Zoo City

think animals are better than humans. But birds have their own serial killers. Chimpanzees commit murder. The only difference between us is that animals don't feel guilty about it.

'How many of these people actually play golf?' I say, waving my glass of Appletiser at the townhouses.

'Dwo?' Arno guesses.

'Three max. It's like gym,' Des says. 'Everyone signs up and goes for like a month and then never goes again.'

'So, who are you guys? Tell me about you.'

'Um. Anoo Wedelinghaze. Dad's Har-he-duh-he-,' he spells out, leaning over my notebook. Listening to him speak makes my eyes water.

'Redelinghuys. Got it,' I wink. 'How old are you? Arno?'

'Fifdeen.'

'And you, Des?'

'Twenty-two. And it's Desmond Luthuli.'

'You go to school with S'bu?'

'I do!' Arno chirps. 'Bud Des moved hewe wid him. He's da woombade. I jusd hang oud and sleeb over sombedibes.'

'Moved out from where?'

'Valley of a Dousand Hills? In Kwa-Zulu Naddal? Dey, like, gwew up dogeduh, besd buds.'

'I can speak for myself, Arno.' There's something hungry about Des. I get the feeling reflected glory isn't enough for him.

'Sorreeee, dude. Shid.'

'Yeah, so S'bu and Arno are only, like, friends from two years ago. They both go to Crawford,' Des says. 'But me and S'bu, we grew up together. Tiny little village called KwaXimba in the Valley of a Thousand Hills. So ja, when iJusi signed and S'bu and Song moved out here-'

'How'd they get signed?' I interrupt.

'You don't know?'

'I just want to get your take on it. In your own words.' Actually, Maltese and Marabou filled me in on the way. There was a big hoo-ha after they aced the Coca-Cola Starmakerz auditions when they were still a tender fourteen; the youngest contestants ever to qualify, and from a desperately poor background that almost immediately made them the great bright nation-building hopes of the contest. But they had to drop out just before the semi-finals, after their grandmother died of lupus, barely two years after they lost both parents to Aids-related complications.

They were adorable. They were tragic. They were at least half-talented. And the song they chose to sing was a wrenching cover of Brenda Fassie's 'Too Late for Mama'. How could the General Public resist? There was a massive rallying around them. Radio 702 started a fund-raising drive to pay for granny's funeral costs and establish a trust for the new orphans. Coca-Cola put them up in a hotel for the duration of the competition, arranged minders to look after them, and gave them as much free Coke as they could drink. And hopefully paid for their dental work afterwards.

Sponsors leapt to look after them. They got free clothes, free medical aid and free tickets to rugby games, where they got to sing for the Springboks and the President. And they got signed before the semi-finals even went to air, and dropped out of the competition on the advice of their new label, Moja Records.

Des sums this up succinctly: 'Like, they were in Starmakerz and then they got signed and Odi paid for them to move.'

'Acdually, de creeby bird lady and be dog guy came do dalk to dem eben befowe.'

'Before Starmakerz?'

'Dey said dey were dalend scouds.'

'Yeah, but I told them they shouldn't just take the first offer they got, even if it was from Mr Odi Bigshot Huron,' Des interrupts. 'I got them to audition for Starmakerz instead. Worked out. They got more exposure and we landed with Odi anyway.'

'And they just did what you said?'

'Yeah, I'm kinda like S'bu's manager.'

'You're twenty-two.'

'So?'

'His mbom is deir legal guawdian,' Arno pipes up.

'Yeah, that too. When they came to Joburg, we moved up with them.'

'Mrs Luthuli. Right. So, where is your mom? Is she okay with you guys smoking weed and drinking beer?'

'Yeah, she's really chill. We earned it, man.'

'You mbean S'bu earned id,' Arno interrupts.

'And where's Songweza in all this? I couldn't help noticing that the house felt very… masculine.'

'Song's a sduck-up bidch,' says Arno, with all the venom of someone who has tended a secret crush in the basement of his heart, only to be met with a sweetly patronising pat on the cheek the moment he brought it out into the sunlight of her attention. The seedling might have been burned, but that doesn't mean it's dead.

'Shut up, Arno. Song has got her own thing going on. She's only there a couple of nights a week. Maybe.'

'And the rest of the time?'

'Who knows? Who cares?'

'Shouldn't your mom care? Considering she's the official guardian?'

'She cares. She looks after those two better than their own family.'

'Oh?'

'Buncha money-sucking vampires. But that's private. Off the record, hey?' Des jabs his finger at me, just like a real manager, all grown-up.

'No problem,' I soothe. 'So tell me about this management gig, Des. What does that involve?'

'I got some stuff going with the clubs, some sponsorship deals, and me and S'bu are working on a clothing label for men. Controller.'

'But not Song?'

He ignores me. 'T-shirts and accessories, but quality stuff, hey. None of this cheap rip-off crap. Got some stores that are interested. The Space. YDE even. It's not just about the music anymore, it's about the brand. You gotta be smart. CDs don't count for squat. It's all about the cellphone downloads.'

'Wow. You want to be my manager too?'

'Depends.' He assesses me seriously, for the first time. 'What you got?'

'Not a whole lot, let me tell you. How about you, Arno?'

'Be?'

'No, shit-for-brains, the other fat white boy.' Des smirks at me as if we're in on this together.

'I jusd, you know, hang oud.'

'What do you enjoy most about him?'

'Uh. He's weally funny? And cool. And he's weally good ad gambes.'

'He seems pretty tense about his sister, though?'

'Ag. They fight a lot, but they love each other. They're just pulling in different directions and S'bu's kind of… sensitive,' Des answers, getting antsy at no longer being in the spotlight. 'Are we done here?'

'Yeah, okay. I might want to check in with you guys some other time though, if that's cool? Here's my card.'

I hand over an old card to each of them, from FL. Cringingly, it reads:

ZINZI DECEMBER WORD PIMP

That's just the kind of cocky idiot I was. 'Wordsmith' was too wanky. But why I couldn't have just gone with 'writer' or 'freelance journalist', only my cocky idiot FL self knows. At least I managed to keep my old number.

'What's a word pimp? Like you rent out words by the hour?'