washes. The young woman by her side pushed herself up into a sitting position, then swung onto her knees and slowly heaved herself up. She swayed on her feet as she dusted down her clothes, almost losing her balance. She held onto the older woman’s shoulder as, with an effort, she slipped her feet into her old shapeless shoes. Esi remembered her brother’s phone call – a message that hinted at domestic problems – telling her to return home quickly. She arrived a few days later at the huts spread-eagled over the top of the stony hill. Her 1 mother greeted her and pointed – no words – just pointed to the white hut always used as the young girls’ sleeping hut. Esi’sheartpounded.Shedidn’t know what to expect: it wasn’t death, or birth. Only veiled messages, pointed fingers. She pushed open the door. Senzeni sat on a reed mat on the floor. Her eyes were lowered and she didn’t look up to see who had entered. She said nothing. There was nothing to say. Esi could see the problem. She was pregnant. Senzeni had been at Bejani High School. Although much older than her fellow students she seemed to be plodding her way towards her Olevels and the hope of something better. She helped Esi’s mother with the heavy duties: collecting water from the spring and chopping wood, before walking the eight kilometres to school. When she returned home she did her homework after her chores. Each month Esi put aside a little of her small wage earned as a domestic worker towards Senzeni’s school fees and books. And on Saturdays she caught the bus to the Musika Market to buy tomatoes, which she resold door to door in the suburbs to avoid the municipal police who hunted down the hawkers. Now all effort was in vain. Senzeni was pregnant. Esi raged silently and wept openly. She looked to the heavens where her God invisibly moved. In answer to Esi’s questions, Senzeni her head still bowed, whispered the name of one of the young men in a nearby village . Esi went with her mother to the boy’s kraal. This was not traditionally women’s work but there were no men left at Esi’s home village. The boy’s father sat in the shade next to the cooking hut, smoking. He turned his head away from Esi and her mother when they spoke to him, and called for his wife, who was digging in the field. Dropping her hoe, she came and joined them. She crouched and listened to what they had to say and in reply she called her son from another of the huts. His tattered khaki shorts had been mended many times. He was a thickset boy with uncombed hair and only one eye – having lost the other in a stick fight while out herding. He was young, brash and frightened. He refused to acknowledge his part in the drama. He laughed nervously when Esi confronted him and...