she said, and his breastbone knotted right up again.
As the driver manoeuvred the sedan into Kalingalinga after lunch that day, Joseph leaning forward between the front seats to direct him, he wondered why his mother was all made up, like she was going to church or one of Dad’s work functions. And as he slunk into the Hi-Fly and went to sit in his usual corner, he wondered why she was standing in the middle of the room, cradling her handbag like a baby and demanding that the ‘boss’ do her hair. He watched the salon girls scurry around to attend to his mother’s needs as she seated herself regally before the wall of mirrors.
Joseph wished he had brought a book. He had been so disconcerted by their conversation at home that he had forgotten. In his eleven years of life, this was the first time his mother had ever asked him for something. Bored, he looked over the bits and bobs scattered on the floor around him, lighting on a shallow wire basket that looked like a sun dial, part of a disembowelled electrical fan lying on its back. He found an outlet in the wall behind him and plugged in the faceless half of the fan. When it didn’t start, he spun its blades with his finger. It probably belonged to Jacob, who liked to play with gadgets…There he was now, skulking out from the back room, wearing that stupid aeroplane seat belt around his waist, and hissing at Joseph.
‘Futsek, iwe!’
The woman with skin like carbon paper spoke sharply. Jacob protested, then fell silent.
‘Yes, it’s okay, baby,’ Joseph’s mother said. ‘Go on and play.’
* * *
The October afternoon was windless, the sun plunging steadily down a cloudless sky. The yard behind the salon was still but for the two boys and their shadows. The clothes line swooped over their heads with its flock of avian pegs. An mbaula sat in its ashes like a mourning thing, a crumple of rubbish beside it. The jacaranda tree was in bloom, its flamboyant crown and train glowing in the lowering light. Jacob carved into its bark with a knife. Joseph sat on one of its roots, using a stick to write and erase words in the fallen blossoms on the ground. After a few minutes, Jacob turned and leaned back against the trunk, arms crossed.
‘Who have you come with?’ He nodded at the back door of the salon.
‘My mum.’
‘Oh-oh? Why has she come?’ Jacob picked at a scab on his elbow. ‘To start a fight?’
Before Joseph could respond, a girl stepped out into the yard. She looked Indian, her skin a little lighter than Joseph’s. She was about the same age as the boys but thin and gawky in her light blue school uniform.
‘Howzit?’ she said. ‘I’m Naila.’
Joseph shrugged and drew lines in the dirt. Jacob yawned and overturned an old yellow bucket to sit on.
‘O-kaay.’ She looked around, then sat down on a root next to Joseph’s. She played with her hair for a while, plaiting it loosely, then unplaiting it. After a while, she got up with a sigh, dusted the seat of her uniform, and began to climb the jacaranda tree.
‘The branches will break,’ Joseph warned, dropping his stick and standing up.
‘No, it is strong,’ Jacob called. ‘I have climbed this one before.’
The girl’s Mary Janes were skidding on the trunk. She sat on the ground and started to pull them off.
‘Don’t!’ Joseph yelped. ‘You’ll catch tetanus!’
‘Ah-ah, what is wrong with no shoes?’ Jacob scoffed. He himself was barefoot. ‘Some of us do not have rich daddies to buy Bata. Take them off! It will make the climbing better, believe you me.’
‘Don’t listen to him. He’s not educated. Where do you go to school?’
‘Namununga.’ Naila’s shoes now off, the edges of her skirt tucked into her panties, she placed her foot against the trunk like a warrior.
‘I’m at Rhodes Park,’ Joseph said with a measure of pride.
‘What can school be teaching you about climbing?’ asked Jacob. ‘You are a softie, you.’
‘And what would you know about the laws of physics?’
‘Physico what?’ Jacob frowned, then smiled with delight. ‘Look!’
He pointed at Naila, who had started to climb again. The boys watched her rise. Her dress was like the sky, a pale flat blue. Her limbs were like the tree’s, bent and beige, a little scaly. You could see fear only in her toes, which curled to grip the bark. She moved slowly but surely and soon disappeared up