LAKE OF MY HEART – CHAPTER 12

There was a new housing scheme which was selling fast in Msasa Park just off Chiremba Road heading east towards the big sprawling high density mass of Epworth.

It was the new kid on the block with a private developer coming up with mainly three bedroom compact units that had a kitchen, separate toilet and bath shower room. There were standard built in wardrobes. There was a large lounge and space to go outside of the house. These were constructed of industrial cement blocks under tiles. The suburb was growing bigger every few months as more and more prospective home owners bought into the property market.

Some human beings had decided they liked privacy. They had created residential stands surrounded by precast walls on a thousand to ten thousand square metres. Others had decided that a commune was better, there were creating houses within a ‘park’ where security was shared and access was one way, through a boom gate.

Other issues became communal, boreholes and their water reticulation system, security guards on patrol, tennis courts and swimming pools if any. Humans were a confusing specie. His company and others were going in for the kill selling as much space as they could. They were out manoeuvring each other. He was there lost in translation when his cell phone rang. He opened the Ericsson flip phone without looking at who was calling.

He was picking his way through industrial common bricks scattered all over. These were not rejects. They were part of work-in-progress being collected in lighter loads by wheel barrows. This was a hard hat area. He was cautious. They were still building in the residential zone he was in. There was one phase or the other but he was selling them before the roof tiles were in place. This was middle density with between three hundred and fifty to five hundred square metres of land.

The houses were enclosed within a precast wall. The roads were tarred, the drains in place, sewer and water connected. Electricity in this phase consisted of separate poles stuck in the ground with power lines to follow later. Roads had been created out of the earth, compacted and tarred with storm water drainages done.

Someone somewhere was looking at an overall plan of the housing estate able to read where the roads met, where the sewer system was and where the electricity poles would be fitted. He sold houses and gave out street addresses where there were street addresses. Where there were blank canvases, he gave legal title. At times some purchasers came with him to view the houses.

The houses were being sold complete with precast walls, streets already named. All a purchaser did was wait for the final touch, take his offer letter to the council, and pay a deposit and walla! Then all they did was collect a key from the office of the developer.

The developer and contractor worked in tandem. Many projects had been ditched after the two failed to meet. Court cases were costly in both financial and time terms. Developers had blacklisted hit and run builders with shoddy work or those that took the money and dissolved their bank accounts. The opposite was true as well.

“Trevor of Dayton Realtors speaking,” he said heading for his Nissan Frontier pick-up vehicle.

And here he was receiving another call from a client.

“Hi.”

That was the reply that sent the earth spinning in a wrong axis. Two letters to a single word. His brain reacted as if sulphuric acid had been thrown at him. For one he remembered the voice with clarity. His brain pinpointed the voice, its owner, her looks and the hurt and shame she had bestowed on him. His world spun backwards.

“Can I assist?”

That was a question he asked even though his heart was running circles disengaging from the aorta and vena cava veins. Why was he still walking holding his car keys and trying them at the door handle instead of the key hole?

“I am graduating on the 3rd of this month. The actual date is still hazy.”

“Graduating?” he asked. “Since when did I start dealing with graduates and their parties? I deal with real estate. Anything to deal with cession, freehold and section title deeds or full title deeds is my piece of cake. Anything with brick under asbestos or tiles or flats will do. Which one is it rent or buy?”

“I became a medical laboratory technologist graduate by qualifying in my degree examinations with a 2nd class pass in my Bachelor of Science in Medical Laboratory Sciences so there is a thing for me on the 3rd of August this month, two days before your birthday. “

Right on the dot. He had even forgotten that he had been born and here she was showering him with reminiscences.

“That doesn’t impress me in the least,” someone within his tall framed body responded. His mouth opened and the words had shot out.

“So we can have a graduation party and your helluva birthday party on the 5th,” she replied.

