Chapter 19 (The warriors’ way)
I told the driver to leave. He argued with me for a while. “I know where he lives, if they see you, they will not be pleased. Please go. I know this man.” He left reluctantly.
I removed my shoes and my stockings, and pulled my dress up. I had to cross the river to reach the kraal.
“Bloody hell it’s hot.” I slipped a few times. I climbed the embankment. I had to catch my breath.
It was early in the morning, the sweat made my dress stick to me.
I could see the enclosure and I walked on. I had left my shoes and stockings on the river bed. No one will take it. That’s how life is here.
I did get the shock of my life when two men stepped out from behind a tree and held assegai’s to my throat. My Zulu was lacking, I tried to recall how to say, I am the chief’s wife.
“Ngingukosikazi weduna.”
The man to my left told me to walk. I obeyed.
Funani was milking a cow, he looked up at me and recognition flashed in his eyes. The two men were making fun of me, they asked Funani when did he marry a white woman? Because they weren’t invited.
He scolded them, and they lowered their weapons, he explained to them that I was his mother, the wife of his father. The tip of one of the assegai’s nicked me. I wasn’t sure if it was blood or perpetration running down my neck.
Funani grabbed a stick and walloped them, until they apologised.
“Come mother, I need to see what that idiot did to you.”
He cleaned my wound. I stared up at his face. Yeah, only one man in the entire world could have fathered this man.
Funani brought me a mug of cool water to drink. There is a time for formalities and questions.
The guests need took preference.
I washed my face. It was much cooler inside the hut. “Thank you Funani.” He smiled at me and my heart melted, not only due to the heat.
He sat on the floor, I had expected him to sit in the seat allocated for him. In doing so he showed me, that we are of equal standing.
Once I felt cooler and the bleeding had stopped, we ate. He remembered I didn’t eat meat. So I ate maize and corn on the cob.
I washed my hands, and leaned back. I was tired it had not been an easy few days.
He looked at me. “It is good to see you, alive mother.”
I took his hand. “As it is to see you Funani.”
“You are different on the outside, but not on the inside.”
I think my heart was going to jump right out of my chest.
“That is my honour to hear those words from you, my son. I have missed you so much. Funani may I ask you a question?”
He nodded. “Do you blame me for your father’s death?” Funani scowled.
He leaned back and stretched out his long legs. At times I felt tongue tied, afraid. That the man before was Inkosi, and that his death was an illusion.
“No mother. He died a warrior’s death, there is no shame in that. He lived a happy life, there is no shame in that. He loved you above all else there is no shame in that. You mother, you blame yourself, its’ time for peace. As there is time to plant, birth and die.”
We sat alone in his hut. He had sent everyone out. He was still fuming at the cut on my neck.
Funani placed a clean cloth on the cut. “The white men will think we tried to kill you.”
“No, they won’t. I shall tell them I got stuck in a thorn bush.” Funani smiled.
“You will protect me? You know I am not my father. I do not love the whites. I love you mother, because your heart is like mine. I can see, what my father was blind to. They hate and use us. We are not free mother. So I plunder their farms.”
“Yeah, the cop at the precinct gave me an indication that things aren’t kosher up here. He warned me not to come. I trust you. I love you as I loved your father, you know my words are true.”
“Hmm, does he know it’s my men doing the plundering?’
“No, I believe he said that to me under assumption, I think he was afraid you might hurt me, not that you are a scoundrel.”
Funani looked up at the sky. I looked away from his face from time to time.
‘Why have you come?”
“Funani, I needed to see your face. I needed to see the farms. Tell me how are things here?”
He poured me another mug of water. I think he was drinking uMqombothi, a traditional beer. Inkosi didn’t drink, not that I knew of.
“Mother, they came. They took all the land; the laws keep changing. We were promised our land back, and it’s not ours. The white men farm, the Indian farms, but the Zulu, has no farm. I have not hurt them, I want to. We take a few chickens and cows. Corn and some vegetables. But I have not killed. I can’t shame my father; he was a good man.”
“My dearest Funani, he is a good man. I can see him in your eyes. I didn’t come all this way to accuse you, no my beloved son. I came to see your face.”
Funani nodded. He said something under his breathe, I didn’t quite understand.
“The men, that killed my father are dead. Long time now. I killed them, I hunted them down like a lion and I killed them. Do you feel shame for me?”
“No, I never shall. I think I am thankful, that you survived and that they are no longer of this earth.”
“Mother will you stay here tonight?” I smiled. “I would love to. I left my shoes on the river bank.”
He sent a young man to fetch it.
I was shown to a hut, a tub of water waited and clothes. The bar of homemade soap opened the floodgates, everything I had bottled up, I let go of, as I did with the sand.
We were sitting around the fire. My back was killing me. on the topic of killing. Funani had warned both men and women if a hair was taken from my head there would be dire consequences.
I was struggling to sit up right. Funani was leaning against a tree, he told one of the maidens to help me up, she walked with me to where he was sitting, and helped me into a seated position. She brought a blanket and two pillows.
“Lean against me mother.” I placed a pillow behind my back. and one under my legs, I leaned against Funani. I had to bite down hard on the tears, he felt like Inkosi.
