Rachel Weeping (23 page)

He knocked and, when there was no response, tried the handle. The door was open. He went inside and he saw that the room was empty. All of Rachel's personal items were gone. On the table in the middle of the room, next to her set of keys, was a plain white envelope. He walked over and picked it up. It wasn't sealed. He pulled out a folded piece of paper. He recognised it at once and knew at the same time that they would never see Rachel again and that this dark chapter in all of their lives was closed.

It was a drawing that Maia had done.

A stick figure mother and a stick figure child in a green and blue princess dress were strolling along a beach together hand in hand. There was a stripe of blue sea behind them and a bright yellow sun in the corner of the page shining down.

 

epilogue

Rachel climbed out
of the taxi, the warm Mozambican wind greeting her with the fragrance of saltwater and jasmine. The driver placed her two suitcases at the side of the dirt road. She counted out the remainder of the fare and thanked him.

She had managed to get R8 000 for Michelle's earrings and, after spending R1 000 on the journey back home, she reckoned she still had enough left over to last her family for a couple of months before she would be forced to look for work again. She felt no guilt over the theft, nor did she feel as though it was owed to her because of what she had done for Michelle.

It was what it was.

Waiting around for the Jordaans to return from the hospital had not been an option and she had left them with no way of contacting her. She did not need to see the baby nor endure Chris and Michelle's futile attempts to try and fix the situation with guilt money or the offer of keeping her job. As far as she was concerned that portion of her life lay at the bottom of an infinity pool in Johannesburg and would forever stay there.

She hadn't said goodbye to Tapiwa, believing that the more cleanly she cut the ties with her life in the city the better. Besides, Tapiwa and Maria were both women who understood how their world worked and they would not hold her decision against her; each would have done the same in her position.

Rachel held tightly onto the urn that contained Maia's ashes and stood gazing around at the streets of her childhood, the market milling with people and the stall holders beginning to close up their stands for the day. She could hear the ocean and she felt its pull. She was tempted to leave her bags just where they were and run towards it, to feel her feet dig into the soft white sand again, her toes feeling for the cool water beneath.

The next few days were not going to be easy but she thought she knew how to handle them. She would tell her parents how Maia had died but would leave out Michelle's involvement and the date that it had happened. It was better if they believed it was a recent event. They would mourn together and have a church service, scatter her ashes and mourn some more. Rachel would lay Maia to rest over the aquamarine waters of the Bazaruto Archipelago and in so doing she felt that, in some way at least, she would be honouring and fulfilling her daughter's wish to swim in the ocean.

And, when the sound of weeping had left their home, Rachel would look for work once again, first in Inhassoro, then Maputo and, if life demanded it, in South Africa again. She would take whatever work she could get so that she could support her parents and, when their time came to move on, she would figure out what her next step would be. For now all that mattered was that she was home and that Maia was with her.

 

 

a note from the author

My stories are always sparked by a simple image or idea and
Rachel Weeping
was no different. The idea for the book was birthed in 2002 when I stumbled upon a Hebrew text that was written by the prophet Jeremiah around 600
bc
and was echoed later in early Christian writings by the apostle Matthew. It reads:

 

jeremiah 31:15

‘A voice is heard in Ramah,

lamentation, weeping, great mourning,

Rachel weeping for her children and

refusing to be comforted,

because they are no more.'

 

This passage conjured up the image of a woman holding tightly to the body of a young child, mourning the loss of her beloved, and became the foundation for the story that you are now holding. As the years flew by, layers and textures were added to it and, as the story grew, so did the desire to explore the experience of the foreign nationals from neighbouring countries who are trying to earn a living in my home country, South Africa.

 

South Africa's legacy is apartheid and, in many ways, in this environment it was much easier to determine right from wrong. It was a defined legal system that was rooted in inequality and was one that the objective mind could easily point at and say, with certainty, ‘This is wrong.'

