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A Man Called Rejoice

by James Whyle

For Rejoice Mpofu and Cliff Nkosi, on whose lives this play is based.

With thanks to Claire Grove

FX: ROOF AMBIENCE: SPACE, DISTANT TRAFFIC AND PIET MY VROU. A NAIL IS HAMMERED IN. REJOICE IQUDU IS DOING SOME WORK ON A TIN ROOF.

REJOICE (Sings) Hey baby hey, hey beautiful girl… (Hammers) Come along, come to kiss me, before I’m going. Come along, come to kiss me, before I’m going. (Hammers) Won’t you kiss me nice, nice, before I’m going.

FX: CROSS FADE TO

CD: KANIDIA KOUYATE - DONINKE, FROM THE BEST OF THE AFRICAN CONNECTION WITH RICHARD NWAMBA. FADE AND HOLD UNDER AS THE SINGING STARTS. THIS IS ORCHARD IQUDU’S MUSIC AND PLAYS UNDER ALL HIS NARRATION.

ORCHARD SPEAKS DIRECTLY TO US, TELLING HIS STORY. HIS PRESENTATION IS LIGHT, SMILING AND FOCUSSED. HE IS CONCERNED WITH ACCURACY, BUT DETERMINED TO LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE.

ORCHARD I am Orchard Iqudu, brother of Rejoice. I am the last born from a family of five. Our father was Joseph Iqudu. Iqudu is an antelope. It is an animal. If you come with the skin of that antelope, I do not touch it. There is connection to that animal. There is respect. It is our ancestor. If you touch that skin it means danger for your kids. You can get a kid without teeth. For life. Because you are not respecting it. You can eat the meat, but not the heart. Two, don’t touch the skin. Whether it is dry or it is wet, never touch the skin. That one will affect your kids.

CD: FADE UP FOR A FEW BEATS. CONTINUES UNDER.

WARREN It was Susan who found Rejoice. She made a deal with him. He got a room out behind the garage. And the arrangement was, he had to do one day a week for us. Gardening, painting, whatever. (Beat) Susan’s got a way with these guys. She can really relate to them.

FADE CD.

FX: HOUSE AMBIENCE. DISTANT RADIO OR TV. PLUS PLATES, KNIVES. SUSAN AND WARREN ARE FINISHING SUPPER.

SUSAN I wish you wouldn’t talk like that, Warren. (Beat) They not them.

WARREN They sure as hell aren’t the same as us.

SUSAN Of course they are.

WARREN That’s naïve.

SUSAN Well all the things that you say you can’t do, like tiling, and getting rid of that hideous old toilet in the spare bathroom… Rejoice is going to do.

WARREN (Beat) His name is Rejoice?

SUSAN Yes, and he has a wife in Zimbabwe called Hardship, and a girlfriend in Joburg called Harmony.

WARREN How do you know this?

SUSAN Margaret Jones. He did their floor. If you buy a house that needs tender loving care, Warren, then you actually have to do the tender loving care. You can’t just let it rot around your ears.

WARREN I wonder if he’s any good with roofs? There's a horrific leak in the garage.

SUSAN Well hello.

WARREN How on earth do you get a name like Rejoice?

FX: BACK ROOM AMBIENCE. IT’S SMALL, CRAMPED, AND IT’S WALLS ARE HUNG WITH BLANKETS AND CLOTHES. THERE IS A GAS PLATE GOING. WE HEAR TIN MUGS AND SPOONS. ORCHARD IS PREPARING TEA.

ORCHARD Eish, Rejoice. Mketwa is a good man. He has authority.

REJOICE (Cold) Where is that tea?

ORCHARD It’s nearly boiling. You mustn’t be impatient. (Beat) What does it matter?

REJOICE Orchard, we are Ndebele. Not Zulu. Ndebele.

ORCHARD But this is Johannesburg. Everything is just mixed.

REJOICE Even Shaka Zulu could not conquer our ancestors! They escaped him and fought for land in Zimbabwe. We took land there from the Mashona and we made our own place. We must never forget that.

ORCHARD What I’m saying, it is a simple thing. Mketwa has a car. And because of that it is good for him to be president of the society.

REJOICE Orchard, that man can never be president.

ORCHARD He is an important man!

REJOICE No.

ORCHARD Why not?

REJOICE A thing like the society can only be organized when there are responsible persons in charge. You cannot just appoint any dunderhead because he has a motorized vehicle!

ORCHARD Rejoice, you are not seeing.

REJOICE (Fierce) Mketwa will cheat you! He will cheat you out of your own box!

CD: KANIDIA KOUYATE - DONINKE

ORCHARD Rejoice and me, we grew up in Zimbabwe, there at Imvula, in the rural areas. There’s a school, and there’s an orchard, and a dam behind. That name, Imvula, is from the dam. It is almost never dry. We like it because it has a lot of fish. Imvula is a mountainous region. If there’s rain, everything is growing. Even in the veldt. Only in the veldt you have to manure. Me and Rejoice, from when we grew up, we knew how to grow things.

FX: GARDEN AMBIENCE. DISTANT TRAFFIC, BIRDS, DISTANT PIET MY VROU. PLUS TWO STROKE LAWN MOWER.

SUSAN Rejoice. (Louder) Rejoice.

FX: LAWN MOVER DIES.

SUSAN Sorry, Rejoice. Warren asked me to give you this. In case you need petrol.

REJOICE Thank you, Susan. In fact I think it is nearly empty.

SUSAN And he wanted to know if you can start work with him on the garage roof tomorrow.

REJOICE I can only work in the afternoon. In the morning I am very busy.

SUSAN Oh. He’ll be disappointed.

REJOICE Unfortunately I have to go to the society.

SUSAN (Beat) The what?

FX: HOUSE AMBIENCE. PLUS TAP RUNNING. WARREN IS BRUSHING HIS TEETH, SUSAN COMBING HER HAIR.

WARREN The Society?

SUSAN Ja.

WARREN Pass me the mug. Thanks. (Rinses) On a Sunday morning?

SUSAN Ja.

WARREN Can’t be a building society. Can it? On a Sunday?

SUSAN I don’t know.

WARREN (Beat) You look dead sexy in that.

SUSAN Good. I’ll see you later.

FX: DEPARTING FOOTSTEPS. A SLAMMING DOOR TELLS US SHE’S GONE. WARREN WHISTLES. FADE HOUSE.

FX: BACK ROOM AMBIENCE.

ORCHARD Eish, careful of the stew, Rejoice.

REJOICE Why must you cook right here by the mirror.

ORCHARD (Laughs) Because that is where you put the stove. If you put your stove right by the mirror, then that is where I must cook!

REJOICE Did you use all my hair cream?

ORCHARD I never touched it. Your hair is very nice.

REJOICE And the jacket?

ORCHARD Quite beautiful, really.

REJOICE These trousers are pure wool. From Naidoo’s second hand in Elof St.

ORCHARD How much?

REJOICE R35.75. (Beat) The shoes. Are they shining enough?

ORCHARD They are shining too much. How do you get them so clean?

REJOICE Spit. You’ll keep food for me?

ORCHARD Of course. What you think?

REJOICE (Beat) It’s better if you come.

ORCHARD Rejoice, I have already told them that you have got my vote!

CD KANIDIA KOUYATE - DONINKE

ORCHARD I don’t know why Rejoice was so worried. Because in fact the society doesn’t take only Ndebeles. We have got people from Pretoria. People from Bloemfontein. We don’t mind. What we judge is the distance. Because if the distance is too much, the cost can be too much. That is where these short algebras become useful.

