Gun Dealing (The Ryder Quartet Book 2) (33 page)

Nadine and her companion stopped, as
they
realised
that there were more important people
approaching Ryder. But Nadine waved, and smiled. Ryder nodded back at her, and
raised an arm to wave back, painfully. He knew she would want to get started
immediately. Niceties could come later. She whispered to her assistant and they
both chuckled, then moved over to the scene of the carnage, opening their bags
as they did so. Within seconds they would be busy, thought Ryder. Flashlights,
camera, note-pads, and deep,
focussed
concentration.
Ryder smiled, wryly. Nadine was the best.

Then, way behind, came the sound of
the worst profanities and foul language Ryder had heard in a long time. Not
even Ed Trewhella could swear like that. The crowd parted as Pillay pushed her
way forward, cursing and swearing. Not even the sight of Nyawula could calm her
down. It was only when she saw Ryder sitting there, alive, and smiling, that
she stopped, dead in her tracks. And then a strange thing happened. Which the
unit would talk about for some time.

Pillay’s eyes suddenly spurted tears.
There were no sobs. Just tears.

It was a shock to Ryder too, and
Nyawula was also somewhat taken aback. He instinctively stood back to allow
Pillay to pass.

By which time Pillay recovered a
little.

‘You stupid bastard, Ryder,’ she
said, smearing away the tears.

‘I know, Navi. Sorry.’

Pillay punched fists with Ryder. She
paused, and could think of nothing else to do. So she punched fists with him
again. Then she turned and shouted at the medics.

‘What the hell are you guys waiting
for? Get over here, guys. We’ve got a detective who needs attention.’

19.00.
  

The dusk crept in, tumbling down the
gullies of the brown hills on either side of the R74. The lone figure, moving
slowly across the rocky slope on the southern side, stumbled on a loose stone
and paused, momentarily, as he corrected his balance. In response, a startled
grey-brown rock hyrax sprang from its cover. The
dassie
was gone in an instant, burrowing into a thick mess of
tangled bracken twenty paces away. The man cursed and continued, picking his
way a little more carefully over the uneven surface.

He found a flat rock with a view over
the road far below. He sat down slowly and painfully, easing his bruised hip
and stretching out the damaged leg. He settled, leaning backward, propped up by
both arms stretched out behind him to ease the pain in his lower back, and
contemplated the growling traffic.
Tyres
thudding
against potholes. Headlights beginning to be switched on. His gaze drifted to
the opposite slope, where the once flourishing grassland seemed to him so thin
and eroded that no cattle could possibly now survive there. He looked down from
his perch and over to his right at the rocky pathway that used to be the
Mbozamo
.

He remembered his mother telling him
that when she was a young girl growing up in these hills it was a full-flowing
stream in which she loved to bathe with her friends. Now it was dry and barren
and rocky.

A small fire on the hill opposite
drew his attention to two small boys. It was too far to see clearly, but from
their movements he concluded that they were smoking. Hands to mouths, followed
by jerking movements that indicated coughing, then rough slapping on the back.
Two kids probably experimenting with
whoonga
,
he conjectured. Far behind them a goat sniffed vainly at an unyielding thicket
of what were probably thorns. Was that a single cow further in the distance?
And was that the smoke of another random fire on the hill beyond?

He looked to his left. Over there,
somewhere, was KwaDukuza.
The
dusk, chasing away the last remnants of the setting sun, limited his view.
Nothing out there but the implacable night closing in on him. He turned to his
right. A slightly longer view, leading, in the distance, toward the Indian
Ocean. He would make his way down there later tonight under cover of darkness.
He would draw comfort from the protection offered by the bush. On the beach.
Where he might also strip and plunge into the salty waters. To cleanse himself.
To wash away the day. To try and wash away indelible memories.