 

Apartheid was abolished in 1994 and what we now face is a blurry system of economic, political and educational injustice that is not as easy to identify and change. It is not a set of laws but rather a culture that exists in the uneasy tension between those who have and those who don't, those who are legal citizens and those who are not.

 

But this is not a tension that is unique to South Africa.
Rachel Weeping
could just as easily have played out in Los Angeles with a Mexican domestic worker or in London with an Eastern European. Rachel could have been a Filipino working in Sydney or a Pakistani in Dubai and it is this reality that makes this story and its themes a universal one.

 

My goal in all of this was not to take the obvious choice and demonise the Jordaans, telling yet another story about the poor immigrant suffering at the hand of the wealthy employer. That would simplify a situation that just isn't simple and would play to stereotypes rather than explore both sides of the story. At the end of the day, this narrative is purely a mirror that I have held up to myself and hopefully the reader so that, in some small way, we can all hear the voice of ‘the other' in our lives, whoever that other may be.

 

It was only once I had finished writing this novel that I went back to the passages that had birthed it and saw that the original Hebrew text had been written for an audience that was in exile, a people forced by circumstances to live in a land that was not their own.

 

And, as I read beyond the passage that inspired this story of loss, I was pleasantly surprised to read the words that followed the prophet's description of mourning. He goes on to write:

 

jeremiah 31:16-17

‘Restrain your voice from weeping

and your eyes from tears,

for your work will be rewarded,'

declares the LORD.

‘They will return from the land of the enemy.

So there is hope for your descendants,'

declares the LORD.

‘Your children will return to their own land.'

 

In many ways this passage is my wish for Rachel and for the Rachels who live amongst us, a promise of hope and of restoration. Alas, I have seen too much of this world to believe that everyone's story ends well and believe that it would be naive to think that this promise will be fulfilled for all who are mourning in my lifetime.

 

But I do have hope.

 

Brett Michael Innes

Johannesburg, South Africa

 

PS Thank you to all who have helped bring this story to life. It takes a village ...

 

READING GROUP QUESTIONS

1. 1.
   If you employ a domestic worker or gardener, describe your relationship with them.
   
2. 2.
   If you are employed in a minimum wage job, describe your relationship with the people you serve.
   
3. 3.
   Is it the responsibility of an employer to look after their staff and their family in the way that the Jordaans looked after Rachel and Maia?
   
4. 4.
   What is the difference between minimum wage and a ‘living wage'?
   
5. 5.
   Should you employ people who are in your country illegally, even if they are cheaper than legal labour?
   
6. 6.
   Is it your nation's responsibility to look after citizens of another nation, especially if they don't pay tax?
   
7. 7.
   Rachel steals from Michelle but uses the money to support her family – what do you think of this?
   
8. 8.
   Do you think Rachel was justified in hiding her occupation from the other mothers at Maia's school?
   
9. 9.
   What do you think of Rachel and Michelle's relationship before the drowning? Do you think there was a genuine friendship?
   
10. 10.
    Brett, the author, is a white South African male with a private school education who has travelled extensively into Africa working with NGOs. To what extent do you feel this influenced the writing of
    Rachel Weeping
    and his portrayal of both the Jordaans and Rachel?
    
11. 11.
    What do you think of the novel's ending?
    
12. 12.
    What imagery stood out for you and why?
    

 

a note about the author

Born in 1983 in Johannesburg, South Africa, Brett Michael Innes spent three years working as a documentary photographer and filmmaker with various NGOs, a position that has seen him and his camera travel into war zones and malnutrition clinics across the continent. His first novel,
The Story of Racheltjie de Beer
, was released in 2012 and became a South African bestseller, hitting top positions on both local and international charts.

Brett works closely with Joint Aid Management, a South African based NGO that focuses on bringing food and water relief to South Sudan, Angola, Mozambique and South Africa, and has participated in many of their trips into these regions. Visit Joint Aid Management on
www.jamint.com
to find out more about their programmes.

 

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