FX: HOUSE AMBIENCE. PLUS KNIVES, FORKS ETC.

WARREN Rejoice was all dressed up again this morning. Did you see? Dark fifties suit. Wide lapels.

SUSAN I know. Like some… movie character off to meet a girl. (Beat) Do you know what his surname is?

WARREN Eku… something. Apparently it means some kind of buck.

FX: FADE SUPPER.

CD: KANIDIA KOUYATE - DONINKE

ORCHARD Our father, Joseph Iqudu, was a poor man. He worked as a security guard in a shop. He tried to support us, me and Rejoice and three more brothers, five of us! And so we managed to get a small education.

FX: BACK ROOM. ORCHARD IS TASTING THE STEW. THE DOOR OPENS. REJOICE ENTERS. THEY GREET EACH OTHER IN NDEBELE/ZULU. REJOICE SITS.

REJOICE (Sings to himself) Come along, come to kiss me, before I’m going. Won’t you kiss me nice, nice…

REJOICES HUMS, CEASES, SIGHS. ORCHARD PUTS DOWN THE SPOON.

ORCHARD What happened?

REJOICE Eish.

ORCHARD What?

REJOICE They voted.

ORCHARD And?

REJOICE We must share the position. (An outrage)They have made me and Mketwa joint President of the society! (Sings/hums) I send a messenger to tell that I want to meet you, at the station… (Hums) won’t you kiss me, nice, nice…

ORCHARD (Suspicious beat) Why you singing like that, Rejoice? (Beat) Rejoice?

REJOICE I was so angry with the voting that I had to make a little detour past Harmony.

ORCHARD You went there? To Mketwa’s place?

REJOICE She is so soft that one. She is like butter. Like fresh cream straight from the cow. After tasting there, I feel like a man again. If Mketwa wants to share my chair at milking time, then I will share his cream.

ORCHARD Eish, Rejoice. You are taking too much risks, really.

FX: HOUSE AMBIENCE. PLUS WATER, CROCKERY SUSAN IS WASHING UP, HUMMING TO HERSELF.

SUSAN Anything interesting in the paper?

WARREN Just the normal stuff. Rape. Mayhem. Minister of Health refuses to admit that HIV causes Aids.

SUSAN You know it’s killing five hundred to a thousand people a day.

WARREN Oh please. Did you read the Rian Malan piece in that magazine?

SUSAN Yes I did. Classic denial.

WARREN You NGO types make up figures so that you can get funding. You test pregnant women and then you say for every pregnant woman who is positive, there will be five other people in her community who are also positive. It’s a wild guess. Besides being a cultural insult.

SUSAN I see the government figures at work. There are at least five hundred people dying a day! And that is a conservative estimate. (Beat) Imagine if we were in a war, and we were losing five hundred people a day! (Beat) And it takes up to five years from infection till people start getting sick. The majority of infected people in South African probably don’t even know they’ve got it. They’re still are still out there infecting others. In five years time, 3000 a day will be dying. Three thousand a day. How many people a day do America and Britain lose to terrorism? Point naught, naught one. We should be using those kinds of recourses on Aids. We should be treating it like a war.

WARREN Well… if you right about the figures… I don’t know if we should be here.

FX: ROOF AMBIENCE: SPACE, DISTANT TRAFFIC, DISTANT PIET MY VROU. PLUS ROOF NAILS HAMMERED INTO CORRUGATED IRON AND WOOD.

REJOICE (Sings) Come along, come to kiss me, before I’m going. Come along, come to kiss me, before I’m going.

FX: WARREN COMES UP THE LADDER.

WARREN I see you replacing some of those panels.

REJOICE Many of them are rotten, Warren. They are finished. Always, when you working on a roof, you much check the zincs. All those ones that are rusted, you must throw them out. The rust is the first thing that can kill a roof.

WARREN You the expert. I brought you some tea.

REJOICE Thank you, Warren.

FX: TEA POURED FROM A THERMOS. PASSING IBIS CALLING.

REJOICE (Laughs) They are noisy, those ones. (Imitating) Haaaa… Haaaa…

REJOICE They are angry that we are sitting on their roof.

IBISES CALL IN THE DISTANCE. TEA SLURPED.

WARREN How did you get your name, Rejoice?

REJOICE My father gave it to me.

WARREN It’s your proper name? On your passport?

REJOICE Yes. (Beat) I first came to Johannesburg in 1992. The comrades were still throwing stones. The Zulus were marching with traditional weapons. In those days guys with balaclavas were getting onto the trains and just killing anyone who happened to be sitting there.

WARREN They called it the third force.

REJOICE They were hitting them on the head with a panga and leaving them for dead.

WARREN I know. I saw guys walking around with AKs in the middle of town.

REJOICE It’s true. And so many people thought it was better to have some kind of political name like Mandla. Power. They thought these names like mine are not good. But I was considering the meaning of the word, “rejoice”. And I decided I like that meaning. I decided I will keep it always. (Beat) Sitting on a roof with the sun just passing away over Johannesburg... (Beat) I know I made the right choice.

CD: KANIDIA KOUYATE - DONINKE

ORCHARD Our father, his first kid wasn’t born. He died. Our father wasn’t happy. Then he got a second one. It was a lady. She died also. Then came Rejoice. He came in 1956 after two years of trying. When our mother first told him that she was pregnant, my father touched her there by the stomach and he said: “This guy… is Rejoice.”

FX: BACK ROOM AMBIENCE. WE HEAR REJOICE AND HARMONY’S BREATH CLOSE ON MIKE. THEY ARE FUCKING.

HARMONY Rejoice!

REJOICE Harmony!

HARMONY Oh Rejoice.

REJOICE (Sings) Won’t you kiss me nice, nice…

HARMONY Oh Rejoice! Rejoice!

REJOICE Your skin has the taste of milk with chocolate. When I put my head against you here, you are as warm as a cow that is being milked beneath the hill at Imvula.

HARMONY (Coming) Oh Rejoice, Rejoice, Rejoice!

REJOICE (Alarmed) Sh, Harmony! Do you want to wake up the whole of Johannesburg?

HARMONY (Subsiding) Oh Rejoice. I love you so much.

REJOICE Sh, my baby. Not so much noise. This is meant to be secret, what we are doing.

HARMONY I love you so much. I want you to buy me a fridge.

REJOICE Sh, my baby. (Beat) Where do you think I will get money for a fridge?

CD: KANIDIA KOUYATE - DONINKE

ORCHARD In fact the name, in our culture, it often associates you, when you are still in the mother’s stomach, from how she reacts to other people. You can find that suddenly she comes violently. But you know that she is not a violent person. It is you that are making her violent. From inside her stomach. And then they can give you the name of Violence. (Beat) My own name, Orchard, is very powerful. It is not just an ordinary name like a white person might have.

FX: ROOF AMBIENCE: SPACE, DISTANT TRAFFIC, DISTANT PIET MY VROU.

REJOICE At Imvula there is an orchard. It’s sits just there between the village and the school. Every year those trees are fruitful. Beautiful apples and everything like that. And hidden inside that orchard where you go in, there is a… what-you-call-that-thing. A water storage.

WARREN A dam?

REJOICE No, that small deep one.

WARREN Uh… a well?

REJOICE That one. That well is so deep. When you drop a stone you have to wait long time before you hear it hit the water. It is very wonderful to the village because the water is much sweeter than the dam. Even during the drought when parts of the dam can become stagnant. But it can be dangerous. One time an old woman drowned in there. We struggled many days to get her body out.

