Chapter Four

Dineo’s mother was preparing for her next trip, trying to ignore her daughter’s sulking. She didn’t understand why Dineo was so upset about her leaving, she thought nothing would make a teenager happier than having the freedom that came with living alone. Apparently, she was wrong.

“I’m going to school. Travel safely, I’ll text you later.” Dineo said.

“Okay, my baby. Have a good day.” Her mother said. Dineo’s mother had a little detour that she needed to take before heading to the airport but she didn’t want Dineo to know about it, so she waited for a while until she could be certain that Dineo was gone and was already far from home before she stepped out of her own yard and crossed the street to go to the 76 headquarters. She knocked on the door and was a greeted by Thulani, who seemed like he was getting ready for school.

“Ma kaDineo, how are you?” Thulani said and Menzi appeared almost immediately.

“Hi… Menzi, I actually wanted to speak to you.” She waited for Menzi to step outside and join her on the front lawn. Thulani disappeared back into the house.

“How can I help you? Is everything okay?” Menzi asked, gesturing for Dineo’s mom to take a seat. It wasn’t really a seat, it was a beer crate, but she sat nonetheless.

“So… I’m leaving again today, for two months… I just wanted to ask for a grace period… I know I still owe tax for this month but can you just give me a few days and I’ll transfer the money.” She said, pleadingly. Menzi narrowed his eyes in confusion.

“I thought you paid in advance…” he said, almost a murmur, causing Dineo’s mom to be the confused one.

“How is that possible?” she asked.

“Thulani!” Menzi shouted and Thulani appeared at the door. “Bring me the tax journal.” Thulani returned to the house and came back shortly thereafter with a little blue book in his hand.

“Thulani is our… accountant. So, he’ll be able to tell you if you’re in arrears.” Menzi said and Thulani started flipping through the book.

“There… Mofokeng paid a month in advance. That means when you paid last month, you paid double covering you for two months… so your next payment should be next month.” Thulani said.

“Can I see that?” Dineo’s mom asked and Thulani handed her the book. “But it only says R600, isn’t that one month’s payment? Or is there a two-for-one special I’m not aware of?” she asked before handing the book back to Thulani.

“Two-for-one? Ma’olady, tax is R300 per person, there’s not special.” Menzi said.

“Exactly… that makes it R600 for me and Dineo.”

“Ohhh…” Menzi laughed. “Dineo. Don’t worry about that, Dineo is covered. She’s protected, she doesn’t need to pay tax.” He said.

Dineo’s mom suddenly got tense, her face bearing the concern with which she had suddenly been filled. Everyone knew who didn’t need to pay tax. Only gang members, their families and their girlfriends. That left only two possibilities: Dineo was either a gang member or she was dating one… and her mom knew which of the two was more likely than the other. Menzi noticed the hardened look on Dineo’s mom’s face and began to hesitate.

“Who is it?” she asked.

“Oh, I’ve said too much…” Menzi said.

“Is it S’fiso? It’s him, isn’t it?”

“Ma’olady, we wouldn’t want you to miss your flight. Travel safely, we’ll see you in two months.” Menzi said in a more stern tone, almost as if he was letting her know that the conversation was over. He then got up and walked back into the house with Thulani following. Dineo’s mom was overcome with fear. Nothing good ever came from a relationship with a gangster, this she knew from her own experiences.

*****

The year was 1988 and 20-year-old Palesa Mofokeng sat cradling her new-born daughter in her arms. Palesa came from Lesotho to try and make money in South Africa and instead, she had allowed herself to fall in love with a gangster named Vesta. He was tall and dark with scars all over his face and rubber bullet wounds and terrifying stories about his adventures with the apartheid police and his time in prison. Palesa had fallen in love with him against her better judgement. She knew he was dangerous and he lived an incredibly fast life. And he was 15 years older than her. He broke up with her after she gave birth because she gave birth to a baby girl and he had wanted a boy. He told her that his life was not suitable for a baby girl. That girls were fragile and they needed to be taken care of and he couldn’t do that. He needed a son whom he could train and teach to toughen up and be a man and fight for his place in this messed up world. So, he went to Pimville – a far enough distance from Zola where he lived – and bullied a random family into selling him their house. Palesa and Dineo moved into the house at Pimville when Dineo was two months old and they never saw Vesta again. He only sent Palesa money every month until one day Palesa heard that he had finally been arrested and had been sentenced to life for all of the crimes he had committed. Dineo was only three years old when this happened and the money stopped coming in. Palesa grew desperate and ventured into the escort industry – sleeping with wealthy and powerful men just so she could feed and clothe her baby. She wasn’t proud of it but it was probably a blessing in disguise because it was through this business that she found out about cabin crew vacancies. One of her clients was a pilot and he told her she had the looks for it. Dineo was 6 years old when her mother left for the first time and her aunt came from Lesotho to look after her. Palesa thinks about Vesta from time to time. She sees him every time she looks at Dineo’s dark skin and fierce eyes. Dineo isn’t even aware of the fire that burns in her pupils… she isn’t aware of the anger she possesses… she isn’t aware of her bloodline…

*****

Thabang cornered Kabelo and Tshepo that morning, hindering them from leaving for school. He made them kneel in front of him as he stood towering over them.

