Free The Death of Rex Nhongo by C.B. George Page B

Praying? Jesus, Kudakwashe! You do know what just happened, right? And you’re off with the fucking angels!”
    Sasa jumpin up an down now an flappin his wings real fast. He goes, “Crazy bitch! Crazy bitch!”
    An Momma turns round and goes, “What did you say?”
    An Dad goes, “I said you’re a crazy bitch!”
    When we gets home, it’s Gladys who give me my bath an dress me. She know sumthin wrong cos she can tell from Mom and Dad, so she go, “Have you been naughty, little bird?”
    An I go, “I dun sumthin bad, Gladys. But Sasa told me do it.” An Gladys look at me very hard and then shake her head.
    Gladys put me to bed, then Dad come an say goodnight. He sit on the chair next to me and he put his hand on my shoulder. He goes, “I’m sorry I smacked you, Rosie. But you have to learn that what you did was very dangerous. Do you understand that?”
    An I go, “Yes, Daddy.”
    An he smile an he go, “You know I love you, don’t you, little bird?”
    An then Sasa there on the end of the bed an he go, “Yes, Daddy.”
    An I go, “Yes, Daddy.” Then suddenly I feel sad an I go, “Where’s Momma?”
    “I’m right here.” This is Momma an she standin by the door. She smile an she go, “Good night, my love.”
    I say, “Gimme a kiss.”
    An she come and she still smilin but her eyes look kinda spooky. She kiss me on the forehead and she smell like Momma even tho her lips are cold like glass. Dad says, “Sleep now,” an he turns off the light.
    I can see Sasa’s eyes in the dark an he says, “You wanna go flyin?” An even tho I know he naughty, it real excitin when we go up in the sky an he look after me real well. He go, “I’m kinda like your dad’s family, you know that? He call me up when he come home to Afrika, tho he don even know it hisself. You think I gonna let anythin happen to you when we related? No way!”
    Up in the sky he point his sharp little ears forward an he say, “I can hear evryone. Look: there’s your momma prayin.”
    An I go, “Is anyone lisnin?”
    An Sasa laugh an I see his teeth pointed like a Halloween pumpkin an he say, “Well, I lisnin. I lisnin good.”

16
    G ilbert arrived early. He had taken a kombi to the city center, then another to Glenara shops, where he bought two Cokes and some chicken pieces. He walked from there, following his wife’s instructions. Still unfamiliar with Harare, he hadn’t known how long the journey would take so there he was, standing outside the gate of number forty-five with an hour to spare.
    He was nervous. This was only partly because he was going to see Bessie for the first time in almost five months. Mostly it was because he was specifically going to see where she lived and worked and the kind of life his wife had built for herself on her own.
    Besides, he had never been into a murungu ’s house before; he wasn’t sure what to expect and, from the outside, he already found something vaguely threatening. It wasn’t the heavy iron gate, with the sign saying “Armed Response,” that bothered him, or the looming walls topped with an electric fence. Rather, it was the neat flowerbeds planted with climbing yellow bougainvillea overlooking a pristine two-meter verge of lawn to the curb. The artfulness spoke to Gilbert of a manic, controlling attention to detail that he found unsettling. How much time and effort had it taken to create this effect? And what conviction was expressed in the commitment? He couldn’t imagine a life of such certainty.
    He sat on the curb at the far corner of the property, away from the gate. He took out his phone. He had no airtime, so he sent Bessie a free “call me back,” so that she’d know he’d arrived. But she didn’t finish work until one p.m., so he’d just have to wait. He idled back to the airtime seller on the corner where two gardeners were playing checkers. He watched for a while and made vain attempts to engage them in conversation, but they were unfriendly and engrossed in what