CD: KANIDIA KOUYATE - DONINKE

ORCHARD It was in my father’s mind when he named me that the orchard was good, but also dangerous. The orchard gives you fruit, but if you fall in the well you will be vanished from this world. (Beat) Sometimes, when the moon is straight above, I can see things in the water of that well. (Beat) One time, when I was still a small child, I looked into that water, and I saw Rejoice. But instead of feet, there were just flames.

FX: ROOF WORK AMBIENCE.

WARREN Where did you learn to fix roofs?

REJOICE I learnt that side, in Zim. I worked on a farm there. I learnt every single thing that was known about that farm.

WARREN Oh ja?

REJOICE Before I was finished, I was even the manager. I knew all what was going. Everything, everybody who was employed there, has to pass by me first. I show him how to milk with the machine. If this cow doesn’t want the machine, I show how to milk it by hand. (Beat) That lady, Mrs Wells, the owner, she came to rely on me in every way. I did all the different functions. Inseminating, whatever you want me to do.

WARREN You do artificial insemination?

REJOICE It’s very easy, that one. Even if you have fifty cows, I will inseminate them all, right here on your front lawn.

FX: FADE ROOF AMBIENCE.

CD: KANIDIA KOUYATE – DONINKE.

ORCHARD It happened to me in 1983 that I didn’t have school fees. My mother was not happy that I was not at school. But she knew I was a loving-school guy. So she told me, “No, better go to your brother. Just to get relaxed.”

FX: ZINC BUCKET ON CONCRETE FLOOR, COWS.

REJOICE You must pull gently. And smooth. Always aiming in the bucket. Like this.

FX: MILK HITTING THE BUCKET.

ORCHARD It looks quite simple, really.

REJOICE Here. Take the stool.

ORCHARD Okay.

FX: STOOL SHIFTING.

ORCHARD Eish. It’s very low.

FX: MILK HITTING BUCKET. TENTATIVE.

ORCHARD Like this?

REJOICE No. You must lean against the cow! You must be the friend of the cow.

ORCHARD Okay. Like this.

FX: RHYTHM IMPROVES.

REJOICE That’s better.

FX: MILK HITTING BUCKET.

REJOICE Good.

ORCHARD How many cows are there on the farm Rejoice?

REJOICE A hundred and sixty-four And two bulls. That’s right. Nice and easy. Lean into the cow.

ORCHARD And how much milk does each cow give?

REJOICE (Proud) The best cow on this farm last year was Butterfield Dreamer Three. She produced six thousand, eight hundred and eighty-eight kilograms in one year.

ORCHARD Yes, but I am trying to find the average. I am trying to find out mathematically how much milk is produced by each cow.

REJOICE Eish.

ORCHARD What was the cow that gave the least milk last year? Do you have these figures?

REJOICE Mrs Wells has them.

ORCHARD You don’t remember?

FX. MILK RHYTHM SPEEDS UP.

REJOICE No. Do it smoothly, Orchard.

ORCHARD Okay. But if that Butterfield whatever made eight thousand and eighty kilograms, what do you think the least would be. Maybe six thousand kilograms?

REJOICE Orchard, can’t you just think about what you doing?

ORCHARD I am capable of doing two things at the same time, Rejoice. Just make a guess. How much?

REJOICE Maybe six thousand five hundred kilograms.

ORCHARD Okay. Okay. Let’s use that. So there are one hundred and sixty-four cows…

FX: MILKING RHYTHM SPEEDS UP ERRATICALLY.

REJOICE (Alarmed) Think about what you are doing, Orchard. Smooth. You are disturbing the cow!

ORCHARD Okay, okay.

FX: RHYTHM IMPROVES.

REJOICE Anyway, at this time only eighty of the cows are being milked.

REJOICE Only eighty? Okay… let us take these eighty cows. I can see them standing in the field. And this Butterfield cow is making eight thousand eight hundred and eighty kilograms, and the worst cow is six thousand five hundred…

FX: MILK BECOMES ERRATIC.

REJOICE Orchard!

ORCHARD I can do this in my mind. No paper. No pen.

REJOICE Orchard, think about what you are doing!

ORCHARD (Triumphant) Seven thousand and six hundred and ninety kilograms. That is the average.

FX: MOOO. BUCKET FALLING ON CONCRETE.

REJOICE (Alarmed) Eish! Look what has happened!

ORCHARD I’m sorry.

REJOICE (Disappointed) Maybe it is better if you stick with the maths, really.

FX: ROOF AMBIENCE. SUSAN IS COMING UP THE LADDER.

SUSAN Okay. Here are the roof nails and fibre glass strips. And here’s the sealant. I hope it’s all right. Warren was in a bit of a hurry when he gave me the list.

REJOICE Thank you, Susan. I’m sorry to disturb your work.

SUSAN No problem. Oh and Rejoice. (Beat) Harmony was here to see you. Early in this morning.

REJOICE Harmony? (Beat) Where is she now?

SUSAN I don’t know. I told her you weren’t here.

REJOICE Eish!

SUSAN VENTURES INTO DIFFICULT TERRITORY.

SUSAN Rejoice… you do know about Aid’s, don’t you?

REJOICE I know about it, Susan.

SUSAN (Struggles) I know in your culture, sometimes a man can… I don’t want to disrespectful or anything but… Basically I just… (Bottom line) I know from work how dangerous it is. You’ve got to be so careful, Rejoice.

REJOICE CHOOSES NOT TO GO THERE.

REJOICE You mustn’t worry about me, Susan. I am a strong man. Ever since I was a small child I have been looking after everyone. Because I am the oldest brother. So I must be like a father. Always providing. Looking after Orchard. Sending food and money for Hardship. Looking after the children.

AND SUSAN GOES WITH THE DECISION.

SUSAN (Beat) They were saying on the radio that there are terrible food shortages up there.

REJOICE Every month I must send mielie-meal. Every month without fail. Then those thieves at the border are stealing it. And the war veterans are taking over the farms. They have never been in war. They are just Mugabe’s tsotsis. (Beat) It is a long time, sometimes three, sometimes six months, before I see Hardship.

FX: DODGY ENGINE TICKING OVER.

REJOICE Have you got every thing packed?

ORCHARD I’ve got it all. Don’t worry yourself.

REJOICE The clothes for Progress and the baby?

ORCHARD They are in the bags.

REJOICE And the shoes? Four pairs. For Naledi, Mandla, President, and Nicholas.

ORCHARD I’ve got them, Rejoice. Don’t worry.

REJOICE And the money for Hardship. Don’t even tell them about it at the border. Better just hide it and take it through and change in on the black market.

ORCHARD That is what I will do.

FX: HOOTER.

ORCHARD Come. Help me load this mielie-meal now. These guys wanted to leave two hours ago already.

FX: ROOF AMBIENCE.

SUSAN (Impressed) Five children?

REJOICE Five!

SUSAN And how many wives?

REJOICE This one, Hardship, she is my third wife.

SUSAN All at once?

REJOICE No, not all at once. First, the mother of Progress. But unfortunately we were fighting and we were divorced. Then, two, the mother of Naledi. Then divorced again. Now this third one, Hardship, the mother of President and Mandla and Nicholas.

SUSAN No divorce this time?

REJOICE No divorce. Not ever again. Hardship is a very beautiful lady. Very good and honest. And dressing nicely. Even like yourself.

