Dust Devils (35 page)

Zondi steered the Ford along the sand road toward Inja's compound. No headlamps. Driving by the light of the moon. Drumbeats and singing flowed in waves from the wedding party below them, hopefully drowning the uneven racket of the truck's engine.

Dell was at his side, staring out into the night. Silent for once. A suburban whitey whose life had taken a detour into hell. Dell's eyes held a look, a particular kind of glaze, that Zondi remembered well from back in the struggle days. The eyes of people who had passed a point of no return. People who were ready to die. Unarmed kids who'd attacked squads of cops firing automatic rifles and pump-action shotguns. Grief mad mothers who'd picked up rocks and charged the yellow armored cars that blocked the streets of the townships like fat clogging arteries.

Zondi had been in those mobs but he'd always brought up the rear, ready to fade into the tear gas and the dust when the blood began to flow. So what the fuck was he doing now, on some Mutt and Jeff mission that could only end badly?

He stopped the truck on a slope about a mile from Inja's compound. Killed the engine. The brake creaked like old timber as he set it. The truck groaned and lurched forward a foot or two before the brake finally held.

Zondi looked across at Dell. "You ready?"

"Yes. Let's do it." No hesitation in his voice.

Zondi opened the door and stood up out of the truck.

Inja brought her into the front room. Sunday had never been in a house this big, with furniture like she had seen in the magazines her aunt read. A huge TV set flickered in the gloom, showing a beautiful black girl in a red dress driving a silver car with no roof. The girl sang. Silently.

Inja paused to lift a bottle of brandy from the table by the TV, then he took Sunday's arm and led her down a corridor. He opened a door and flicked a switch and electric light filled the room. She saw a real bed, high and wide, with a bright pink blanket with long fluffy hair. He closed the door after them and set the brandy bottle down on the table beside the bed.

Inja crossed to another door and opened it, showing her a hard white space beyond. "Here, girl. Use this."

Unsure, Sunday stepped forward. Saw the light hammering off white tiles, saw a bath with taps and a toilet with a blue cover. The closest she had ever come to anything like this was the restroom at a gas station and that had been filthy and stinking, the floor awash with overflowing waste.

Sunday walked into the bathroom and closed the door. Lifted her beaded skirt and slipped down the panties that the fat woman had given her to wear. Big ugly things. Bloomers. She raised the lid of the toilet and sat. Drilled her urine into the water. Checked that the knife was still in the waistband of her skin skirt, up behind her right hip.

She wiped herself, looked for a place to throw the paper. Realized she was being stupid and dropped it into the toilet bowl. Pressed the flush lever and jumped back at the explosion of water.

Stood at the basin and rinsed her hands, looking at herself in the mirror, this veiled person in a high red hat. Thought of the girl in the silver car on the TV and wondered about God and his choices.

Sunday wiped her hands on a towel that was so thick and so soft that she wanted to stand there forever, holding it, letting it soothe her. But she dropped the towel in the basin and turned and went out.

When she walked back into the room the old dog was lying on the bed, on his back. Naked. Sunday averted her eyes and he laughed. She'd seen unclothed men and boys but never anything like this: his thing fat and hard.

He stood and reached for her, pushing her down onto the bed, and she felt his throbbing flesh leave a trail of slime on her ribs like a slug. He pulled the veil away from her face, his hands busy at the skins that covered her calves. He lifted one of her legs so her bare foot pointed at the ceiling and bit into the meat of her calf hard enough to draw blood. She refused to scream. Waiting.

Inja's hands were at her skirts. He was breathing hard and she could smell the foulness of his breath and feel the warm wind of it on her face. He pushed his hands between her thighs and shoved them apart. Tugging at her panties. Her fingers found the blade and she brought it out and plunged it into his belly as he thrust his thing at her.

He made a sound like a gelded pig and grabbed at the wound, as if he was trying to push the blood back into himself. She used her knees to throw him off her and stood, the knife still in her hand. Knowing she must use it again.