“Why do you two go to school?” he asked.

“To… get an education?” Tshepo responded, unsure.

“For you, maybe. But this one… there’s no hope for him in that department. Kabelo, why do you go to school?” Thabang asked and Kabelo shrugged. “Don’t you go there to work? To gather intel for me, for the gang?”

“Sho, Thabang.” Kabelo said.

“So, why did I have to get information from a schoolgirl when I have you? Why did I have to spend my money buying breakfast for information that I should’ve received from you?” Thabang asked. Tshepo and Kabelo had worked with Thabang for a long time and they knew that he hardly ever made sense with the things that he said. But they had never been more confused than they had been in that moment. As far as they were concerned, they had shared all valuable information with him already.

“What information did we miss?” Kabelo asked.

“Dineo.” Thabang said.

“I thought you said we must leave her alone.” Tshepo protested.

“Yes. But that was before I knew that she’s S’fiso’s girlfriend. And I had to find out from her friend.” Thabang said.

“Okay Thabang, if S’fiso and Dineo are a couple, what does that have to do with us?” Tshepo asked, annoyance colouring his tone.

“You have a lot to learn, my boy. For a gangster like S’fiso, a girl like Dineo symbolises peace and stability in a world that’s full of danger and chaos. She becomes his weakness. So if we want to hurt S’fiso, Dineo is our ammunition.” Thabang said.

“Okay,” Kabelo said. “What do you want us to do to her?”

“Nothing. I’ll deal with this one myself.” Thabang said as he walked away from the other two, leaving them kneeling in an even deeper state of confusion. Although he didn’t know what Thabang had planned, Tshepo couldn’t help but feel sorry for Dineo.

*****

There’s something about the right woman that makes a man lose his mind without even realising it. It’s in the way she walks, the way she talks and the way she smiles and bats her eyelids. It’s also in the way she ignores his calls and walks right past him, pretending he doesn’t exist. S’fiso knew that Dineo ignoring him was his own fault. He had been burning hot and cold but he was ready to fix it. He was ready to be man enough for Dineo because now that he had experienced what it would be like to have her in his life, he was one hundred percent sure that he couldn’t live without her.

“She’s still ignoring me…” he said under his breath after he tried calling her for the hundredth time.

“She’s at school, of course she’s not gonna answer her phone.” Menzi said, irritated. S’fiso considered this for a few minutes, trying to remember if schools really had a rule against answering important phone calls. Of course they did, some schools even had rules against carrying a cell phone in the first place.

“Who’s on after school duty?” S’fiso asked.

“Not you, that’s for sure.” Menzi said, furiously polishing his shoes.

“Can I swap?”

“So, you want to be a stalker now?”

“Please Menzi, I need to speak to her. Please.” He begged. Menzi had only heard S’fiso beg once in his life; when he was holding his older brother’s bleeding body in his arms, begging God to spare his life, begging his brother to hold on.

“Okay,” Menzi said after taking a deep breath. “You can go.”

S’fiso didn’t even wait for Menzi to finish his sentence, he was already out of the door.

“It’s only 12, where is he going?” Menzi asked himself, shaking his head. He concluded that he’d never understand S’fiso because he’d never been in his position. He had never been in love.

Contrary to what Menzi thought, S’fiso was not rushing out to go wait for Dineo outside the school. Instead, he drove to the mall where he struggled to pick a bouquet of flowers and he couldn’t decide on which box of chocolates to buy because he didn’t actually know what Dineo’s favourite flowers or chocolates were. So he settled for bright red roses and Ferrero Rocher. If she didn’t like these, he thought, that would be a teachable moment for him. On his way towards the exit, a beautiful diamond necklace winked at him in the storefront window of American Swiss and he felt impulsive. It was definitely a bad idea to buy a diamond necklace for a girl who wasn’t even speaking to him. But he was a gangster and gangsters weren’t exactly famous for making good decisions.

“Hello.” He said to the woman at the till. “I’d like to buy that necklace that you have on the display.”

The woman looked at him for a moment, sizing him up.

“It’s R7000.” She said with an attitude. One couldn’t blame her for assuming that S’fiso couldn’t afford the necklace. Looking at him, one saw a regular young black man in a plain t-shirt and faded jeans. Nothing about him said he had millions at his disposal. Granted, they were stolen millions, but they were millions nonetheless. And R7000 was nothing to him.

“Okay, do you have it in stock?” he asked and the woman raised her eyebrow.

“Do you have the money for it?” she asked and S’fiso took out his wallet and started counting hundreds. The woman watched him in awe and waited for him to reach 7K before proceeding to the back of the store and returning with a small black box. When the sale was completed, S’fiso opened the box and examined the necklace, as if trying to imagine it around Dineo’s neck. Oh and what a beautiful neck she had, he thought.

“Thank you.” He said to the cashier and left the store. He had spent an hour and a half at the mall, something he had never done before, and he wasn’t even shopping for himself.

*****

“Did you see Nokuthula today?” Atlegang asked Dineo while she waited for her to pack her books away so they could leave.