SUSAN Why, thank you, Rejoice.

REJOICE Every single thing that a man could wish for in a woman, Hardship has got. There is just the problem with the distance. (Beat) Thank you for the tools, Susan.

SUSAN That’s a pleasure. You just shout if you need anything.

FX: FADE ROOF. CD: KANIDIA KOUYATE - DONINKE.

ORCHARD All I have to do on the farm, where I lived with Rejoice, is to go and collect the cattle for milking. It is taking me thirty minutes. Two o’clock to half past two. Then I go back to sleep. In the morning I take them back at six o’clock. Then my work is finished. I’m paid for that and I don’t pay anything myself. Even food, I don’t pay anything. And I told that Mrs Wells that I want to go back to school. So, every day, two o’clock, she comes to me. She teach me maths, English. In fact I can’t even say I wasn’t in a school. I was in a private school with just me and Mrs Wells.

FX: HOUSE AMBIENCE. WARREN PREPARING SUPPER.

SUSAN I told him I want him to do the bathroom.

WARREN (Astonished) Rejoice?

SUSAN Yes.

WARREN Pass me the tomatoes.

SUSAN His tiling is excellent. He did a great job for the Joneses.

WARREN Ja, but plumbing! Plumbing is something else.

SUSAN Rejoice knows what he’s doing. (Beat) He was going to start on Sunday, but he has to go to the society again.

CD: KANIDIA KOUYATE – DONINKE

ORCHARD As the society policeman there are many things that I can tell you. For instance: It can get very hot that side. Maybe thirty, thirty-five degrees. Especially in the reserve areas. So you can’t keep somebody for two weeks. One day is more than enough to keep somebody. If you arrive there maybe four o’clock in the morning, it means by ten o’clock everybody has seen the corpse. And then we bury that person. Because of the heat. So as to avoid more sickness to other people.

FX: BACK ROOM AMBIENCE. DOOR OPENING.

REJOICE When I think of you, it’s like my heart is burning. I am on fire with desire.

HARMONY Rejoice! (Giggling) You are a mad person!

REJOICE It is you that makes me mad. This week I couldn’t work because I was thinking of you. The roof nails were dropping from my hand.

HARMONY Rejoice you are meant to be at the Burial Society Meeting! Mketwa already left ten minutes ago.

REJOICE I know. I waited until he caught the taxi. What is wrong with the his motor vehicle?

HARMONY I don’t know. He says maybe the carbu… something. All his money is wasting on that car. That is why he cannot buy me a fridge.

REJOICE Come my baby. Let’s not talk about motor vehicles now. And fridges. How often do we get these chances.

HARMONY What if Mketwa comes back?

REJOICE He won’t.

HARMONY You will be late for the meeting.

REJOICE Not if we are fast. (Beat) Harmony is such a beautiful name. I lie in bed and I think of how soft you feel, and your name is like a tune that sings in my head.

HARMONY Oh Rejoice! I can’t help myself when you touch me like that.

REJOICE I know that my baby.

HARMONY Oh Rejoice! Rejoice!

REJOICE Come my baby. Just let me come and say hello with you.

HARMONY Oh Rejoice, Rejoice, Rejoice.

FX: ROOF AMBIENCE. PLUS PASSING IBIS.

REJOICE The society is simple, really. It’s just the box and the transport that we are concerned with. That’s all. Doesn’t matter if it’s Cape Town, doesn’t matter if it’s Gijaburu. (Beat) My brother, Orchard, he is the policeman. He is working out all the maths.

WARREN The policeman?

REJOICE (Proud) He checks everything. The figures, whatever you want. He is making sure that the whole organization is running smoothly. If there is some discrepancy they will go to Orchard. Because of his ability with numbers.

FX: FADE ROOF. CD: KANIDIA KOUYATE - DONINKE.

ORCHARD It was when I was being taught by Mrs Wells that I discovered that maths is something which is just in my blood. Especially short algebras. When I went back to school I looked like a teacher. If there’s some sections that the students have jumped, the teacher would ask me what is wrong. I would say: “no, from here, you were supposed to go this side. You must go third floor, second floor, first floor. You must make the whole journey. You cannot just fall to the ground.” You see?

FX. TOWNSHIP STREET AMBIENCE.

REJOICE This is the place. Number 3279 Freedom street.

FX: FOOTSTEPS. THEY KNOCK ON THE DOOR. REJOICE HUMS TO HIMSELF AS THEY WAIT: “COME ALONG, COME TO KISS ME, BEFORE I’M GOING…”

FX: DOOR OPENS.

WOMAN Hello?

REJOICE Hello, Mama. Are you Mrs Matabane?

WOMAN (SeSotho) Yes.

REJOICE I am Rejoice Iqudu, co-president of the Imvula Burial Society.

WOMAN (SeSotho) What you want here?

ORCHARD And I am Orchard Iqudu, the policeman of the Imvula Burial Society.

WOMAN Eish.

REJOICE My sister, unfortunately we must investigate some claims concerning your husband.

ORCHARD You claimed money to bury Mr Matabane in Thaba N’Chu when some of our members saw you burying him right here in Johannesburg. So all these expenses: petrol, R512;17, phone calls R16.39, meat: R451.00, other refreshments: R319.85. All these things you have written down, and claimed, are not good mathematics.

REJOICE In fact, Mrs Matabane, many of them are just plain lies.

WOMAN (SeSotho) Have pity. Have pity. (Begins to cry)

CD: ORCHARD’S MUSIC.

ORCHARD The thing which is most strange is that finally I failed maths. And the ones I was teaching, they passed. I got a C instead of an A. Even though I was a teacher there. (Long beat) Maths is something which can just turn you around like this!

FX: HOUSE AMBIENCE.

SUSAN It’s not funny, Warren.

WARREN Isn’t it?

SUSAN You can’t get ground maize in Zimbabwe. You can’t get flour. You can’t get oil. They’re desperate. And the Aids statistics are probably worse than they are here.

WARREN Ag statistics!

SUSAN You think the numbers aren’t true?

WARREN Where are they? All these dying people? Our population has risen by ten percent since 1996!

SUSAN They test positive and then they get sent home. The doctors write TB on the death certificate. TB or malaria or pneumonia. (Beat) There’s horrific denial going on in this country and you are part of it.

CD: KANIDIA KOUYATE - DONINKE.

ORCHARD The loss of his job on the farm was not the fault of Rejoice. Mrs Wells left. She took all those people that were working there and went to another farm. But it didn’t help. The war veterans came and that was it. Finished. So everybody have to know where to go. Rejoice went back to Imvula. I came this side. I came here before Rejoice did. I was the last born, but I was the first to come to Johannesburg.

FX: BACK ROOM. REJOICE IS MAKING TEA.

CLIFF That little one of yours, Nicolas, was so excited with his new shoes. All day he was just chasing the dog. He said he could run faster because of the shoes.

REJOICE It is my great wish that I could also have travelled home this time.

CLIFF How was the work here?

REJOICE Just the one gardening job. Tuesday and Thursday. On the weekends fixing the bathroom here in the house.

CLIFF Did you manage to put in the toilet?

REJOICE There have been some few problems. Nothing that you can worry about too much. But when you add it with the box in the garage…

CLIFF (Astonished) You have put a coffin in the garage?

REJOICE Mketwa was paying two hundred rand a month for that other place. This is for free. And we save some of that storage money for other purposes.

CLIFF But Susan and Warren won’t like that, Rejoice. They won’t be satisfied, really.

