“Tanashi! Tanashi! my daughter-in-law
give me the medicine my son bought for me.
Oh! my head is cracking. My head
is cracking. My head is burning,”
Rudo cried.
She heard the voice of her mother-in-law but
a raucous diabolic laughter was her response.
She remained listening to and tuning the radio in her room.
Rudo looked for her walking stick but she
could not find it. Her wheelchair was
not around. Her shoes too.
“Tanashi forgive me,” she cried but
no response came. Tanashi was busy
enjoying the blaring sungura music on Diamond FM and was singing in
accompaniment with the musician. She even
stopped and walked into the round-hut kitchen to have a drink of water ignoring
the crawling Rudo. The nonagenarian was
crawling on the ground to the living room for her precious medicine.
Rudo’s head was throbbing. When she saw the container she scampered for
it with the last of her strength. She
picked the Paracetamol container and rattled it close to her ears. Opening it, she was disappointed to find a
few pumpkin and maize seeds that she had kept in the granary to plant in the
next rainy season. She grimaced. She had to get some painkillers, but where
from?
She could not send Tanashi to the shops as
she was shunning her or trying to call the neighbours’ children as they were
warned to stay away from a witch. The
room immediately became darker. Her body
was now sweating.
“Tanashi! Tanashi! Tanashi!” she
called incessantly. lt was on this day
that Tiri was coming from his business trip.
As the engine of his truck roared at the gate, Rudo was still calling,
howling in intense pain. Rudo felt
beleagured. She silently
prayed,”Please Lord don’t take me.”
She saw stars and dark spots.
Nausea held her on the brink of vomitting.
When Tiri arrived his mother was still
showing the spasms of death and pop music was blaring in Tanashi’s room.
“Mama!”, Tiri screamed, he could not imagine having to
leave to his mother to die and witnessing death wiggling the little energy she
had left. Tiri opened the container to
see the maize and pumpkin seeds. “Where are the pills?” he asked
himself. Tanashi came out after Tiri’s
horrendous voice came out. She feigned
crying but a tingling glow of satisfaction spread all over her as palm oil does
on hot yam.
“Yes! Yes!” she said it in her
heart. the mouse is dead but she started
regretting she had robbed Tiri of his only pillar of hope. Tiri’s mother was dead! Dead!
For real, she was dead! The neighbours came
in the compound, of course, weeping.
Hate and shame seemed to suffocate them.
To the Women’s Society it was sad news that
Rudo had been dragged back to the ancestors.
Netsai and her crew prepared for Rudo’s burial. Everything was covered from food to
transport, many people came even Homwe was there with his family excluding
Paida.
Tiri gave a speech,
he launched into an elaborate speech about Rudo’s attributes. After her body was lowered, Tiri and his
family; followed by relatives, threw in a handful of freshly dug soil into the
grave. To Tiri the action was doubly
symbolic. He indeed was burying a
long,sad chapter of his life; something you love its hard to leave it. Addiction is a hard giant to face and
conquer. So is this love we have for our
loved ones, it is hard to instantly walk away.
Honestly, family is the best thing you have in this life. There is
comfort, hope, reassurance, company, faith and the greatest of all is LOVE