He changed his position, fiddled in
his pockets, struck a match, and drew deep into his lungs the pungent fumes. He
felt the
nyaope
burning into his
chest, reaching down, as if burrowing into his bloodstream and slowly filling
his veins with imagined power.

He turned his head again to the left.
As he did so, the last glimmer of the setting sun bounced off his forehead. The
dassie
poked its head up out of its
hiding place to stare at him. Now, as the sun glinted in Thabethe’s eyes,
revealing the knotted purple veins against the unusually large yellow eyeballs,
the animal froze for an instant then disappeared again into the thicket. As if
in response, the
clamour
of insects ceased.

Out of the murkiness of the west came
a trail of headlights as the traffic built up and became one long continuous
stream of light. All of the vehicles had now switched on against the engulfing
darkness as they made their way from the setting sun toward the ocean, as if
struggling impatiently to leave KwaDukuza.

He filled his lungs again with the
toxic smoke, and contemplated.

KwaDukuza.
Place of the lost person.

ag -
ah, oh, well

aikona
-
no, no way, not there at all (see also
haikona
)

amaphoyisa
-
the police

aweh
- hello, how is it?

babelas
-
hangover

bakgat -
great, excellent, fine, good

bantoe
-
corruption of
bantu
, associated with racist
usage

blerrie
-
bloody

bliksem
-
hit, punch, strike

boere
- (referring variously to)
farmers, Afrikaners, policemen

boet
- brother, male friend, dude

bok, bokke
-
buck, bucks (
bokke
as in Springboks)

boykie
-
boy: diminutive, little boy

bra, my bra -
brother,
my brother

braai, braaivleis
-
barbecue

breek
- break

broer, bru
-
brother

bulala
-
kill

charra
,
charro
- slang term for person of Indian
ethnicity, often racist

china
- friend, chum

chune
- to tell someone

daarsy
-
there it is, there you are, that’s it, dead right

deagle
-
desert eagle

dis reg
-
that’s right

donner
-
hammer, hit, beat up

doos
- box (lewd, meaning
vagina
), fool, idiot

dop
- alcoholic drink

dronkgat
-
drunkard

dubula
-
kill him, kill them

dwaal
- in a daze, lost

eekhoring
-
squirrel

eh-heh - yes, affirmative

eina
- exclamation
expressing pain

eish
- interjection
expressing disappointment, regret

ek s
ê
- I say, I’m telling you

fok
- fuck

fokall -
fuck-all,
nothing

fokken
- fucken,
fucking

fokoff
-
fuck off

gatvol
-
fed up

geld
- money

gemors
-
mess, disarray

gif
- poison, marijuana

gogo
(see
ugogo
) - old woman, grandmother

hamba
kahle
- go well, go carefully

hambani
kahle
- go well (to more than one
person)

hayi -
no, no way (see
also
tchai)

hayibo - no, no way

hamba
kahle
- go well

haikona
- no, no way, not there at all

hau
- expression of
surprise (what? hey? oh?)

heita
- hello, howzit,
how is it?

helluva
-
‘hell of a’ (as in
helluva long time
)

hunnert
-
hundred

ibhunu
- the Afrikaner,
the farmer

impimpi
-
sell-out, informer

isigebengu -
bandit, criminal (see skabenga)

isiphukuphuku
-
idiot, fool

isiphuzo -
drink, booze

isibhabhalazi
-
zulu for hangover (see also babelas)

isiNgisi
- English

ja
- yes

ja’k stem saam
-
yes, I agree (
ja, ek stem saam
)

jeez
- jesus (exclamation of
surprise or frustration)

jirra
- exclamation of
surprise derived from ‘Here,’ Afrikaans for ‘God’

jislaaik
-
expression of astonishment (see also
yissus
)