I listened to the stories. I was feeling unwell. The cut on my neck was burning.
Funani was bare chested. He touched my head, and he cussed. The tip of the spears had been dipped in poison. I was getting delirious. They took me to my hut, but all I could see were snakes. I think I screamed out, I don’t really know. I think it was all in my imagination.
The Sangoma was treating the wound, but all I could see were the snakes. I am petrified of snakes.
I think I was begging the snakes not to bite me, when someone took my hand. I looked up at his face.
“Inkosi, why are you here?” He smiled and kissed me head. I no longer saw the snakes.
“No. don’t go.” He sat down and held my hand. The Sangoma had to ‘bleed’ the cut to rid it of the poison.
“Inkosi, where have you been? I have called to you, but you never came. I called and I called. I miss you so much.”
I screamed when the wound was opened. I am not sure if I had this conversation out loud, no one spoke of it, it would have been disrespectful, and Funani was seeing red.
“Inkosi, I got married, he is such a bad man…” I continued to tell him about my life in Manningtree.
I held his hand, I wouldn’t let go. “Inkosi, you have changed, but not on the inside, the outside is young, I love you so much, come back to me…”
I passed out a few times, I was in the grip of a raging fever.
“Inkosi, I know you will leave me, I don’t want you to leave me. My heart cannot smile. Kiss me husband.”
I think he leaned closer, but I passed out again. I slept fitfully, my body was on fire, I think someone had thrown me in a fire. “Inkosi, hi. What are you doing handsome?” I know someone was wiping my brow.
“Inkosi, I want to run, will you run with me?” I got ‘up’ and we ran. Through the lands, over the hills, in the river. We ran, I laughed through my tears. “Run faster Inkosi, are you a spoilt rich girl?”
We ran, through the sugar cane lands, through the house, up to Mama’s house, up a hill where Sheba is buried, so she would always find me. We ran up the waterfall, and down again. I know he was behind me, however I never heard his foot fall.
Shaka appeared and we ran. Down to the mill, past the mill, back through the lands, back across the river. “Inkosi, don’t leave me. I love you, I will marry you, don’t leave me. I came to find you, to love you. Please husband, don’t leave me. Kiss me my love.”
I blinked, I no longer felt on fire. Funani was asleep next to me. I looked to my right. Inkosi wasn’t there. I sobbed. Funani sat up.
“Mother must I call a doctor?” I shook my head no.
“I am better, Funani I saw him, I saw Inkosi we ran all over the lands. Oh my God, Funani I saw him, he is beautiful.”
A maiden helped me to bathe. As I stepped into the tub, I looked at my feet, my feet were dirty. I looked at my arms. Sugar cane can leave fine scratches on the skin if you run through it.
The water burned my body. The maiden washed my very dirty feet. I was looking at all the scratches all over my body. I lifted my feet up once more, around my ankles were two deer hide’s tied, the same as what Inkosi wore. I asked the maiden if she had done that?
She shook her head no. My neck hurt, but I dressed and looked for Funani.
“Funani, did you put these around my ankles?”
If it was possible for Funani to pale, now was that moment.
He sat in the sand, by my feet. “Those belonged to my father. I know because I tied it around his ankles after you washed his body, mother.” I sat down, too shocked to stand.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, mother. Those I tied, because I cured it. I know, those belonged to my father.”
We ate maize and sour milk. Funani would glance at me, but he respected me too much to ask me, what happened to me last night. And the cut on my neck was now significantly larger.
“Mother, you need stitches, or it will get infected. You need to go to town.”
There was signal so far up the mountain. I was driven to town on the back of a wagon pulled by two black horses. Funani stayed with me. He took me to ‘his’ doctor, the whites would ask too many questions.
I got stitched up, and the doctor gave me antibiotics, when I told him what aliments I had. He gave me pain medication, and an ointment to clean the cut with.
I went to the Motel and packed an overnight bag. We used the horses again. I loved it. I lay on my back next to Funani looking up at the red flowers, which adorned the piece of the road. I looked up at the sky, it was so blue.
“Mother, do you know why he loved you?”
“No, I don’t think I ever asked him that question, it held no importance to me.”
“I know, he told me, you made him calm. I am like my father. I get angry and I lash out. He only did that when you were gone. I know the time you lived in the red house, his heart was calm, because only you could take the devil out of his heart. He loved you. You know that, and to see the straps on your feet, I do believe he came to you last night, because mother, you were dying, he doesn’t want you to die, he wants you to live.”
I wiped my tears away. “Thank you Funani. I think for the first time in my life, I am at peace. I shall miss him; I do miss him. Last night proved I shall see him again, and that’s all the incentive I need to live.”
Funani carried me across the river and up the hill. He felt like Inkosi, like marble, and he smelt of homemade soap. I leaned against him. I don’t know, how or why, but he bent his head and he kissed me. What’s more shocking, I didn’t pull away, my need outweighed any logic. Do I feel ashamed? No.
I must add, we only shared that one kiss. I didn’t have coitus with Funani, it wasn’t like that. We both loved Inkosi, and he lived on in our hearts, I guess we needed a little part of him to be real for a brief moment.
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