It was as good as him talking to a rock. She seemed as though she didn’t hear him. As far as she was concerned, she had the right to talk. He didn’t. He had the right to listen, and she, you guessed it, didn’t.

“I am not in the mood for parties.”

“I don’t know if I should host both parties separately or combine them. It will be party throughout the night I tell you.”

“I do not intend having a birthday party, “he had reached his vehicle. What was it with this girl or woman that made her earn degrees yet her intelligence wasn’t level?

How did she remember after her solitude the exact date of his birthday? Each year, his parents called him home only to get there in the morning and find there were about thirteen family and friends wishing him a happy birthday. For years in a row, he was still falling for the cheap trick.

Not this year though, they had told him when and what time to be in Bindura. But he now had been forewarned and forearmed. As long as he didn’t forget.

In turn he and his siblings ganged together every birthday of their parents, every father’s day and mother’s day to shower their parents with presents. Christmas was alas an event for most families to gather together in the family houses. Now that the children had outgrown their family homes and each had his own, it was difficult to come together. Solicitations started before Christmas as to which family member would be hosting their parents and unmarried members of the family.

He never forgot Christmas. After all he had to make sure he had the correct ages and sizes of the growing nieces, nephews and other babies popping up into the family. He never disappointed unless the economy set him up leaving him high and dry.

Recently one of his siblings had had the kitchen retiled with a new 4-plate stove fitted in before his parents had returned from Cape Town. His mother had supervised the carriage of her prized 12-cubic foot freezer into the new kitchen before realizing the surprise.

“However thank you for the reminder. I didn’t even know that I needed have a birthday party.”

Combined? She must be nuts. When last had he attended a combined birthday party? Oh, that was when the family had thrown a party for a mother and daughter. That was one of his cousin’s wives and her daughter born a week apart by several years. Had she not telephoned from the psychiatric ward of the local hospital? He switched off his flip phone heading for the city.

He went through Braeside stopping at the shopping centre for a snack. Beer was not all that a man could survive on if the Bible said bread wasn’t the only component. He bought a take away pack of mashed potatoes, beef and soup. He consumed that using a plastic spoon. His mouth was pouted as he kept blowing cold air over the mashed potatoes. They were hot. Maybe that was why he preferred cold beer. Even a cold Coke was not good enough to dampen the heat. When he was through he switched on his cell phone. He was had just finished negotiating with customers when she rang again.

“Trevor of Dayton Realtors speaking,” he said.

“You cut me off.” He put the phone on silent without switching it off.

He placed it on the passenger seat. He could feel and hear it’s vibration. He changed gears. Straight ahead of him a police man indicated he move to the far left of the road edges. He compiled, stopped and waited for the officer to approach. Nobody approached him. In his rear view mirror he saw the first police tracer motor bike with its lights flashing honking its siren tones that changed constantly.

Behind the wailing wailer was another set of two bikes whizzing past. Behind them followed a police Mercedes Benz escort vehicle. They were followed by a cluster of vehicles closely packed together with at the rim a Toyota Land Cruiser open truck with a dozen or so soldiers holding their rifles as if retreating from a nuclear bomb site. The end was closed by a police BMW vehicle.

He did not know if he lost the cell phone in a bar or if he left it in the vehicle and someone picked it up without stealing anything else. He didn’t know where the thing went but blame it on Naomi.

After eight in the morning he spent thirty minutes in his service provider’ shop having made photo copies of his line certificate, identity document and simm card certificate. He paid some money before heading back to work. He had a terrible hangover. He used a substitute cell phone and another line which made it difficult for his customers to track him. They had to constantly use the land line on the switchboard. It routed them to the temporary line that he had borrowed from someone else. While in countries like South Africa, cell phone lines were sold over the counter, in this country, police presence in riot formation was required whenever lines were sold. The crowds became rowdy.

Imagine standing in a queue from 0400 hrs. to 1800hrs for three days only to have someone just walking in, bearing their political, economic or cleavage and getting out with a line, like he had done only that he was supposed to collect the line later.

