THE husband of the woman who had been beaten-up by her friend’s housemaid and was not angry that his wife had been beaten up had prepared his own breakfast without the help of his sullen wife.
He had said to the independent woman: “I have two hands and I know where the kitchen is because I built it. I know where the food is because I bought all of it and I know that according to the supreme law of the land, we are equal regardless of the differences in our input into this marriage.
“By voting yes in the referendum that approved that law I agreed that we are equal.”
The housemaid who had been abused nevakunda veJerusarema, the one who had not been paid by the independent woman who had refused to be touched by her husband, the one who had beaten up the independent wife of the man who was not angry that his wife had been beaten up had not left the area.
A local good Samaritan whose wife was a cross-border and had observed the fiasco had later recognised the housemaid on the road and offered her lift.
And he had recognised a strange beauty in the humble packaging and immediately diced the possibilities.
And it had been easy to convince her kuti, ‘Nhasi hakufambike nezvakuri izvi’.
And he had phoned his bosses and given the same excuse.
The housemaid had not been at ease, ‘Ko kumba hakuna amai here?’
‘Hakuna.’
‘You are lying. How can a man as old as you be without a wife?’
‘Ko iwewe, how can a woman as old as you are be without a husband?’
‘Varume hamubviri kunyepa mhani’.
By afternoon they were having the time of their lives. And the man had been loved into the confession that he indeed had a wife he no longer loved because she was always in South Africa, Mozambique or Zambia on cross-border business.
And he promised her everything!
He promised that if the housemaid wanted, he could rent her a place somewhere while he figured out how to divorce the cross-border asingagare pasi uyu.
He promised to marry her!
He promised to love her till he died!
She said they had just met.
She would have to think about it, “But kana kwasviba you must take me ku-Egypt, Highfield, kwatete vangu.
“I can’t let your neighbours see me coming out of here, only a few houses from where I was working.
“What would people in the neighbourhood think of me?”
The bodies of the couple that had been mugged during the night were still uncollected by mid-afternoon and they were swelling from the heat of the day.
People were still taking photos and videos and posting them on social media with some boldly alleging that they had been shot in cold blood by soldiers; shot for daring to participate in the peaceful demo.
At the school where the man whose wife had refused to be touched had left his children, the teacher who had paid to have his master’s degree done by a man he thought was expensive man received news that had he had gotten the job he wanted.
He proudly announced to envious workmates that he was leaving the ministry for the greener NGO pasture.
He joked that his job would be manufacturing evidence of bad cultural practices, persecution of Christians and opposition activists, violence against women and children etc.
The middle-aged teacher with five ‘O’-Levels in six sittings wanted to know what he had done to get the job but he simply smiled and beat about the bush.
The MDC activists in Washington got their way.
The US President renewed sanctions against Zimbabwe.
In other news, the Second Amendment to the US constitution was not re-amended.
The US Congress upheld the right of the American people to bear arms.
It did not matter that those empowered by racist experience to bear those arms were using those arms to exterminate those racially disempowered by the same history to defend themselves.
On the other hand, the Black Lives Matter Movement did not get their way.
One in every 1 000 Afro-Americans remained likely to be killed in institutionalised white violence against people of colour.
The failure consolidated over 500 years of abuse of the black race.
A recovery truck with a crew of five and no licence plates stopped alongside the truck that had been driven into the ditch by peaceful marchers; the truck that had been hi-jacked from the driver hired nevakadzi vemusika to carry their merchandise.
The crew inspected the truck and brought out a winch which they attached to the front end of the truck.
The recovery truck was reversing to
hook the ditched vehicle when someone from across the road shouted, “Mbavha!
“Who are you and where do you want to take my truck?”
The recovery truck immediately sped off at high speed leaving two of the crew on the ground.
One stood frozen in horror as a mob gathered completely out of the blue.
The other tried a sprint, tripped and fell.
The mob was all over them.
One could be heard crying, “Please let me explain!”
The teenage girl whose mother had declared, ‘Nhasi hapana anobuda mugedhi. Mese muri kuswera pano ndakakutarisai’ saw the beating of her brother and his friends on social media.
Just as she had warned, they had been caught trying to make-off with the beers and other things meant to prime the youths for the peaceful demo.
The teenager’s heart somersaulted inside her.
It was a horrific scene.
Voices of desperate people could be heard warning, “Stop it guys!
“That is enough!
“I am warning you, munouraya vanhu ava sekutamba!”
“Iwe, rovai vanhu mheni! Mbavha hadzife!”
The video ended suddenly.
And there was no way of telling if her brother and friends had survived the assault.
The teenager’s first impulse was to show her mother but something warned her kuti given her blood pressure problems, the video could become the cause of her death.
She then thought it better to post the video to the mother’s brother in South Africa with a warning that the mother should not know.
She sat outside to avoid her mother’s notice.
And then while she was at it, the woman wemusika who had seen Ralph among those who had helped themselves to her bananas arrived fuming.
“I want to see your mother.
“Call her out! I want to talk to her!”
“What is it nhai amai?
“Mufunge mumwe wenyu is not feeling well.
“BP yavo yakwira nezviri kuitika izvi.”
Doctors in one clinic in the avenues had called in representatives from various European embassies and were being filmed while attending to victims of the peaceful demo.
After treatment, the victims were given their medical reports and interviewed.
After the interviews, they were given money for further medical attention as well as for the return home.
To be continued…
