HoneyCrisp 15 Golden Delicious

Maybe people ought to listen to and play songs only, and not try to sing at all. We could very well start a war.

I heard someone singing, sighing or signing Burdens Are Lifted At Calvary. They sang it like:-

Heavens Are Lifted At Cali valley

15. Golden Delicious

They had met their daily target. They had rushed in/out pushed in/out in cut throat competition with other transport operators large, medium and small within the city's passenger transport catchment area. The advantage of a smaller kombi versus large buses was they could weave in and out of traffic with catastrophic results when they was a misjudgement. Correctly done there were a lot of car horns and lifted fingers, yells and grimaces from the other motorists. Larger buses had advantages of carrying power plus fuel economy if the engines were correctly tuned. The wheels had to be well balanced as well for fuel economy to operate.

They could not be zigzagged in and out of lanes. When their wheel balancing was askew they appeared like a set of drunken mice trying to find their holes especially when coming downhill. That is, to anyone observing. The rear wheels and the front ones would be tracing their own patterns instead of the rear following where the front ones had treaded. While driving in a straight line, one could see the rear wheels treading on their own path unlike those of smaller vehicles. They had a legal route to stick to with a fixed fare. Fares went up above the limit and down even below the fixed fare depending on where the passenger rush hour tide was going. They had illegally changed lanes. The reason they had a conductor and another look out was to sneak in and out of police arms. The lookout had to be very sensitive like Russian radar when they saw civilians approaching their craft. At times police used plain clothes officers to effect arrest. Lookouts had to sniff these out before they boarded otherwise at the slightest suspicion the kombi moved off.

At times they had been driving in front of oncoming traffic on dual carriageways to speed up time. They had jumped queues and traffic gridlocks. You lose some on one route you regain on the other way. Now as they left Prospect, a part of the sprawling Waterfalls district comprised of residential units on one side and industrial on the other, they went shying away from the city limits late around ten thirty. That had been their last passenger load.

It was now taking much longer to load. Police in plain clothes were rattling them at their illegal points. There they blocked the roads and disturbed traffic. They headed down Beatrice Road going towards the south east of the capital away from their hunting ground for passengers.

"Bernie man, there is Prudence Katomeni-Mbofana singing at this joint outside of Chigonde on the way to Beatrice," the driver suggested. "I heard passengers talking about it. We could check it out before we come back to surrender the takings and the vehicle."

"So?"

"We could do some jazz music dancing man! Let's get there, drink and get out after a calabash or two before we hand over the takings to the owner. You never know what type of fish you can stir up at these joints. When older women are lonely, without their proper paying customers ______."

"The problem madala Tommie is we will be having i-cash which is not ours to play with. We grow necks as tall as giraffes when are holding the stash that isn't ours. The guys will crowd us. The men and ladies will tell you to drink it all off. The ladies can return the favour less than three minutes. The menfolk, you just make friends when you are loaded like a drunken gold panner with a few ounces sold off. The inside of the cell will be very near. The police when you lose someone's big stash, side with the business people as if they run a cartel with them. We run the risk of overdrinking, getting drunk and getting the takings stolen,” Bernard replied.

The kombi drove on with Tommie on the wheel. There was the soft sound of a diesel engine running well. The Nissan Caravan was still going through good and regular maintenance. If it had a regular mechanic, he was a good one.

"Bernie, when we say go we go, after a calabash. No need to drink off all our own takings you know. There is rent to pay," Tommie suggested. "Nobody wants to lose their job were their earnings are based to land in a cell at Gonakudzingwa Prison. After which when you exit the free state accommodation, free electricity, and free water, free medical facility there will be no jobs. You may come out and find east has changed to west politically. Big wigs rise and fall on the vote market. You will have to adjust to changes made while you were quarantined against the economy. What say you Gidza?"

