together.
?Agh, fock,? said Moses. ?I had this under control.?
?Are you related?? asked Thobela.
?How would
know?? said Moses, and the other two giggled.
?Do you want to eat??
?Jee-zas,? said Moses. ?Just my luck. A fokken? stupid darkie.?
?You swear a lot.?
?I?m a street kid, for fuck?s sake.?
He looked at the trio. Grimy, barefoot. Bright, living eyes. ?I?m going to the Spur. Do you want to come??
Dumbstruck.
?Well??
?Are you a pervert?? asked Moses with narrowed eyes.
?No, I?m hungry.?
The girl jabbed an elbow in Moses?s ribs and made big eyes at him.
?The Spur will throw us out,? said Randall.
?I?ll say you are my children.?
For a moment all three were quiet and then Moses laughed, a chuckling sound rising through the scales. ?Our daddy.?
Thobela began to walk. ?Are you coming??
It was ten or twelve paces further on that the girl?s small hand clasped a finger of his right hand and stayed there, all the way to the Spur Steak Ranch in Strand Street.
22.
She sat staring at the window without seeing.
?I thought I was cutting myself because of my father, at first,? she said softly, and sighed, deeply, remembering. ?Or because of Viljoen. I thought I was handling the work and that I was okay with it.?
She turned and looked at him, back in the present. ?I never clicked it was the work that made me like that. Not then. I had to get out of it first.?
He nodded, slowly, but did not respond.
?And then things changed, with Carlos,? she said.
Carlos phoned early, just after nine, to say he wanted to book her for the whole night. ?Carlos does not want money fight. Three thousand, hokay? But you must look sexy, conchita. Very sexy, we are having a formal party. Black dress, but show your tits. Carlos wants to brag. My guys will pick you up. Seven o?clock.? He put the phone down.
She waited for her anger to rise and fade. She sat on the edge of the bed, with the cell phone still to her ear. She felt the futility, knew that her anger was useless.
Sonia came up to her, doll in hand. ?Are we going to ride bicycle, Mamma??
?No, my love, we are going shopping.? The child skipped off towards her room as if shopping was her favorite activity.
?Hey, you.?
Sonia halted in the doorway and peeped over her shoulder mischievously.
?Me?? She knew her part in this ritual.
?Yes, you. Come here.?
She ran across the carpet, still in her green pajamas, into her mother?s arms.
?You?re my love,? Christine began their rhyme and kissed her neck.
?You?re my life,? giggled Sonia.
?And your beauty makes me shiver.?
?You?re my heaven, you?re my house.? Her head was on Christine?s bosom.
?You?re my only paradise,? she said and hugged the child tight. ?Go and get dressed. It?s time to shop till we drop.?
?Shoptill hedrop??
?Shoptill hedrop. That?s right.?
Three years and four months. Just another two years, then school. Just another two years and her mother would be done with whoring.
She phoned Carlton Hair and Mac for late-afternoon appointments and took Sonia along to Hip Hop across Cavendish Square. The sales people paid more attention to the pretty child with blonde ringlets than they did to
