Scene 4 - Impundulu strikes

Summary

A rumble of thunder outside as the storm begins to circle back. As rain patters down, zenzile shuffles towards the stove, keeping her eye on the building storm.

zenzile: In the summer, Nkulunkulu, your rains came. They would turn those valleys in Ipharadesi into rivers of mud. [Chuckling.] Ugogo wami wayehlezi ethi uma kufika izimvula, lezantaba zazimila imilenze zibaleke. [Beat.] We thought we would always be safe in that home. Umkhulu wami wayewakhile lowamuzi. Wawukotele ubambelele ngezinzipho entabeni and awukaze nakanye unyakaze.

She puts a battered old kettle on the stovetop and switches it on. Rain intensifies outside.

zenzile: Ugogo wami only told me many years later that a story in the newspaper said that when the lightning struck our home, it was so bright and hot that it melted all the spoons, knives and forks in the kitchen drawers. Angiqambi amanga. When the police arrived and turned that drawer upside down, a big block of metal fell out on the ground. I’m telling you, I still get headaches … even to this day … The light still hurts my eyes.

Music begins merging with the sounds of the storm. Hot white lightning flashes outside the window. zenzile clutches a pillow and revisits the scene.

zenzile: I should have buried my face in my pillow … turned away … but it was too powerful. That big, big bird … a demoni stretching out its wings of burning white feathers inside our room. Its tail was the green-blue colour of the sky … umlomo nezinyawo kubomvu tebhu njengomlilo ovuthayo. I watched as it flew through the house saying nothing but touching everything: tin … walls … thatch … skin.

The lightning flashes now appear to be moving inside the room. Rain rushes down the windowpane, subterranean shadows streaking across zenzile's face. Her expression is a mixture of horror and awe.

zenzile: Then it went dark and silent. [Beat.] I remember the smell of burnt hair … the feeling of boiling water being poured down my back.