"I support that issue of being prudent. The cash isn't ours. We have to know it's a risk to stop, drink and leave for 3rd Street, Waterfalls to cash out. It's good after the cash out. Then we will have surrendered the kombi. The problem is going to a joint without transport around eleven, it's a risk. Muggers, robbers, pick pockets and the police will be patrolling each in their own category. Don't fall into the hands of any of them. Some of them use crowbars and bicycle chains wound on their hands. The owner doesn't want the kombi prancing throughout the night with us. That's why he insists we pick it up in the morning. He is afraid of us making new trips in the dead of night for our own pockets like we did when we went to drop mourners in Nyazura. He should never be wiser."

"These days he drives it to Thomas's home gate to drop it off early in the morning in Budiriro 4 Extension. He collects me on the way for the first trip. Let's party for a short while," Bernard agreed.

They turned into the joint to enjoy a beer or two. Cars lined up the tarred driveway and car park. Lights were ablaze. There were areas kept slightly dark for romantic purposes. Guards with dogs patrolled the inner perimeter while vehicles were logged in/out at the massive main sliding gates. Part of the perimeter near the gates was a massive brick wall giving way to a fence.

Bernard was dancing. He saw a lone woman sitting by a counter nursing a glass. He approached like a pro. The kombi bench seat at the back was good for comforting the down trodden. They could be smooched or hugged standing up if the kombi was parked next to a truck. Feet could dance all they wanted, privacy was secured. The owner had reprimanded the team after the cleaners had picked up stuff that certified that the kombi was also a bedroom of some sort. He had promised repercussions if it happened again. The woman wasn’t attractive, no. Bernard was just being funny. The face was plain with a nose smaller than her age.

"My name is Bernard. The team I work with call me Bernie-man. I repair diesel vehicles for the transport sector. Maybe you have heard of me," he offered his hand. "I am normally handsome, young, intelligent, prudent, very strong and charismatic. Words fail me in describing myself."

"Oh? Good to know you Bernard. My name is Cecilia," she had moderate hands for a lady, soft and good.

"You look beautiful, glorious, attractive, and wonderful with baby skin and great hair do. Was that done by a professional hair dresser?"

"Thanks. Yes, pretty expensive."

"The outfit is exquisite." Bernard bothered to say.

“Thank you son, could you leave me alone please?” she had asked. “The reason I drink alone is I enjoy my own or other ladies’ company.”

“Son? I have enough figures that I call mother. How about handsome desirable younger macho rancho man?”

She was dressed in a dress that was cut slightly above the knees. It left her shoulder blades, back and chest bare. She had tender and soft skin. Maybe it was skin lightening creams. Her skins was palpable and light complexioned. She had a small to moderate bosom. She must have been around thirty years of age weighing in on the scales close to eighty kilograms against a height of a metre seventy-five. When she sat down the dress went up both ways. There was rich flesh of the light ebony variety for him to consume with his eyes. The rich texture of her upper knees was sending wrong signals to both, Bernard's head and especially his midriff that had thought patterns of its own. His heart started pumping blood to the wrong quarter. He had a problem with a big bulge. It would make his walk crooked.

He knew he wasn’t the only one in the predicament. His midriff started throbbing like a person taking drugs for the first time. Others had somewhere else to vent their pent up frustrations. These days Bernard had none. The women that liked his style cost a packet. Packets were not growing on almond or olive trees. They costs days of hard hustling to get around to desirable levels. His other breathing apparatus was on fire trying to escape out of its sheath. He had allowed himself to be circumcised for such emergencies that just popped out of nowhere. It helped when he forgot to be protective. He was now like a male lion sensing a female in heat. He was consumed by human desire to mate. One never knew when a man could be called upon to breed.

“I don’t remember this drinking hole having a section for the queer ones.”

“If you don’t mind, leave me alone _____. Being queer is my right. I do not need your age for company.”

"Hey dog buzz off," said a voice from behind. “There are no bitches here. Try the kennels used by the guards for them.”

Bernard looked up to see a big man with shoulders like the buttocks of an ox pulling a plough up a hill stomping towards them. Bernard did not see where he had come from. The hands were like shortened logs coming from the ground.

