"Murderers?"
Elijah called Nelly and made small conversations with her while she sat in front of us. At first, she held back but soon her loquacious side divulged. I asked her about her first time in jail and she didn't hold back.
"Yho, bhuti. I'll never forget that day. You know I have done things, neh… But never in my life have I stepped inside a police station holding cell; let alone jail."
"What are these things that you've done?"
"Shoplifting, selling drugs, I've done those. Shoplifting was my work. I ate through it. I went to clothing shops. When you are a beautiful and well-dressed girl like me no one suspects you to steal anything. I used that to my advantage, and I was not afraid of security guards. I'd enter a shop, go straight to the security guard, and ask a random question about the clothes. The next step is going for the clothes. I used my purse."
"What about the alarm tags?"
"Nah, that is easy. You take a foil and spread it all over your bag as if making an inner layer then put your clothes in. The sensor gets blocked by the foil. You'll deal with the tags later. You must take the small items so you can have more. Take guys' stuff, they are expensive… I did that since high school and one of the guys I sold stuff to give me an offer. He wanted me to sell drugs for him. I didn't want to sell Tik or mandrax so I took cocaine. It's expensive and it goes fast because few dealers have it in the township, so everyone comes to you. Plus, it doesn't draw attention because you don't deal with thugs and amaphara you deal with smart guys. A small little bag can be R300, we made money there. I ended up leaving the clothes business. And I never got arrested for any of those. Then on my way to fetch stuff from New Brighton, I took a jikeleza. The driver was alone. No one goes from Motherwell to Njoli with one passenger. They go around and collect more people. So that was the first red flag. The car was fast; rolling myself out was not an option. At the last garage, there was a guy who was going to kasi; the guy didn't even look at him. It was then that his intentions were clear. I pretended to be unbothered. I was so calm even when he made the wrong turn, I asked in a church voice: where were we going? I started crying when he entered the bushes. And when he took out the gun, I told him there was no need for it I was going to cooperate. He put it away. Before he knew it I had jumped to the dashboard and taken the gun while he was busy unzipping his trousers. I didn't even wait for him to negotiate. I just planted three bullets in his chest, dropped his gun on his dead body, and went away. That's when the tears came; the thoughts of being killed and buried in a shallow grave in that bush. I was reminded of the stories on the news. Like Uyinene's story. Being raped would be a trauma alone. I had nearly lost my life. Then I was out of it. I don't remember anything. My mind came back to the hospital before being taken to the holding cells. A lady came in for stabbing a man. She stabbed her boyfriend…"
"Why did she stab him?"
"She is staying with this guy. They are both working. They have a child and are talking about marriage and stuff. The guy has a friend. They are close and the friend wants to be the best man in their marriage. Every time she comes from work the guy is there. So, this other time they are in a groove. The guy goes home to fetch his phone, and the friend goes with him. The girl also goes home after them to fetch her jacket. When she gets there, she can't believe what she sees, his man sucking the other guy's penis. She broke the beer she was holding on his head and stabbed him on his back multiple times. The guy nearly died. All the girls on that cell had cases that involved men…"
"Wow,"
"There was this other girl who was kept in a separate cell. She went to the police station to get a place to sleep. She came from East London. She had a long-distance relationship with a PE guy on social media. They agreed that she would travel to this side to meet her boyfriend and maybe stay for a weekend. Mind you, she knows no one here. It's her first time coming to PE, and she doesn't even know the person she is visiting. She called him when she arrived, so he came to fetch him. She was not impressed. The guy wore dirty tekkies and he looked shady, more like a phara. She says those tekkies by just looking at them you could see that they were smelly. The guy greeted her warmly and took her to his house, a shack in Ntuzuma, a tiny shack that had big holes where you could see the outside. There was sand on the mat and no broom could be seen. And an unbearably awful smell caused her to back off as soon as she got inside. She decided to go to sleep at the police station and wake up the next day to look for a taxi back. She ended up dating a policeman from Motherwell. A guy called Siya."
"I know Siya."
"Eh Nelly, thanks, for now, you can go. Take the other girls and go to your side, we are about to have the class," Elijah's patience had come to an end.
I had kidnapped his conversation like a mad parrot. Nelly immediately quit us to join her friends. They soon removed themselves from the hall and disappeared into the passage.