REJOICE (Angry) What do you know? You haven’t even met them! They don’t even know that you have lost your place and you are staying here!

CD: KANIDIA KOUYATE - DONINKE.

ORCHARD The thing which pushed me to come to South Africa is a girl. We did a mistake. She was a school kid and I was a school kid and we did a mistake. So because of that, she was expelled from her home for good and I have to marry her forcibly. But we loved each other. So there was no problem. My father was already ailing at that time. I talked to him about the situation. He said: “Because you are not working, where will you get the money?” I said: “Don’t worry. I’m going. I’ve finished schooling. What I have to do, I have to see for myself.” And that was when I came this side.

FX: BATHROOM. TOOLS PACKED AWAY.

REJOICE It’s looking good now. Tomorrow I will do the grouting. When does Warren come back?

SUSAN Next week, Tuesday. You think we going to be finished by then?

REJOICE Yes, we’ll be finished. Just if this new toilet bowl is still leaking there might be a problem.

FX: GARDEN AMBIENCE. CAR ENGINE.

WARREN (Irritated) Some what?

REJOICE Silicone. Just the normal one for the bathroom. The one that is stopping the leaks. Otherwise I must take that bowl out again and put in the new connection. And that is quite a big operation because you have to break away the cement of the floor.

WARREN You put the bowl too close to the wall, Rejoice. The seat won’t stay up.

REJOICE Just maybe an inch or two. I did a mistake. But I’m very much hoping that silicone will heal everything.

WARREN Silicon won’t keep the seat up! (Beat) And there’s a coffin in the garage! Why is there a coffin in my garage, Rejoice?

REJOICE I’m sorry, Warren. It’s that Mketwa. I explained everything with Susan. (Beat) Just that bit of silicone. Then I can be finished.

WARREN (Sighs) Look, I’ve got a very busy day, but I’ll see what I can do.

FX: CAR PULLS OFF.

REJOICE (Shouting) And some two by fours for the garage ceiling. And some nails. Please Warren.

FX: HOUSE AMBIENCE. SUPPER.

WARREN I knew that the plumbing would be beyond him.

SUSAN He’ll fix it. Don’t worry.

WARREN And the coffin?

SUSAN It’s just temporary. Just a couple of weeks. He was so worried that you’d be cross about it and I promised him it was fine. Please don’t give him a hard time.

CD: KANIDIA KOUYATE - DONINKE

ORCHARD Me and that girl, we were not financially secure. But thanks to God, Rejoice was working again. He was what-you-call-it. Inseminating. This was in 1986. So the first time Rejoice was paid, he went to pay damages to the parents of the girl. Not big damages. They charged me just one cow. It was sixty dollars at the time. The price was quite low, really, because the girl wasn’t pregnant. I was the first to take a wife in the family. I said to Rejoice: you see this person. She is here to help everybody. And I liked her because she helped my father. Sometimes my father would just… go over himself. The eyes weren’t seeing. The feets were swollen. He couldn’t walk. She had to take his clothes. Wash them clean. And give them back to him clean.

FX: HOUSE AMBIENCE.

SUSAN (Beat) Damages to… what?

WARREN To her… tackle.

SUSAN (Beat) You mean he… he hurt her?

WARREN No, no. No, no. It’s just what they call it, you know. Breaking the virginity.

SUSAN (Dry) Them.

WARREN Yes. They call it damages.

FX: BACK ROOM AMBIENCE. REJOICE AND HARMONY HAVE JUST MADE LOVE.

REJOICE Why do you have to make such a noise. It’s like you want to wake the whole city.

HARMONY I don’t care if I wake them up. You make me feel so good. You are so strong and big down there. Just like Mketwa.

REJOICE Eish. How can you talk about Mketwa at a time like this?

HARMONY It was him that bought me the fridge.

REJOICE Only because he sold that rubbish motor vehicle. And sometimes he buys cheap boxes and takes the extra money for himself. The guys are watching him, Harmony. He won’t be co-president much longer, I can tell you.

HARMONY He treats me very nicely, Rejoice. That fridge has even got automatic ice.

REJOICE (Beat) Where is he?

HARMONY He won’t be back for a long time He went to see the Sangoma in Pietersburg.

REJOICE In Petersburg? What for?

HARMONY I don’t know. (Beat) I think maybe he was stroked.

REJOICE Serious?

HARMONY Yes. Just a little bit. The side of his face here. It’s not moving.

REJOICE Vocabulary stroke?

HARMONY No, he’s still talking.

REJOICE Eish. (Beat) I must go. Where are those trousers of mine that you mended?

HARMONY I don’t know.

REJOICE You don’t know?

HARMONY No.

REJOICE Where are my trousers, Harmony?

HARMONY (Beat) They are with Mketwa.

REJOICE Why has he got them?

HARMONY He found them! I could not tell him they were yours!

REJOICE They are pure wool, those trousers.

HARMONY I told him I bought them for him.

REJOICE They come from Naidoo’s Indian second hand in Elof Street!

HARMONY What was I meant to do, Rejoice? He found them here in the room!

FX: GARDEN AMBIENCE.

WARREN Rejoice we have to talk about this. I really don’t understand why I have to have a coffin in my garage.

REJOICE (Regretful) It was Mketwa’s idea that we have some few boxes.

WARREN For the burial society?

REJOICE Yes. Just on stand by. Because the TB is hitting the guys. TB and the pneumonia. And it is better if we can just buy when the price is right. But storage is where the problem comes. So Mketwa arranged for the storage. He found a shed there in Alexandria township. But now that shed has burnt down. That is why it becomes very necessary to store just this single coffin here with you.

WARREN Rejoice, I’m really not too happy about this. I have to be honest with you.

FX: A FRIENDLY HAND ON WOOD.

REJOICE I have arranged it so it takes up very little space. It is just temporary, really. I can even maybe cover it with some plastics so nobody can notice.

WARREN (Beat) How long is temporary, Rejoice?

REJOICE Maybe just one week. Maybe… two. Just a short time. Serious.

FX: KITCHEN AMBIENCE.

WARREN (Beat) I’m sorry but sometimes you have to learn to say: no. Sometimes no is the best option.

SUSAN We’re helping him, Warren. For heaven’s sake! What harm can it possibly do to you to have a coffin in the garage?

WARREN Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile.

SUSAN Oh nonsense.

WARREN We’ll end up with a garage full of coffins!

SUSAN And a house that isn’t falling apart at the seams.

FX: CEMENT IS SMOOTHED WITH A TROWEL.

REJOICE This is the first time I have ever fitted a toilet bowl. (Apologetic) It was just two inches too close.

WARREN I knew you’d never seal it with silicone.

REJOICE I’m sorry. I did a mistake. Just a couple of inches. But I’ve fixed it now. We can even test. Look.

FX: TOILET FLUSHES.

REJOICE (Proud) Nothing. It’s dry, dry, like a drought.

CD ORCHARD’S MUSIC.

ORCHARD Our father, Joseph Iqudu, died a clean man on November 7, 1989. I was working here in Johannesburg by the Belem Shopping Centre. I was cleaning at the Sizzling Gourmet Grill. That was my first job in South Africa. They would not allow me to go home for the burial. In fact I had only been working two weeks. Which they said was too soon to take leave. But in 1990 I went home. And I found that everything was done properly by Rejoice, all the ceremonies, and I could go and speak to my father with no problems at all. After just a few ceremonies I found I was able to communicate with him perfectly.

FX: GARAGE. SUSAN AND REJOICE ARE TAKING A COFFIN OUT.