"Get off my woman."

"I am not on your woman. She is sitting there all alone. I didn't see any where it’s written couples lounge. I am standing here. There is enough elbow room for us to share," Bernard explained. "If you bring your mother here, tongozemberawo. We are humans after all. "

"I said beat it small terrier," the man said.

"Dan, leave the kid alone. He only made good conversation," Cecilia had vouched. "Stop cursing too. He is going. He just said hi. There is no harm in that. You don’t even stoop to compliment a lady, he did."

"I only said, hi like she said. Why don’t you pick someone your own size?" Bernard was happy to be defended.

"I said scram!" yelled Dan.

"Bouncer, you have an evil temper. Let me recommend this prophet that he exorcize you from both a massive erection, drinking and evil anger. I am moving away, a metre at least____. "

"What did you call me?"

“Monya for hire.___”

Dan let loose. Bernard picked himself from the floor. He wiped his mouth. He tasted his own blood. He opened and closed his mouth. The lounge had gone silent. He had not seen or heard the sledge hammer moving against him. He had been fallen like a man running over a steel pipe.

"Dan, stop it!" shrieked the woman. "You have started again! Do you want us blacklisted every time?"

"Dan I am calling security upon you if you start a fight!" Someone shouted.

"#£%& off," Dan yelled at Bernard.

“It is a one sided grudge match, don’t bother security,” one patron bothered to judge.

His team came running pulling him out before the fight could thicken into a sledging brawl.

"Take away your rabid dog. That's good. The likes of him, I break every bone until he is in a wheelchair. Then I break the wheels as well."

"Bernie man, we haven't reported for cash out. You start a fight every thief will be upon us. Let's move before we are body searched by every thief around and thrown out."

"I didn't say anything Tommie. He just didn't like me. He behaves as if he owns the joint and that woman," Bernard replied. "I haven't started with him yet. You know me Thomas. I just smooth talked the lady nothing else."

"Another day Bernie," Gilbert replied. "I know you. You get beaten you will think of a plan. Not tonight though we will have the hornets on our bottoms. If we get arrested we will have too many things to account for. It's like trying to report a case while you are smoking illicit stuff."

The group left arguing about what had happened all the way to Waterfalls.

On the morrow Bernard took a ride in a kombi to the same joint around the same time. He let his team go to the owner before hitch hiking. He asked around.

"Oh Dan? He is a heavy duty diesel mechanic that works for a freight company."

"______He is half African and half coloured. You call him an African at your own risk."

"_____ He drinks here almost daily. He likes his beer first, then maybe sex, then home to a coloured woman for more sex. In between don't shadow him. When you see his rig, be wise."

"He has the temper of a buffalo and the hands of a cobra. We call him Dan the coloured. Watch out for his right hand. Check who is his favourite women of the night. Then do not go near them when Big Dan is around. He will squeeze your balls."

He walked around nursing a pint. He saw Cecilia talking to some ladies. He sat by a rockery plotting his move. He saw Dan alighting from his Freightliner rig. He had an idea. It depended on how long Dan took to drink. Bernard looked around for an empty plastic container, possibly round. He found one. He reached into his shoulder bag. He cut out the top making small lacerations. He looked at his handiwork.

He ordered 2 x 1-litre locally brewed traditional beer. Two litres were almost three quarts of clear beer, way too expensive to let waste. For one quart, he could buy two litres of opaque brew. He held it sitting by the rockery. That was for about an hour and maybe five quarts later. He wound a bicycle chain around his right hand, the stronger one for round house blows.

He covered it with a black cloth. Underneath the chain was mutton cloth to cushion his tendons. He saw Dan leading Cecilia by the hand towards the horse. He was almost pulling her by the hand. Dan was a man with a mission and in a hurry. He was now behind time. He wondered if Dan could compete in the Olympics. How long would he last the first time?

