They are Coming

Chapter 14

55 2004 Chapter 14 MaNdlovu sighed, her fingers moving swiftly. Her mind locked into her first months at Wildberg Ranch. She had fallen in love with Ngwenya and after a romance of two years they had married in 1979 when she turned twenty. She had no regrets. She still loved Ngwenya although her love was more mature. They had both had the instinctive ability to pick themselves up after every setback that life in the city had tossed their way. They did not expect life to be easy, and their current problems could not be avoided. Their marriage had been stable and without scandal. Maybe Ngwenya had his secret affairs, like most men, but nothing had ever reached her ears. She had been a faithful wife; the ancestors knew that. It was Ngwenya who had taken her virginity on their wedding night, although her parents had wanted to offer it to Mbambo in exchange for his cows. All these years later, MaNdlovu bristled at the thought. Ngwenya had given them cows when he had paid lobola, but not the fifteen that Mbambo had promised. Ngwenya had so far paid two of the five he had been charged by her parents. Ngwenya had been considered an educated man at the ranch, though he only had a ZJC certificate, but these days things were different. She wished they’d taken advantage of the many adult education courses offered shortly after Independence, but they hadn’t realised the im- 56 portance of doing so. Now, however, she’s determined that her children should have a proper education, no matter what it costs or what sacrifices were needed. And, then, inevitably her thoughts turned to Senzeni and her heart filled with pain. At that moment, the light suddenly went out. MaNdlovu listened for a moment in the darkness, waiting, and breathing slowly. Her ears are attuned to the night outside. Beneath the silence she hears the faint whistle of a distant train. Something is moving on the rail track that cuts through Emakhandeni and Richmond, maybe people, maybe goods, going to Victoria Falls, or Harare. When it seems to MaNdlovu that the power is not going to return any time soon, she carefully places her weaving beside her on the bench, and rises to her feet. She goes past the table in the middle of the room to the far wall, her hands outstretched. She has done this many times and knows the way in the darkness. Reaching the wall, she feels along it and finds the light switch. She flicks it off and on, her face raised to the roof, her eyes open. She parts the curtain beside the light switch and looks out of the window. The street is in darkness, and the tower lights have also gone out. ‘Electricity!’ It’s just another of those erratic power cuts that have become part of the staple diet of the country alongside the regular meals of isitswhala and tshomoliya . She guesses that it’s around midnight, so she double-checks that the front and back doors are locked, and shuffles her feet across the familiar floor to the bedroom. A few minutes later she’s lying on the bed, as Ambition whimpers in his sleep on the floor; her eyes are open, her mind still in turmoil. Life had been a little bit easier when her husband was working at Perlin Shoes, a job he had got as soon as they moved into the city in 1981, but the factory had closed down in 2001. It was a time when most factories in Bulawayo closed down, hit hard by hyperinflation and the collapse of secondary industries after the farm invasions, and it was not surprising that he couldn’t find another job. So Ngwenya had reverted back to being a cobbler. At least the economic downturn meant that more people were having their shoes repaired, as they could no longer afford the ever-rising cost of new ones. Ngwenya hadn’t been doing too badly. At least he’d kept the wolf from the door. Then, out of the blue, Mbambo, who’d disappeared during the raid at the ranch all those years ago, and about whom there’d been all 57 sorts of rumours, had suddenly re-appeared in Lobengula Township, renting a house in their line and becoming their neighbour! It had been a great surprise for both MaNdlovu...