Episode 16
IN the flat Tom and his sidekick listen to a phone call on an answering machine.
“Dora, it’s me Jessica here. I am sorry I had to leave in a hurry. Something terrible happened. Tom is after me. In case you’re wondering … I am safe with Ralphy…
“Bingo. Got her. I know where the sun-of-gun lives. Let’s go,” Tom exclaims leading the way out through the broken flat door.
Zolile knocks at the door of Ralphy’s flat. The two brothers.
With a broad smile Ralph welcomes them into his flat.
“Please take a seat, bro-thers,” he gestures and they sit down.
“Where is the woman?” an anxious Zolile inquires.
“In the shower, in there,” the host says pointing to an inner room.
“She should be …” Ralphy tries to say. An anxious Zolile instantly gets up. He enters the bathroom uninvited and unceremoniously.
He forcefully opens the glass door. With a scream of indignation Lily tries to cover her naked body. He sees the birthmark.
“I am sorry,” the eldest brother says closing the door. He returns to the lounge. “We have found her. It’s the right woman,” he announces to his younger brother.
“Never fear when Ralphy is near, brothers,” Ralphy exclaims, on cloud nine.
“I don’t know how to thank you enough for saving our tribe from extinction,” a very satisfied Zolile asserts.
“Just send me a post card of Lily and the chief’s wedding,” Ralphy replies.
In an emotional tone of voice Zenzile offers him their bows and arrows.
“You can have these. We’ll make others when we get home.”
“Thank you, brother. I will always treasure them,” the matchmaker says caressing the weapons.
Dressed in a gown Lily enters the room like a goddess.
“Brothers, I want you to meet Lilly…” says Ralphy theatrically pointing to the woman.
Instantly recognising her as the British whore.
“Jessica,” Zenzile cries out.
Equally surprised at seeing him.
“Zenzile Wanga, is it really you?”
“What, do you two know each other?” Zolile says very much taken aback.
“Let’s just say we are friends. Lily helped me to escape from that white man with the gun,” Zenzile flatly lies. At the same time the phone rings.
Ralphy picks up the receiver, listens in and fearfully puts down the instrument.
“That was Tom. He is on his way here. You all better leave now. He sounded very determined to get you both,” he seriously advises.
“Yes, let’s go. We’ll go to the airport, just in case there is a flight out. Here are our return tickets,” Zolile says retrieving the documents from his coat pocket. “There is a third one for you, too, Lily. It just needs to be made out in your name.”
“Then what are you waiting for? Get your stuff and go,” Ralphy replies with Lily unexpectedly hugging and kissing him.
“Thank you for saving my life, Ralphy. I’ll never forget you.”
“Not to mention. I did it for my brothers’ sake. Now off you go. I have a personal score to settle with Tom,” Ralphy says ominously.
Zolile shakes Ralphy’s hand.
“May our ancestors bless you, brother,” he says as the threesome takes leave from the flat and Ralphy.
In the lounge of his apartment music plays from a tape deck. Ralphy dims the light and sits down with a bow and arrow at the ready. The door is flung open. Tom rushes in with a gun and hand on trigger ready to shoot. From the semi darkness an arrow rings out and hits the target, Tom’s right arm. His bouncer reaches for his own gun.
With another arrow at the ready Ralphy warns the intruder.
“One move and you are a dead man.'”
The bouncer surrenders his gun, throwing it onto the floor, begging.
“Please, don’t kill me.”
“Then remove yourself and this filthy dirt bag from my premises before I call the police,” Ralph demands.
Assisted by the bouncer the wounded Tom is led out the door.
“I never want to see you two white hooligans again,” he says slamming the door.
And from the tarmac at Heathrow Airport a Boeing 747 gains speed and lifts off to disappear into the night sky on its 16-hour journey to Africa with Lily, Zolile and Zenzile safely clustered together in their seats.
*
A traditional feast is in full swing on the square. Drums are blaring African music and women are ululating. Buckets of food and calabashes of beer are served to the guests among them: Pastor Singleton in the company of Nomadlozi; the sangoma in the company of Nomhle, the other royal wives seated next to each other. They are all watching photos being taken with Zenzile’s polaroid camera of the three married couples: happily smiling Zolile and Zinzi, Zenzile and Zobina and the chief and his seventh wife, Lily, beaming with happiness at the arm of her bigamist husband.
One last camera shot rings out.
As the polaroid photo develops the chief and Lily appear in the foreground.
In the background of the same picture the image of a smiling adult albino appears showing a thumbs-up sign, amid lightning flashes filling the African sky.
The End
*A new serial, The Corrupt Ones, starts on Friday, January 12, 2008. Don’t miss it.