Bernard walked to the rig. He emptied his 2-litres of opaque brew into his container. He was not concerned about the swaying and shaking of the rig. Maybe it was sturdy enough not to break every coiled spring and shock absorber. He waited. Three minutes later Cecilia alighted from the rig. She came out legs first facing the interior. She had finished her duty with Dan for the night. Her dress was slightly below her breast line. She didn’t have much in terms of baby feeders to talk about. He noticed she had a slightly large stomach. She definitely wasn’t pregnant. It certified she had gone through child birth.

She jumped the last fifty centimetres landing on the hard ground. She started adjusting her dress downwards. It sort of rolled downwards from the waist. She did not look towards him. She walked quickly back to the tavern exiting the parking lot. She made a beeline for the ladies room to prepare herself for the next customer if need be. The huge diesel engine fired. The sound was like a locomotive breathing life. There was a lot of rattle and shaking of loose ends on the rig as the systems prepared for movement with air brakes pumping in enough air for cushions and other systems. Bernie knocked on the window.

The window was wound down. He jumped onto the landing platform with his cape pulled over. He now had a cloth over his half face as if he was having a tooth ache with fresh air blowing up his pain.

“Is that how you bonk women, two minutes and you want to sire babies? You are like a male dog that doesn’t know its own mother. She is barely in the cab, you are through. Did you train with male lions that take forty seconds on the acts? Or you rushed like my maternal uncle‘s brown bull, it is over within the minute he mounts. It just rides for procreation purposes. You did it like a horny cock on the homestead, less than thirty seconds. Where you rushing home to your wife? She is screwing the milkman, give them space.”

It was over before it had started. Bernard took a sip of his beer and blew against the face looking at him in shock.

That was a challenge. Dan came down from the rig fast. He left his thinking faculties in the cab with the running diesel engine. Bernard jumped onto the rear of the horse. Dan was a big man. About five pints of clear beer reduced a man's speed and ability. Bernard kicked Dan as he stepped from the rig rear first. He sent both man and door swinging out. The door came back on the hinge. Bernard was ready. He lunged again catching Dan on the head. Dan jumped down landing on his feet. An ordinary man would have called for an ambulance. This one was like the wrestler Undertaker sitting up after being thrown head down onto the canvas before his opponent could try a 1-2-3 pin against him.

Bernard kicked and missed. Dan came charging to take hold of the legs, lift the man off and throw him down onto the tarmac. Bernard overturned his container with its traditional brew over Dan's head. He was lifted by both hands from the rig. He hit the container with his left fist affirming it's position while elbowing the face that was holding him in a vice grip with the right hand. Bernard used both elbows against the cheeks of his assailant. He was let loose. Bernard landed on the tarmac spring up with a kick to the face then a blow onto the container over the head of Dan. Dan tried removing the blockage on his head. Every time he did, the opaque beer seeped into his eyes.

When he tried to remove the container Bernard let loose punch after punch with the right. Bernard kept pushing the container down with his clenched left fist circling the big man hitting the ribs and ankles with kicks. In the end Dan and the container were separated. Bernard had dug his shoe into the midriff thrice. He left Dan gasping for air holding onto the front wheel. He went into the tavern and looked for Cecilia.

"Hi Cecilia," he said breathing harshly. "You are looking ravishing tonight again. Why do you keep looking attractive especially at night? Do you ever sleep babe or you spend the time looking up at the roof with this one or that one?"

"You again? Don't you learn you can't talk to me before the rig leaves? If he comes back, you will get clobbered, get away from me. I don’t talk nonsense, off with you. I will hit you so hard you will never bother women again. After which you will wake up in the slammer charged with sexual abuse."

"How much for a quickie Cecilia? I am will to pay and last longer than Dan. I trust that you noticed that I am endowed with the weapons of a horse."

"Buzz off I don't hook up with kids your size. You are irritating me now."

"Dan is at his rig. Did you two use protection? We had a gentleman's agreement. I am the one on the next round in the cab. I don't do three minutes though. I do it nice and slow at times. At others I last fifteen good ones. You sweat. He is calling for you. Says he wants it _____ again before me."