“No, she didn’t come sit with us during break.” Dineo said.

“I know and what’s worse is that she completely ignored me in class the whole day. Did something happen?” Atlegang asked and Dineo shrugged.

“If she wants to talk, she knows where to find us.” Dineo said as she got up and walked towards the door, Atlegang lagging behind her. The truth is that Dineo hadn’t even noticed that Nokuthula was distant because all she had been able to think about was S’fiso. The same S’fiso who stood with his back against that black BMW parked right in front of the school gate. Dineo took a deep breath, determined to walk right past him without so much as a glance. She almost succeeded.

“Dineo.” He called out to her when he realised she wasn’t going to stop when she saw him. “Dineo wait.” He ran after her, taking hold of her arm.

“What do you want?” she spoke softly.

“Can we speak in private?” he asked when he noticed that Atlegang had also stopped walking.

“Why? I’m not your girlfriend so no privacy is required.” Dineo said, causing Atlegang’s interest to peak. S’fiso looked at Atlegang, feeling increasingly uncomfortable and then decided to give up.

“Okay, I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry, I got scared.” He said, speaking just as softly.

“I forgive you. Can I go home now?” Dineo said.

“Can we fix things between us? Can we start again?” he asked, almost pleadingly.

“No.” Dineo said without even thinking.

“But why?”

“If you’re so scared of people finding out about us then it’s probably best that we go our separate ways. I don’t want to be your dirty little secret.” Dineo said, yanking her arm from S’fiso’s grip and proceeding to walk away. S’fiso panicked. He was losing her. If he was going prevent that from happening, he had to act fast.

“Dineo!” he shouted at the top of his voice, causing her to stop in her tracks. She didn’t think she had ever heard him shout so loudly, even when he was snapping at her.

“I love you,” he continued screaming. “And I don’t want that to be a secret.”

She turned around, feeling slightly embarrassed by all the attention he had attracted with his declaration of love. But more than anything, feeling more in love with S’fiso than she ever thought she could. She walked towards him, got on her toes and threw her arms around him.

“There was no need to shout.” She laughed as he held her tight. Cheers and whistles surrounded them and for a moment time stood still for S’fiso. He wasn’t S’fiso the 76 gang member, he wasn’t S’fiso the protector who was always on high alert. He was just a guy who was happy to hold the girl he loved in his arms.

*****

Nokuthula was miserable as she walked home that afternoon. She couldn’t believe what she had witnessed. S’fiso – her lifelong crush – had openly and very loudly declared his love for Dineo in public. Almost the whole school had witnessed this. She hated herself for not being happy for her friend but she convinced herself that she just needed some time to herself, to get used to these new developments. She forgot about her troubles as soon as she saw the familiar red shimmer of the red Audi she had travelled in the previous morning. She liked the idea of Thabang visiting her… if they were going to be a couple… but she lived in zone 6 and it wouldn’t be good for one of the 76 to spot Thabang’s car outside her house. She peered through the window but there was no-one in the car so she walked into the house.

“Ah Thuli, my beautiful peach.” Thabang said as she walked in. He and another member of the 88 had been sitting in the living room with Nokuthula’s grandmother, drinking tea. Well, she hoped that it was tea in those teacups. She also saw a gun on the coffee table.

“Why are you here?” she asked softly.

“Do I need a reason to come see my girlfriend?” Thabang asked and Nokuthila gulped.

“Nokuthula, my child…” her grandmother said, shaking her head.

“Listen, honey,” Thabang put his teacup down. “I have a task for you.”

“I don’t work for you.” Nokuthula protested.

“Nokuthula, your lifelong dream is to be the girlfriend of a gang leader. I’m making your dreams come true.”

“That’s not true.” Nokuthula said.

“If it’s not true, then why were you drowning in jealousy over your friend’s new relationship? Sit down, stop wasting my time.” Thabang ordered, gesturing towards the couch with his head. Following the movement of Thabang’s head, Nokuthula caught sight of the gun on the table again and remembered that Thabang was ruthless enough to shoot her grandmother in front of her. Or shoot her in front of her grandmother. These were equally gruesome. She slowly sat down, trying to block out the sounds of her grandmother mumbling about what a stupid child she was.

“I know you want all the perks that come with being a gangster’s girlfriend, but with those perks also comes great responsibility.” Thabang said.

“I’m not your girlfriend.” Nokuthula said softly.

“Thuli,” Thabang put a hand on his heart. “After I bought you breakfast? Tell you what, I can obviously see that your grandmother’s pension money isn’t going a long way so… if you do this one thing for me and do it well, I’ll give you 10K. And I’ll add another 5K because you’re my girlfriend.”

This was a very tempting offer. Everyone knew that Nokuthula and her grandmother were struggling. Thabang knew that R10 000 would make a world of difference for them. Nokuthula considered this offer. She convinced herself that she would rather be Thabang’s fake girlfriend, do his bidding and get paid for it than for her to be on his wrong side. If Thabang and his guy could get into her home and hold her grandmother hostage in broad daylight, she thought, then he was capable of doing much worse.

“What do you need me to do?” she asked eventually and Thabang smiled, the devil dancing in his eyes.