The Disappeared (14 page)

And
twisted.

Joshua was
on his knees. His arm twisted behind him. Rico was straddling his back. His
bony left arm around Josh’s neck. The three boys behind them cheered.

‘Listen
bitch, and listen carefully. This is my kingdom. You got that? You fucking got
that?’

Joshua
nodded. Biding his time.

‘The moment
you put your stinking feet through that gate, you became mine. You’re my
property now. Is that clear, bitch?’ This time Joshua didn’t nod. He slackened
his limbs and sighed deeply. Rico leaned close to his ear. The warm moisture of
Rico’s breath on his skin revolted Joshua. ‘Now listen to me and listen good.’
Rico’s breath rasped in his ear. ‘You don’t just walk into my domain and kick
back and relax. Okay. You don’t do shit like that in my fucking kingdom, bitch.’
Rico’s hand slithered towards Joshua’s privates. ‘Uh-huh? Yeah?’ He cooed
softly. ‘Yeah baby.’ Josh remained silent. ‘Good. So ... being your first day
and all, it’s only to be expected that you’ll perform certain ... oral
services.’

 The group
of boys snickered. The taller of the three skipped and hopped with delirious
excitement. He giggled with insane glee. He went tee-hee-hee ... tee-hee-hee.
Rico turned towards him and chuckled. ‘You digging this, Spook?’ Spook nodded
enthusiastically. Rico focused his attention on Joshua again. ‘Okay, you got
that, bitch? Think of it as initiation tax.’ He laughed at his own joke. ‘And
because you’re such a pretty boy, I’ll give you discount. You only have to blow
me and  ... mmmm?’ Rico turned towards his gang, pretending to be deep in
thought.

Spook’s
hopping became hysterical. ‘I want ... I want ... I want.’ The other two boys
looked on avidly but said nothing. Their eyes were big and they moved
nervously.

Rico was
enjoying drawing this out. ‘And ... well, lemme see ... damn, I just can’t
decide.’

‘Rico ...
Rico ... please ... Rico.’

‘And ...
you can also blow ... um ...lemme see ... what about ... Darryl!’ The boy
called Darryl straightened and smiled brightly.

‘Oh God
please ... oh God ... Rico please ... oh God.’ Spook was delirious with
expectation.

‘Okay, why
not.’ Rico was making a big show of being magnanimous. ‘You can blow Spook too.’

Spook
hooted with delight.

‘Fuck you,
Rico,’ the third boy said. He retreated sulkily to a corner. Rico’s hand was
now probing Joshua’s inner thigh ... mere centimetres from his testicles.

For the
first time Joshua spoke. ‘Please don’t.’ He slumped his shoulders. He had
learnt this lesson a long
long
time ago...

Rico felt
the pretty boy from Johannesburg cave in underneath him. He lifted his right
hand and gave his two remaining gang members a thumbs-up. ‘Daddy’s gonna get
sum, boys,’ he shouted with mad joy. It was a mistake.

Daddy was
gonna get sum. Alright. But not what he expected.

In a flash
of brilliant white pain Rico lost control of the situation.

Joshua
grabbed the hand that was constricting his throat and deftly jumped up. The
move caught Rico completely by surprise. In a split second it forced him onto his
toes. Suddenly Rico found himself facing a snarling Joshua. His left arm in an
extremely excruciating grip ... bent awkwardly outward.

‘Please don’t.’
Joshua parodied his own words smiling coyly. Then. Cold hate exploded in his
eyes. He drew out the next words. ‘Please ... don’t ... fucking ... piss ... me
... off,’ he said. He gave Rico’s arm a little twist to emphasise his words.
The move forced Rico higher up on his toes. ‘You’re going down, bitch.’
Suddenly Rico realised what Joshua was about to do.

‘Ohmygodno!
Please don’t.’ The fear on Rico’s face was laughable. Pathetic. ‘Please don’t.’
Rico looked over at his friends who were all frozen in place. ‘I’ll let Spook
blow you, okay.’

‘What?’
Spook was shocked. Indignant.

‘I’ll let
him blow you all night long, pleaseohmygodman.’