jong
- young man,
friend

jou
- your, you

jy
- you

kak
- crap, shit

kêrels
-
guys, chaps, police

khuluma
- talk

khumula
- undress

kif
- great, cool, nice

klaar
- finish

knobkerrie
- short wooden club with knob at the end

koeksister
- (lit. cake sister) braided dough sweet delicacy

kugel
- refers here to
affected, overly groomed, materialistic young woman

kwaito
-
genre of music; mixture of hip hop, disco, reggae, house, R&B

laaitie
-
lighty
, young one

laduma!
-
score! (celebrating a goal scored in football)

lalela -
obey

lami
- to me

landela
- follow the example of

lanie
- fancy, posh

lank
- long, a lot,
very

lekker
- great, nice,
tasty

lus
- long for (
I was lus for
: I longed for, I really
wanted))

mal
- crazy, mad

mina
- me

mfowethu -
brother

mampara
-
fool, dolt, idiot

manne
- men

mense
- men, people

moer
- murder, kill,
beat up, also
the moer in (
‘fed up
with’)

moerse
- large, big
time, huge

moegoe -
idiot

muti
- medicine, from (u)
muthi
, tree,

my bra
- my
brother

naai
- screw, poke, copulate
(lit:
sew
)

nawe
- with you

nca
- nice, appreciative (click, tongue
in proximity to the teeth)

nè?
- not so?

nee
- no

nek
- neck

ngi
- I am (as in
ngi-Ntombi: I am
Ntombi)

ngifuna
- I
want

ngiyakuthanda
!
- I love you!

ngizo
shaya wena
- I will hit you

Nkalakatha
-
The big boss (song)

nkosi
- chief, lord, master

nooit
- never

ntombazana
-
damsel, little girl (used as an insult)

nxa
- no, disapproval (click, tongue
touching back of the palate)

nyaope
-
street drug (see also
whoonga
)

oke, ou, ouens
-
bloke, blokes

ouma
- grandmother

ou
toppie
- old man, father, old person

pallie -
diminutive for ‘pal,’ friend

poep
- fart

praat
- talk

reg
- right

sawubona baba -
greeting
an older man

sawubona mama
-
greeting an older woman

Seffrika
-
South Africa

shaddup
-
shut up

sharp, sharp-sharp
-
OK, yes, quick-quick

shibobo
-
fancy footwork (sweet moves, like nutmeg) from football

shweet -
sweet, cool

sies
-
sis
, expression of disgust

sizobona
futhi
- we will see each other again

skabenga - crook, criminal,
no-good

skelm
- thief, crook

skollie, skollies
-
crook, gangster (from the Greek
skolios:
crooked)

skrik vir niks
-
scared of nothing

snoeks
- little fish,
term of endearment

sommer
- simply

soutie, soutpiel
-
derogatory term for English South African (salty penis)

spookgerook
-
(lit.) ghost-smoked, stoned to the point of paranoia

steek
- stab, poke (with knife)

struesbob
- as
true as Bob

sug
- care (‘you think I
sug/care?’)

suss
-
to have
suss
- to be sharp or streetwise

swak
- weak, broke

tchai
- no, no way
(see also
hayi
)

thinantsha
-
we are the youth (title of freedom song)

tjaila
- time to go
home

tjommie
-
chum, good friend

toppie
-
see
ou
toppie:
old man, father, old person

trap
- stairs, staircase

trek
- pull, leave, exit

tronk
- jail, prison

tsotsi
-
gangster

uclever -
the
clever one

ugogo
- old woman, grandmother

uitlander
-
outlander, alien

ukukhuluma
- to
talk

ukukhumula
- to
undress

umamamkhulu
- grandmother

umlaza
- sour, fermented milk

umlungu
-
white one, white man (vocative:
mlungu
)

ungahlala
phansi
- please
sit down

uxolo
- please excuse me

val
- fall

van
- from

vilapha
-
(v.)
be lazy

vrek
- die, dead

vrekked
-
died

vroeg
- early

vuilgoed
- dirty thing, muck, rubbish

vuvuzela
-
plastic horn noisemaker, prominent at football matches