They are Coming

Chapter 17

67 Chapter 17 The staple diet of the township is isitshwala with a relish of tshomoliya. If there’s money, meat’s added, and if the relish is properly cooked, it provides a tasty meal. Isitshwala is unchanging, but the relish will vary depending on what’s available in the vegetable garden. For those in the know, the customary delele hedge is also edible. Its tender leaves can be cooked to make a relish, especially if there’s no money for other options, and the garden is barren. There’s tshomoliya in MaNdlovu’s garden, and a ball of cabbage and dried caterpillars in the house, but this morning she’s decided that they must have idelele for lunch, just for a change. Her husband has promised to bring home some meat for supper. As she plucks the leaves, she sees Ambition leave the house carrying a plastic ball. He’s dressed in black jogger shorts with a white stripe at the side, and a white T-shirt with a black 9 at the front, his Highlanders soccer kit. Despite the relief that she feels after the exorcism ceremony, MaNdlovu does not want her son much out her sight, and she knows that a game of street soccer can last until sunset. ‘I’m not going far, Mama, I’m just visiting Ntando,’ he responds to her raised eyebrows. ‘But, Ambi, what you’re wearing tells me a different story.’ ‘Sure, Mama,’ Ambition smiles. ‘Trust me.’ He throws the ball into the air and kicks it at the hedge, aiming for the hole. ‘I don’t know who can explain to you and Ntando not to play so far away from home. We worry when we can’t find you.’ ‘Don’t worry, Mama.’ Ambition walks to the hedge, picks up the ball, crouches down and vanishes through the hole. ‘I’ll be around,’ he says as he disappears. 68 Emerging on the other side, Ambition sees Ntando peeping through the window of his home. Suddenly his friend raises a fist in the air in triumph. Ambition steals up behind him. ‘Now, Freeman! Now!’ Ntando hisses quietly. He’s on tiptoe. ‘Now for what?’ Ambition whispers, and elbows Ntando aside. His body stiffens. Through the small hole in the curtain on the window, he can see Freeman, Ntando’s brother. His arms are locked around a girl. Ambition’s mouth opens in dismay. It’s Nobuhle. An only child, Nobuhle is a student nurse, living with her grandmother, MaDlodlo. Both her parents are migrant workers in South Africa – and they send enough money and groceries for Nobuhle and her grandmother to live comfortable lives. To Ambition, Nobuhle is the most beautiful girl in the world who, in her white nursing uniform, seems like an angel. His mother affectionately calls Nobuhle her daughter-in-law, which makes Ambition thrill with shyness, and Nobuhle often teases him saying that he’ll never be able to propose to a girl when he grows up. ‘What are they doing now?’ Ntando hisses, as the boys jostle each other to peep through the curtain. But Ambition has had enough. He runs towards his yard and dives through the hole in the hedge, with Ntando hot on his heels, and then out into the street. ‘I think he saw me,’ Ambition says. ‘He was looking straight at me.’ ‘No ways!’ Ntando grabs the ball from Ambition. ‘He might have seen your eye but not you. You can’t tell who a person is by their eyes – unless you’re Power.’ He giggles at his joke. ‘You shouldn’t peep at your brother, Ntando. You’ll grow boils in your eyes, don’t you know that?’ ‘But you also peeped.’ Ntando throws the ball, his foot thwacks into it and it arcs and bounces to the ground. ‘I’m older than you and I do not grow boils that easily,’ Ambition says. ‘Don’t you know that?’ And the two boys sprint after the ball. *** The delele Ambition’s mother had prepared for lunch with isitshwala, which Ambition had shared with Ntando, had not been too bad, and after lunch MaNdlovu had sent them to Ilanga Youth Centre. The Centre had once been a place where talent of all kinds was identified and nurtured. But in the years after Independence, the City Council , for reasons best known, chose to run vocational training projects in 69...