It was too
late. ‘Blow this.’ Joshua kicked his feet out from under him ... while
maintaining an iron grip on Rico’s arm. For a bright moment, Rico hung in the
air. And then he plummeted earthwards. There was a sickening crunch as the
force of Rico’s fall splintered his arm. He slammed into the floor. And
instantly coiled into a tight spring of
ohmygod
pain. Rico howled with
pain and grabbed onto his crooked arm, dangling uselessly. The ulna bone from
his forearm protruded through perforated skin. The three remaining gang members
stood motionless, shocked. Josh stepped towards the metal locker, flung the
door open and looked inside for anything that might resemble a weapon. He saw a
plastic analogue clock and grabbed it. He guessed it belonged to Spook. He
turned around and with all his might flung the square device at Darryl. The
clock connected with Darryl’s eyebrow and exploded into flying shards of
plastic. Darryl screamed and grabbed at his eye. When his hand came down Josh
could see pieces of plastic imbedded in his face. Darryl took a step backwards.
Josh turned to Spook. The other boy had long since fled. Spook was pale. His
mouth hung open. ‘From now on ... you sleep on the top bunk,’ Joshua said. ‘Have
you got that, bitch?’ Spook nodded timidly.

Joshua was
treated with more respect from that day. But he was nonetheless a marked man.
He could never relax. Had to watch his back all the time. He made his own
friends. Had his own gang. But it wasn’t easy. Not with Rico and his posse
always on the prowl  ... always on the look-out for ways to make Joshua’s life
hell. To bring him down. Get Willems on his back. Most of the time Rico
succeeded. Especially with Willems. Joshua wasn’t surprised. He learned later
on that Rico had not refused Willems’s ‘generous’ offer as Joshua had. It soon
became obvious. Rico could go places no one else could. Or at least no-one who
had denied Willems his pound of flesh. Rico could grow his hair longer. Was
allowed longer and more frequent visits. Much later someone told Josh that of
all his bitch-boys Rico was Willems’s favourite. It didn’t require a Mensa
certificate to figure
that
out.

In the
halls of Westville – however – there remained a tense stalemate. An impending
showdown. Josh often remembered a term his brother had taught him.
Détente
Cordiale.
Yeah. Well, sometimes it wasn’t that cordial at all. Often the
simmering tensions would explode into open violence. And by no means did Joshua
always have the upper-hand. Rico had learned from that first day never again to
underestimate his enemy. Besides. He was a rugged and experienced street
fighter. Joshua could never quite trust the longevity of the lesson he had
taught Rico on that first day. So he had to be careful. Always. It was not a
pleasant life.

That was
three years ago. This was now.

Now or never.

Joshua
stared at himself in the mirror. He smirked sardonically. You idiot. What did
you do with your life? You’re the king of fuck-ups. And now you’re paying for
it. He looked around himself. Paying with the hardest currency known to man:
misery. Misery and time. For a moment his mother’s face floated before his mind’s
eye. She was crying. Her clenched eyes, swimming with tears. Her chin quivered
with sobs. Immediately he forced his mother’s image from his mind. It wasn’t a
guilty conscience that made him do it. Well not that alone. He had a violent
task ahead of him. Better to erase all tenderness from his heart. For the
time-being.

Joshua
heard voices. The time had come. His prey was here.

Rico
entered. Two boys were behind him. One was Spook. The other was a new kid. Josh
didn’t know his name. Also a new recruit to Rico’s gang. Josh cursed softly. He
had asked the kid to make sure Rico was alone. What the hell. Three for the
price of one. There was no going back now.

Rico looked
up and saw Joshua. He stopped. Then walked over with an exaggerated swagger. He
was obviously emboldened by his two comrades.
Idiot!
Joshua thought.

God. Joshua
was looking forward to getting out of this place.

‘Well
lookeeee heeeeeeere. It’s the birthday boy.’ Joshua smiled. It was typical of
Rico. His birthday had been more than two weeks ago. But that wasn’t the point
was it? Rico was ribbing him. Taking a dig at him. Rico knew that for Joshua
everything changed after his eighteenth birthday. Armed robbery and accessory
to murder weren’t Mickey Mouse charges. This was serious shit. In just over a
week a Johannesburg judge would decide on Joshua’s fate. Release with a suspended
sentence ... further incarceration at a ‘House of Safety’. There could be any
number of outcomes. But Joshua – and everyone else – knew what the most likely
judgement would be. If he had kept his ‘nose clean’ as Davey had told him to
do, it would have been a different story. But he hadn’t. And it wasn’t going to
be a different story. As if that wasn’t enough he could expect only the most
abrasive reference from Warden Willems. So yes. His fate was sealed. Everyone
knew it. The judge was going to order that he finish his sentence in a maximum
security prison. Life was bad. But it was about to get a whole lot worse.