REJOICE I’m sorry for this, really. We can just put it down here. There is Orchard and some other guys waiting to help. If I can just ask them to come in.

SUSAN Of course you can. (Beat) It’s not someone in your family is it?

REJOICE No, thank you, Susan. (Beat) It is Mketwa.

SUSAN Mketwa died?

REJOICE Regretfully… this what happened.

FX: KNUCKLES TAPPING WOOD.

REJOICE (Continuing) Mketwa is going home in this very box.

SUSAN (Beat) What did he die off?

REJOICE (Grave) First the stroke, then pneumonia.

SUSAN But… how old was he?

REJOICE Maybe… forty something years.

SUSAN Pneumonia is curable.

REJOICE Yes, Susan.

SUSAN How long was he sick for?

REJOICE Just a few weeks. (Beat; checking the deal) Mketwa’s family will replace this coffin. I even spoke to him on the phone before he died. He promised me that we will get another one, same, same. (Beat) So it won’t take up any more space than this one.

SUSAN So… you want to keep it here? The replacement? That’s what you’re saying?

REJOICE Yes please, Susan. Now I am the sole president of the society the guys expect me to just arrange everything.

SUSAN Rejoice, that’s fine. Of course you can keep it here.

REJOICE Thank you. I hope Warren will not be getting angry.

SUSAN Don’t you worry about Warren.

CD: KANIDIA KOUYATE - DONINKE.

ORCHARD We are not like European people. When we die, we go to join our ancestors. We sit down with them and we talk. I, myself, Orchard Iqudu, will join the assembly of the ancestors. When that times comes, there will be cows grazing on the green field above Imvula dam. The trees in the Orchard will be hanging with bright fruit. There will be children laughing. The men that are left from our family, the Iqudus, will the put the juice from the gall of the ox on their bodies. That gall tastes very bitter to living people. But to dead people, it is very nice. And that sweet smell will bring me and Rejoice back to the world. (Beat) In these things, we are not like European people.

FX: GARAGE. REJOICE AND WARREN ARE PUTTING THE NEW COFFIN IN.

REJOICE I will just put this cloth over so you are not worried by the sight of it when you are going to work in the morning.

WARREN My morning wasn’t the same while I couldn’t touch wood on a coffin. (Beat) What did you go up in?

REJOICE A combi.

WARREN With Mketwa inside?

REJOICE No. Mketwa travelled in the trailer. Eish, but the border is terrible these days. The queue is ten kilometres! You have to wait, maybe, for another whole day.

WARREN Ouch.

REJOICE But luckily our driver knew what he has to do. He took all our passports and goes straight inside. He told them: “no, I’ve got a dead person.” They let us pass.

WARREN And the funeral? Did it go okay?

REJOICE It was good. (Regretful beat) But that Mketwa was just the same as ever. I was looking at the trousers he was wearing.

WARREN His trousers?

REJOICE I was just regretting a little bit because he got those trousers from me.

WARREN Oh.

REJOICE The only reason he had them was because of a terrible misunderstanding. (Beat) Then I saw, eish Warren, down here, Mketwa was stiff like a pole.

WARREN True?

REJOICE Harmony says that Mketwa can never change. Even now that he has gone to join the ancestors.

FX: HOUSE AMBIENCE.

WARREN (Beat) What’s he like? Orchard?

SUSAN He’s nice.

WARREN If he’s going to be living with us, I sincerely hope so.

SUSAN Don’t worry about it. (Beat) He’s tall and… I don’t know. Serious. I think he’s quite bright.

WARREN Has he got a job?

SUSAN Yes.

WARREN There isn’t space for two people in that room. (Beat) You know they’re keeping trailers behind the garage now?

SUSAN They’ve got nowhere else to keep them. And how else are they going to send food home?

FX: SAWING. IT STOPS. CLATTER OF THE END PIECE HITTING CEMENT.

REJOICE I spoke on the phone. They are all well.

SUSAN Progress’s baby?

REJOICE He is better now. It was just flu.

SUSAN Good. And your little one? Nicholas?

REJOICE (Proud) Susan, he is a warrior. I have got a small brown dog at the house there. Hardship says that Nicholas runs the whole day after the dog. It is his best friend. Hardship had to make him take off his shoes. Otherwise in one month he wears them finished.

SUSAN Are you going to go up for Christmas?

REJOICE Yes, I’m going.

SUSAN I’ll give you some things to take. For Hardship and the children.

REJOICE Thank you, Susan. They would like that, really.

CD: KANIDIA KOUYATE - DONINKE.

ORCHARD The most important thing in our culture is the kids. We don’t worry much about grown-ups. We worry about the future of the kids. In our culture, if you can look at it, you say: these people are returning back. People die, but then later they return. And in fact you can see it with your own eyes. Because this person resembles so and so that was dead a long time ago.

FX: HOUSE AMBIENCE.

PLUS CD UNDER: SALALA – LANITRA MANGA MANGA.

WARREN People are dying, Susan.

SUSAN I know.

WARREN I never believed the figures, but everyone I know knows someone who is dying.

SUSAN This is just the first wave.

FX: NIGHT GARDEN CRICKETS ETC. PLUS AGED CAR ENGINE.

WARREN How many of you going in that car?

REJOICE I think there are six of us. Maybe seven.

SUSAN Have you got a good driver? The roads are awful at this time of year.

REJOICE No, he is a good driver. Very good. Very careful. Not going too fast.

SUSAN Have you packed the presents for the kids?

REJOICE They are all there inside. Thank you, Susan.

SUSAN Here are blankets that the Joneses dropped of for you. And some extra ones from us.

REJOICE Thank you.

WARREN You have a great holiday, Rejoice.

SUSAN And a good Christmas. We’ll see you after new year.

REJOICE Good bye.

WARREN Good bye.

SUSAN Good bye. And drive carefully!

REJOICE Yes, we will.

FX: DOOR SLAM. OLD CAR PULLS OFF.

FX: BEDROOM AMBIENCE. PLUS FIRE WORKS. THE OPENING BANGS COULD BE RIFLE FIRE.

WARREN (Waking) What the hell is that?

SUSAN Fire works. (Laughs) It’s new year’s eve.

WARREN Holy cow. I thought it was the revolution all over again. (Beat) When did I drop off?

SUSAN About half an hour ago. Happy new year.

WARREN It’s been a good one.

SUSAN I know. It has. (Beat; snuggles) I’m glad we got the house done.

WARREN Well, you were right. I couldn’t have done it.

SUSAN Yes. (Beat) You know Rejoice is moving out.

WARREN No.

SUSAN He said you were right. There isn’t space for two people in that room. And some people he gardens for have offered him a place.

WARREN So it’s just Orchard now.

SUSAN Ja. He’s going to do one morning a week in the garden.

WARREN (Beat) And we still get to store the coffins and the trailers.

SUSAN I suppose so. (Beat) Come here.

WARREN Should I get a condom?

SUSAN No. Come. Come here.

CD: KANIDIA KOUYATE - DONINKE.

ORCHARD It was when the farming got too bad that Rejoice moved to Johannesburg. This was in 1992. Rejoice is a hard working man, and very soon he was getting jobs. So then there was me and Rejoice, and every month we were sending food and money to the family at Imvula. To my mother and to Rejoice’s children. And, that side, if you can count every single one, there are twenty-seven people who are depending on us.