“Dayton Realtors,” the operator said at lunch time less than three metres from Trevor. “Good afternoon______ yes, he is right here by chance _______ hold ______ Trevor?”

Trevor was conversing with one of the major shareholders in the estate agency who had sunk in a huge chunk of funds into construction of medium density housing which were sold as soon as the paint was dry on the walls and reinvested. It was a turbulent market where this week‘s prices were different from the previous week. No one wanted to keep money. It was losing value fast hence investments in housing, tangible assets like vehicles or conversion of local currency into foreign currencies like the rand and dollars. “Please keep on holding. Trevor!”

“See you Gerald,” Trevor said to the Caucasian share holder. He took the land line call. “Trevor of Dayton Realtors speaking.”

“You hung up on me,” she said.

“This is not Ward B 7 at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals. I have customers waiting,” he replied. “You have anything to say make it quick, this is business.”

There was a portrait on the wall with Trevor’s likeness underneath which was written “Top Estate Agent of the Year 2___X”. The bush beard had been at full throttle almost hiding the chin and mouth. The hair had been well combed. His eyes were very brown and bright meaning. He had been well and truly sober. Maybe the camera person had done the shot at a golf course. There was green foliage behind him.

Maybe the bars, pups and nightclubs had not yet opened. The switchboard operator raised her eye brows. Why did she like high heels that she neatly parked at a corner while moving on feet clad in stockings? Why were switchboard operators not only having a good English accent? They looked younger than their ages? He swore that he had only taken a pint of beer, not two so this operator was now looking younger. He shook his head.

“I am inviting you to my graduation party on the 23rd of August,” she had replied. It was as if she had not heard what he had just said. “We are graduating on the 3rd. The state is confiscating our degrees, diplomas and practising certificates for three years because of the health services brain drain. Come to think of it, we didn’t pay to train did we? Actually the nurses got paid in stages different per level of training in years. We at state college in Mount Pleasant received termly grants to cover university education and books. I did an eight month attachment at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals.”

“I may be very sympathetic but where do I come in?” he asked. “I don’t control the state. Which party do you represent anyway? Don’t answer, this is not the complaints office of the election agency.”

“Be there and be square on the 3rd at Parirenyatwa graduation. I will count on you. I am receiving a trophy for the best female student,” she replied. “You hear of any disease that need testing you telephone me sharp, okay?”

“I guess there was only one student and one examiner then,” he had replied.

He was due to write two Marketing Management papers in November to complete the diploma qualification. He was writing two other papers with the University of South Africa (UNISA) to complete his qualification to a degree level.

There was no need to let the brain rot. If he still had the will, it was good to widen his qualification. A person needed to reach the level of qualification and working on the job experience where his job prospects were by recommendation. He wouldn’t need to apply. Talent was there only if one physically used it. He was yet to see the world’s fastest sprinter who did not train or participate in races.

How come the best soccer, tennis, cricket and baseball players were only known when they entered the public fry? So he had decided at an early age that he could study his way up to the top. Here he was taking college lessons at night and weekend. He smelt an end of days on his examination marathon. Maybe there would be a time when all he did was work, go home and watch UEFA or Barclays English Premiership matches. What if they were being sponsored by Samsung?

Most of his peers were married off by now. He only had to meet ex-classmate to find them holding their second and third babies in their arms. He wasn’t referring to the female folk who married early. Some of the men folk now had three children while a few like him were still busy getting to work and studying. It was common to sit down for an examination with folks he knew from Harare, Bindura or even from his school days. Some of the subjects examined were the same in other qualifications. He was careful to seek exemptions where they were limited to only those subjects for which his passes had been scrapping through.

“Trevor!”

“What?”

“Your cell is saying out of reach,” she said.

“The b----y f----g thing fell into some water,” he replied. “I have to go, see you. Sorry, ladies, she started it.”

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