Water by Rachel Zadok

Author:Rachel Zadok
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781780263113
Publisher: New Internationalist
Published: 2016-02-26T05:00:00+00:00

Zvichadzokera turned out to be an anti-climax. When I entered her hut, it took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room and the smoke. Across from the door, Zvichadzokera sat on a grass mat. She wore a head band made from goat skin and had a cow hide pinned around her shoulder, but under the hide was a black System of a Down T-shirt with the sleeves ripped off. I knelt on the cement floor, clapping my cupped hands slowly, eyes cast down. Zvichadzokera shook the stick in her right hand.

“Mwanangu, chii chanetsa?” What’s wrong?

“Zvichadzokera, I’m a journalist and I’m investigating the drownings. I wondered what you might know about them.”

“What have they told you?”

“The villagers? They said it might be mermaids.”

“Is that all they said?”

“They said you disappeared too.” Her eyes lit up. “They said the mermaids took you and that’s how you became Zvichadzokera.”

“Do you believe?”

“In the mermaids?”

“In the spirits.”

I felt tired. So very tired and weary. Tired of missing America. Tired of these villagers and their bloody mermaids. Tired of having to relearn how to be a “good” woman in Zimbabwe. But mostly tired of this burden of grief. Tired of missing and tired of trying to understand this person my mother had become.

“Rudo, do you believe in spirits?” How did Zvichadzokera know my name?

“I think grief drives people crazy, a madness so foreign that they can’t see how ordinary life could explain it. So they look to the spirits.” The words felt empty but I knew that was what she wanted to hear.

Zvichadzokera smiled as she shook her head. “We cannot know it all.”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.