FX: GARAGE AMBIENCE. WE HEAR REJOICE LAUGHING. WE HEAR SUSAN’S FOOTSTEPS. THERE IS SOMETHING VERY ALARMING IN THE LAUGHTER.

SUSAN Rejoice? Rejoice? Is that you? (Astonished beat) What are you doing?

REJOICE (Laughs) I’m just testing, Susan. Just so I can know for sure what is happening. You can never know with these people.

SUSAN Testing what? Why are you lying in there?

REJOICE Eish. (Fighting tears) That Mketwa.

SUSAN Rejoice please… what’s wrong? Why are you lying in the coffin?

REJOICE Those bastards. Those dunderheads. They have stolen everything.

SUSAN What? Stolen what?

REJOICE They have taken everything from me. Every last thing. They have broken everything. Even my feet. Even the simplest thing no longer works. The water cannot flow positively. They have told me that I am finished and everything is gone. Those Dunderheads.

SUSAN Who? I don’t understand what you’re talking about.

REJOICE Susan, my feet are burning. I cannot sleep. I lie with my feet on fire. The whole night I lie awake and the sheets are wet with my sweat. All through the night it is as if I am walking in fire. Even if I put my feet in cold water, I am walking in the fire.

SUSAN Rejoice get out of there, please. Let me help you!

REJOICE No! All my life I have been saying: I must rejoice! It doesn’t matter if the child is too thin. I must rejoice. It doesn’t matter if I cannot go home to see my wife. I must rejoice. It doesn’t matter if the cow has no milk. I must rejoice. It doesn’t matter that a man who works hard cannot find a job in his own county. I must rejoice. It doesn’t matter that the money is stolen at the border. I must rejoice. It doesn’t matter that the farms are broken. I must rejoice. It doesn’t matter that the war veterans are just murderers. I must rejoice. It doesn’t matter that the bags are broken and the mielie-meal is spilt with the milk on the ground. I must rejoice. The cow is dead. I must rejoice. My feet are burning. I must rejoice. I cannot walk. I must say thank you. I must rejoice. I must rejoice. I must rejoice.

HE IS WEEPING NOW.

SUSAN Rejoice, come. Please. Let me help you out of there

REJOICE Mketwa left this box for me. (Beat) But it’s too short. That guy is always stealing the last laugh. First my trousers, now this! (Laugh/cry) I will have to take my last journey with my knees bent up. He has forced to lie in my own box with my knees bent up like a bicycle rider. They want my whole family to be just like a joke.

SUSAN Rejoice, calm down. You’re not making any sense.

REJOICE I’m sorry. (Beat) I went to the hospital for testing. They told me that I am positive.

CD: SALALA – LANITRA MANGA MANGA. HOLD UNDER.

FX: HOUSE AMBIENCE.

WARREN Positive?

SUSAN That was the word he used. (Beat) But Warren… he um… I’ve never heard him talk like that. (Fights tears) I think it might be dementia. I think… I think the truth is… he’s got full blown Aids.

CD: KANIDIA KOUYATE - DONINKE

ORCHARD Many people do not know why Rejoice got sick. They can find it hard to understand what happened. (Beat) You see in our area, if you try to make something, people are not happy. From the death of my father, Joseph Iqudu, our neighbours thought our family would be like a circus where people can laugh whenever they like. But they didn’t find that. They found that everything is under respect.

FX: BEDROOM AMBIENCE.

WARREN I think we should get out of here.

SUSAN And go where? Warren, people from all over Africa flock here because there’s work, medicine, food. If you can pay for it there’s even anti-retrovirals.

WARREN In Sweden there are fifty people who are HIV positive and the health department knows exactly who they are. (Silence) I just… I think we should start a family. And I think we should do it somewhere else.

CD: KANIDIA KOUYATE - DONINKE.

ORCHARD The time Rejoice got sick, I was also sick. When he moved from Susan and Warren’s house, I couldn’t visit him at first. When I did visit him there, I found that he could not swallow one thing. His feets were swollen. He could not walk. That’s when I said, “Brother, go home. Be nearer to your kids. Talk to your kids. Before you die. Because I can see there’s nothing I can do.” (Beat) It was already too late to tell him what I knew about the neighbours. In fact I was too stressed to tell him that those very same neighbours were making me sick also.

FX: BACK ROOM AMBIENCE.

ORCHARD Perhaps… I can make you a little tea.

REJOICE Thank you. It doesn’t matter.

ORCHARD You must drink something.

REJOICE I had some milk. These other things are hurting my mouth.

ORCHARD You cannot live if you do not eat and drink.

REJOICE Yes. (Beat) It will come to you, my brother.

ORCHARD What? What are you talking?

REJOICE When I am dead there will only be you. For all the family at Imvula.

ORCHARD Rejoice, go home. Go to Imvula. Go and drink the water from the well. That is the sweetest water. And eat the fish from the dam. And, in a short time, you will be getting better. You will see.

REJOICE No. I must stay here. I must see if I can find a work. Maybe something in a vegetable garden. Something where I don’t have to stand.

CD: KANIDIA KOUYATE - DONINKE.

ORCHARD Rejoice said to me: “My brother, I am HIV positive.” But, because of my African beliefs, I already knew that. You see, I had a dream. In this dream, I went back once more and looked into the well in the orchard at Imvula. The moon was very big straight above and the water was like a mirror. But I did not see myself in that mirror. Just like it was when I was a small child, I saw Rejoice. And where his legs ended, was just flames. (Beat) Because of that dream I went to a Sangoma, a traditional healer. And he told me I was supposed to die also.

FX: HOUSE AMBIENCE.

SUSAN You know the what the difference is? Between here and New Zealand and Australia.

WARREN What?

SUSAN In those places the original inhabitants have been wiped out. And if there are any left, they’re derelict.

WARREN Half the people are derelict here also. More than half.

SUSAN There are historical reasons for that.

WARREN You sound like the government.

SUSAN Warren, Africans are the government here. The Aborigines aren’t the government in Australia.

WARREN So?

SUSAN Your idea of some safe European middle-class super-clean haven is bullshit. The twin towers are down. There is no centre of civilisation and democracy. And there’s no axis of evil. There’s just us. South Africa is as good as it gets.

CD: SALALA – LANITRA MANGA MANGA. WE ARE IN A FLASH BACK.

FX: ROOF AMBIENCE: PAINT BEING LAID ON.

REJOICE In Johannesburg, if a man wants to work, then the work is there. People are building their houses. Portuguese, Indian, SeSotho, it doesn’t matter. Even if they speaking a hundred different languages, every single one is working. Every single one is making his roof better. Even that man who has just one piece of zinc and a plastic, he is working to improve it.

FX: HOUSE AMBIENCE.

CD: KANDIA KOUYATE – DONNIE.

ORCHARD You see with this bewitchment… I have a very good example. Because the Sangoma told me what was happening to Rejoice’s dog. (Beat) The Sangoma doesn’t know Imvula. But he knows what is happening there. He told me the dog was sick. (Beat) When I went to Imvula, it was just like that traditional healer said. The dog was sick. The feets were swollen. It could not even eat. (Beat) First the dog… then Rejoice.

FX: HOUSE AMBIENCE.

WARREN Is he working?

SUSAN He can’t.

WARREN So what’s he going to do?

SUSAN I don’t know. (Beat) I think you must take him to Doctor Flismas.

CD: KANIDIA KOUYATE - DONINKE

ORCHARD When I realized it was getting too serious, I went to the burial society. I told them: “please, can you come and see your President?” They sent me about four people. Then, including relatives, I found there were about eleven people gathered there. I didn’t say any word. And Rejoice said:

REJOICE I am going home.