‘Waz up,
Rico?’

‘I’m fine,
man. Thanks for asking.’ Rico smirked. ‘Thing is, I’m not so sure about you,
man.’ Rico laughed in triumph.

Joshua
shrugged expansively. ‘Aaah, you’re a sweetie, aren’t you? But there’s no need
to worry about me.’ He winked at Rico. ‘You know me.’

In the wide
space between the basins and the cubicles ... Josh and Rico slowly – ever so
slowly – circled each other.

‘Dude, I
don’t just know you. I love you. Right guys?’ The posse remained quiet, staring
acid at Joshua.

‘Come come,
now you’re just being sentimental.’ Joshua rotated carefully along the axis
that had his nemesis at the other end. ‘I am gonna miss you though.’

‘Me too,
man. But please ... please send us a postcard from
Sun City
, will ya?’

‘Don’t
worry, buddy. I won’t drop you. You know I’ll send you one. It’s gonna say:
“Wish you were here.”’

Silence.

‘Yeah?’

Silence.

‘Oh yeah.’

Rico’s two
bodyguards – Spook and the other boy – had barely been following the repartee
up until this point. Now – however – they bristled at the sudden peak in
tension. And the sharp drop in temperature. The verbal game was over. And now
... two old opponents were once again facing off. Both realised this would be
for the last time. Ever.

Joshua
stopped moving around the invisible pivot that separated him from Rico. He
realised any further movement would turn his back to the two boys who remained
by the door.

There was a
moment of icy silence. No one moved. No one spoke. Josh and Rico stared at each
other. ‘You’re a dead man, Kingsley.’

Rico lashed
out with a right kick. It was a powerful stroke but it missed. Josh deftly
jumped into the space between Rico and his accomplices. He landed in front of
one of the stainless steel basins. Exactly as he had planned. Rico swirled
around. The two boys at the door advanced slowly towards Joshua. Without
turning around, Josh grabbed one of the heavy steel taps and twisted it all the
way. Cold water burst through the round steel mouth. The powerful jet of water
slammed into the rounded basin surface and bounced into a thousand geysers of
steely water. Spook and his partner hesitated at the curtain of splintered
water that hung in the air. Spook stared in bewilderment at the gushing tap.

‘What the –
‘

Thank God
for predictable idiots. The momentary distraction was all Joshua needed. He
stepped forward and swung a demolition-ball kick at Spook’s soft and squishies.
Thump. Spook’s eyes bulged in pained surprise. A muffled expletive exploded
from his lips. He dropped to his knees, his hands clutching his crotch. His
face cried mommy. Before anyone could act, Joshua grabbed Spook’s hair and
lifted his head. He slammed a fist into his face. There was the wet crunch of
cartilage breaking. Blood gushed from his crushed nose. Spook howled like a
little girl and fell forward onto the wet cement of the communal bathroom. A
spreading pool of blood blossomed from the area of Spook’s head as he lay
moaning on the floor. Good. Joshua was going to need all the blood he could
get.

‘Man, you’re
in big shit now,’ said Spook’s companion at the door. ‘I’m gonna tell the
Warden. I’m gonna tell Willems right now!’ He backed away from Josh. Then
disappeared through the door. So far so good. Things were going according to
plan. Josh turned to –

His world
exploded into a bright ejaculation of pain. He fell to the floor on his hands
and knees. His vision was blurred by spots of brilliant darkness. The floor
leered at him. Fell back. And rushed forward again. His left kidney – where
Rico’s expertly timed kick had landed – was spurting fire. Joshua fell forward.
He was now lying in the space between Rico and a writhing Spook who was
blocking the entrance to the bathrooms. Joshua was aware of a warm sticky
wetness. He smelt blood. His entire right side was soaked in spreading red.

‘I’m gonna
kill you today. I’m gonna fucking KILL you.’ Rico’s voice was a high-pitched
scream; a demonic incantation. In the distance Josh heard the Westville interior
siren go. The
Hell Bell
the boys at Westville called it. It meant
somewhere someone was kicking the shit out of someone else. In about a minute
Willems and his guards would be here. Shit! Josh was running out of time. He
had to gain control of this situation now.