"What?"

"Women, you don't follow conversation. Dan says you should come again. Don't you have ears?"

"My Gosh, the two of you have been fighting _____," she said coming down from her high stool. "You are all scratched up."

Bernard let her run to the rig while he walked out of the gazebo lounge with its open thatch that allowed cool evening air in. He heard her screaming. He walked away towards the nearest way to the tarred main road as far as possible from the massive entrance as he could. His last view was of a woman bending over a man on his knees. Two or three people were running towards the commotion. Cecilia's dress was way too short! He had a fence to scale otherwise the security detail would have him arrested. A man beaten in such a fight could state he had lost diamonds to a thief. He didn't want to serve time for what he hadn't stolen. He wasn't a thief. He only settled scores when his nerves were rattled. He believed he was a hustler and hunter of fun. It would be a few more minutes before the engine of the rig fired again. He also knew he and his team were now personas non grata at the drinking haven with its pagodas.

He heard Cecilia screeching for help. He doubted Dan would ever use his temper at that drinking hole again.

“Hi Keisha,” he started.

“How is the office?”

“Things are pretty all right,” he had replied.

He started talking about cement which had been ordered and the articulate truck getting stuck in mud. They had to send another vehicle to offload or lighten the burden. She was not sure if he was talking of money. He mentioned units of paper. It was ‘three papers’ or ‘five papers’. This youthful slang was not catching up with her. Interpreters were not only required in between languages, even the modern languages or lingo required someone to interpret. Since when had $100.00 become one paper? At times she wondered what the younger members of society were talking about when they used slang expressions.

Why did a man who did export for a warehouse have to deal with the supply and sale of cement for local use? Yes, periodically some goods went into short supply. Traders cashed in against the currency if they had the wherewithal of acquiring commodities for sale. Woe betide if the price control inspectorate walked through while such were on sale. The ledgers would be written in red ink. Was cement in short supply? Was overcharging it preventing it going into short supply or just a wrong business method when things were hard to get? Where was the Christian in the marketplace?

“I was talking to a youth advisor at our Mbare assembly. He doesn’t know you or your name.”

“Mbare has a lot of churches.”

“I thought you said we are of the same congregation,” she had replied. “Our assembly is near Amai Musodzi hall.”

“No, we share the same God not church in Mbare” he had replied. “Are you getting into the city by any chance?”

“No. I am heading home after the service.”

“Can I walk you to the shops?” he had queried.

“I am driving.”

“You could drop me there. I will find my own means for the city. There is a soccer match at Rufaro stadium today. It is Dynamos versus Motor Action. Do you like local soccer?”

“I do not follow it. My father is the chief supporter for Dynamos, Manchester United, Paris Saint Germaine, Borussia Dortmund, AC Milan and Barcelona. He enjoys soccer every Sunday afternoon either in the stands as a spectator or on television. When any of his teams lose, we console him while spinning jokes at him. I do however watch sports highlights for all sports, EPL & La Liga, baseball, basketball and skiing. I enjoy watching skiing especially the jumps and landings.”

“For me it is soccer, soccer and more soccer. What is your favourite sport?”

“Golf, swimming and tennis when I am free. I make it a point to play golf with my buddies mainly Saturday afternoons.”

"Besides supervising people that will be doing business for you, what else do you do at home?"

"Baking, cooking, flower arranging. We run a greenhouse that produces greens sold to the locals. You will find my father in there wearing a work suit, gum boots and gloves. Mother will be attending to queries and sales. I do gardening with my dad."

“You know Keisha, if you and I could go one on one as a desirable would be couple dreaming on a wedding, we could make an item____. Maybe a hug now? Maybe we could go see a movie at Kine like Casino, A Bright Summer day or Velvet Goldmine.”

"No, it's inappropriate to go about hugging male youths straight from church especially in secluded areas. See you later Bernard."