ORCHARD He gave the society two days. And they accepted because he was the President. I said: “My brother, you can see, I am also sick. I would have liked to go with you. But I don’t think it can be a good idea.”

FX: HOUSE AMBIENCE.

SUSAN When’s he leaving.

WARREN Tomorrow. (Beat) Flismas says every single symptom Rejoice has got is treatable. The thrush in his mouth, the chest thing. It’s all treatable. And for something in the region of eight hundred rand a month we could put him on anti-retrovirals. If we can find that, we can keep him alive.

CD: SALALA – LANITRA MANGA MANGA.

FX: FOOTSTEPS. CAR DOOR.

REJOICE (Beat) It will be better at home.

WARREN You won’t get treatment there.

REJOICE Just to see my kids and my wife.

WARREN But Rejoice, you can get treated here. Flismas is a great doctor. I’ve head him speaking on the radio about aids. Don’t worry about the money. We can make a plan. We’ll talk to the Joneses. We can all chip in.

REJOICE Thank you, Warren.

WARREN Think about it.

REJOICE It is better if I go home.

WARREN Rejoice…

REJOICE Warren, the roof keeps the rain from falling on your head. Just remember that one thing.

WARREN (Beat) Yes.

REJOICE You must paint before the rust is coming. Once the rust comes you can say that roof is finished. You must know how the water is flowing in the gutters, all this things. That is what I am telling Orchard.

CD: KANIDIA KOUYATE - DONINKE

ORCHARD I listen on the radio. I watch on the TV. “Be wise, condomize.” I agree with that. Because this Aids sickness is a dangerous thing. It is like short algebras. You never know which way it will come.

FX: HOUSE AMBIENCE.

WARREN It’s not just a relationship. It’s a decision to grow a family. Of course I’ll change nappies. What do you take me for? (Beat) Will you think about it? While I’m gone.

SUSAN I’ll… I don’t know…

WARREN I’m going to miss you.

SUSAN I’ll miss you too.

WARREN Orchard said he’d keep an eye on things here. Keep everything safe.

SUSAN Yes. (Beat) Has he heard from Rejoice?

WARREN No.

CD: KANIDIA KOUYATE - DONINKE.

ORCHARD When a man’s brother dies, if the wife has what we call heritage… you have to inherit that wife. This is not a forced matter. After we have finished with the burial and all the ceremonies, that woman, the widow, must be very quiet. We treat her like the antelope, the Iqudu. It takes at least another three, four months before it becomes possible to normalize the situation. Especially if it’s a young female. Then we’ll do everything necessary to free her as quickly as possible. We will perform all the ceremonies. And by so freeing her, she can choose. Is she going, or is she staying?

FX CAR ARRIVING. STOPS. DOOR CLOSED. FOOTSTEPS.

WARREN Hello.

SUSAN Hi.

WARREN Looking at the moon?

SUSAN Mm.

WARREN Isn’t it stunning?

SUSAN Like a silver dollar.

SHE TAKES A BREATH, BUT CAN’T TALK.

WARREN Susan, what?

SUSAN I uh…

WARREN What?

SUSAN Warren, there’s two things.

WARREN Ja?

SUSAN I’m pregnant.

WARREN Holy cow.

SUSAN Yes.

WARREN When did you find out?

SUSAN Two weeks ago. I didn’t want to tell you on the phone.

WARREN Of course.

SUSAN Warren, we going to have to decide whether… we’re going to stay or…

WARREN Yes. (Beat) What’s the second one.

SUSAN Rejoice is back.

WARREN No! Where?

SUSAN He’s inside. With Orchard. (Beat) He says he wants to help you do another coat on the roof.

WARREN But…

SUSAN He heard about some special sealant on the radio. He says it’s has a fifteen year guarantee. He wants Orchard to help so he can teach him how to do stuff with his hands. He says Orchard doesn’t know how to do stuff with his hands.

FX: HOUSE AMBIENCE.

REJOICE Listen to me. I don’t want tea. I need something else. Orchard, can’t you understand what I am looking for?

ORCHARD No.

REJOICE I want a house that is clean and dry. I want to know that Hardship is safe. I want to know that Nicholas is warm in his bed. I want to know that there are strong men there that can keep the war veterans away. I want to know that the money is flowing positively.

ORCHARD What are you talking?

REJOICE You never learnt this things!

ORCHARD What things?

REJOICE You get lost in the water storage. It’s too deep that one. I want you to look after them. I want you to think about the roof. You must keep the rain off these people Orchard. You must console them.

ORCHARD Eish, Rejoice.

REJOICE You must learn…

ORCHARD What?

REJOICE You must take a bucket of water up to the roof. You must check that the money is flowing positively.

FX: EXTERIOR NIGHT.

SUSAN He might be sleeping now. I made a bed up for him spare room. I don’t know where he should be. Maybe he should be… in hospital or…

WARREN Why isn’t he with Hardship?

SUSAN He said he… he drank the water from the well and he felt better.

WARREN From the well?

SUSAN I think so. He jumbles things up.

WARREN What do you want me to do?

SUSAN I don’t know. Just… just go in and see him. Talk to him. He so wants to see you.

WARREN Have you spoken to Orchard?

SUSAN Yes. (Beat) Orchard can’t look after him in that tiny room. You know that. (Beat) He thinks the same as you. He thinks he should be back with Hardship.

WARREN (Beat) Okay.

FX: HE RISES, OPENS THE DOOR.

SUSAN Warren?

WARREN Ja?

SUSAN Be gentle.

WARREN Yes.

CD: KANIDIA KOUYATE - DONINKE.

ORCHARD I think that if you are approved HIV positive, you must try to be out of things like beer, cigarettes. Anything which can destroy your blood. I wish each and every one, every six moths, must go and check for Aids. Just like that. But I think if you are a happy guy with happy people, you can live longer. I would like each and every one to bear that in mind. Because once you think of that HIV/Aids, you are likely to be stroked. The stroke comes first. If it’s a vocabulary stroke, you will die the same time. Heart attack.

FX: DOOR. FOOTSTEPS. HE SITS NEXT TO HER. SILENCE.

SUSAN So?

WARREN He um…

SUSAN Do you think we should take him to hospital?

WARREN Rejoice is dead.

CD: MUSIC

ORCHARD Rejoice was buried at Imvula on the 28^th of March, 2003. There were many people there. There were even fifteen from the Society which travelled from Johannesburg. The journey was good and there was no problem with the heat. (Beat) Those children, Progress and Joseph and Naledi and President and Mandla and Nicholas, they come to me. Their mother, Hardship, is now my wife. I love her very much. I love them all. But the payment is on my shoulders. I am the small father. In Zulu they say: Ba’ncane. Little father. So whatever they might need, I must provide . It is I, Orchard Iqudu, that must console them. (Beat) In September, just after I heard that Harmony was dead, I went to Imvula for certain ceremonies. We cleansed the spades that were used to dig Rejoice’s grave. We performed each thing that was necessary for him to take his place among the ancestors. The next time I go back I will visit his grave. From up there I will look down at the dam and the village and the school and the orchard. From far away I will hear the voices of the children. My brother will come to join me. Me and my brother will sit there on that green hill above the dam at Imvula, and we will rejoice. We will rejoice.

CD. LADY SMITH BLACK MAMBAZO, TRACK 2, HELLO MY BABY. CUT IN AT 1:28.

THE END.

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