The Kingdom of Roses and Thorns

Togo enjoyed the suspense that she had created and played this
scene with a long and dramatic pause. The news she had to tell was big
and she knew it.
“A man came to town and was telling the men in my village about
working in the mines in South Africa. At first I didn’t listen. What do
I care for those things?”
She glanced up from her teacup to check the expression on Anna’s
face. She was not disappointed. Anna was visibly shaken.
“So, my brother asked this man if he knew your husband.” Togo
dragged out every word as if she was a diva on a stage.
“Oh, Anna, I have news to tell.”
“Then say it!” Anna rose to her feet. All these years she had heard
nothing from him. Finally, she had given up and assumed that her tall
Swazi husband, the man she adored, had died in a mining accident.
Those things happened all the time. The mines were deadly, but that
meant nothing to the white people. Workers could be buried alive in the
pits. They could fall into bottomless holes. Many bad things happened
in South Africa. Sometimes people had unfortunate encounters with
white people, and then the accidents were of another kind. Apartheid
was still the law of the country, and a black Swazi had to be very careful
what he said, what he did, and where he walked.
“Anna,” Togo took her hand and motioned for Anna to sit back
down in her chair. “your husband is still alive.”
Anna felt herself reeling. Alive. He’s alive. She never had hoped for
such news. She sat and gazed out the window. In her heart they were
together again. He would come home and envelope her in his arms.
They would tell each other wonderful private things late into the night,
and she would convince him to stay with her forever. She couldn’t wait
to tell him all the news of their little Lindi, and how she was an educated
shop owner with prestige in the city. She wanted to share everything
with him, but mostly she wanted to love him and hold him. She put
her hands on her hair and felt her face.
“I must make myself look young again so he will know me when he
comes home.” She said breathlessly. “Oh, I have aged so, he must see
me as a desirable woman so he will stay home now.”
As she was daydreaming of her past and her future she felt Togo
tugging on her arm. “Anna, Anna, wake up. What’s the matter with
you? Haven’t you heard anything I’m saying?”
“I am listening to you.” Anna replied, “but I have much to do now.
What if he is coming to the house, and I’m not there.”
“You are not listening.” Togo’s voice became soft, and she released
her hold on Anna’s arm. “Your husband is alive, it’s true, but he has a
new life in South Africa. He married a woman there many years ago,
and they have five children. Anna, I am sorry to be the one to tell you
that he is never coming back.”
Anna had so many blows over the years she thought that nothing
could faze her anymore. It wasn’t true. This news hurt as much as the
day he left her. It hurt as much as her father’s beatings. It was more
painful than she ever believed any disease or pain could be. Why
couldn’t she die right there and end all the disappointments once and for
all? She covered her humiliation by remarking to Togo that she hadn’t
seen her husband in so many years she probably wouldn’t recognize him
anyway. Togo comforted her by saying that the new wife was apparently
ugly and cruel. None of this was true, but Anna appreciated the lie.
She continued to sweep the trimmed hair, and this time she also
swept up her broken heart.
The work at the salon kept Anna busy, and she put her husband
out of her mind. At first it was difficult to sleep at night imagining
him in the arms of another woman who had given him fi ve children.
She shivered at the thought and pushed it aside. “It’s in the past.” She
decided. “It must stay in the past.” She said her prayers to God that he
would heal her pain and went to bed.