But the handle was slick with blood and when she lunged at him he brought up his arm and the knife flew from her grip and hit the stone floor, spinning under the bed. Sunday ran for the door. Felt his fingers close for a moment on her ankle, then she kicked loose. He bellowed, his voice impossibly loud. Echoing in the big room.

Sunday flew down the corridor, toward the front door. Inja yelling, his bare feet smacking the stone as he came after her. She ran past the flickering TV, out onto the porch, ready to sprint into the night, when she was lifted off her feet and the big man, the one with the dented skull, held her. She heard the dog shouting from inside the house, getting closer.

Sunday and the big man stared at each other, eyeball to eyeball. She could feel his heart beating. Then he lowered her and stepped back into the darkness, fading away as if he had never been there and Sunday ran for her life.

Dell followed Zondi over the rocky ground. They were close now. He could smell meat smoke from the fires that burned in the circle between a Western-style house and three huts. The clearing was jammed with people, their voices bubbling out into the night.

Zondi stopped him with a raised hand and Dell made out the shape of a man sitting with his back against a tree, the moon kicking off a rifle barrel. They stood for a minute. Still. Then the man let loose a loud snore and slumped to the side.

Zondi crossed to the drunken sentry and lifted his AK-47, clicked the banana-shaped magazine free and threw it into the darkness. Laid the weapon on the sand beside the sleeping man. They walked on, toward the house. A man shouted, from somewhere below them. His voice distinct for a moment, then lost in the babble.

Feet on gravel. Somebody running at them. Zondi moved forward and grabbed the girl. She was ready to scream but he covered her mouth, letting her see him in the moonlight. He took his hand away from her face and she gasped, drinking air. Put a finger to his lips and she nodded. They all turned as man came around the side of the house, a man crouched low, hugging his belly. A naked man, bleeding, sprawling onto the sand.

Inja.

Dell was over to him, the pistol in his hand, the barrel jammed up against Inja's head. The moon bright enough for him to see Inja's face, catch the shine of his eyes and the flash of teeth in the gaping mouth. Dell's finger closed on the trigger.

Ready to end this thing.

But Dell didn't end it, and now he crouched bare chested over Inja, in the rear of the truck, chewing dust as the Ford bucked and swerved. Pressing his bunched shirt to the wound that pumped toxic blood from the naked man's belly, saying, "Don't you fucking die on me you piece of shit."

Back there, behind the house, as he'd been about to pull the trigger, Zondi had knelt beside him and touched his shoulder. "Think, Dell. Kill him and you don't stand a chance."

Dell had looked up at Zondi. He didn't care about himself. He could kill the dog. But he wanted the dog's master. Lowered the gun.

So here Dell was with Inja bloody and twisting beneath him like something newborn. Trying to save his life.

Zondi drove, foot flat, truck fishtailing along the sand road. The girl at his side silent, gripping the dashboard, her high hat scraping the roof of the Ford. No rearview, so Zondi had to look back over his shoulder for headlamps. And to check that Dell hadn't killed Inja.

Seeing the wounded man had changed the game for Zondi. He had the girl. Fine. But now he could do more. Bring down the man who had put his mentor in the ground. Who was pissing on everything Zondi believed in. If he could just keep Inja alive long enough, he could do it. Maybe.

He saw the mounds of the car wrecks gleaming in the moonlight. Looked back. No headlamps. Just Dell crouched over the wounded man.

"Father," the girl said. "Where are you taking me?"

Zondi was smacked back to the now.
Father
. Of course it was just the Zulu way, a respectful form of address for an elder, but it reminded him that he had another mess to untangle. "Don't worry, girl. You are safe."

Zondi slowed and turned off the road, bumped the Ford past the dangling gate, stopped when the car bodies hid the truck from view. Not a safe place, this, but the only place he could think of where they could hide Inja while they tried to save his life.

Zondi banged on the iron door. Silence. Banged again. Heard grunts and muffled curses, then the door opened a crack and his hunchbacked cousin peered out at him, blinking away sleep. "What you want?"