Menzi can’t take his eyes away from Mary in the quiet of his car, as they head to Arboretum. Since the time he first saw her, when Rhino asked him to pick her up as she was running away from her father, he had been attracted her.

She presses the remote, the gate opens. Menzi steps out first, draws his gun and has a quick look around the yard.

“I did not throw away everything I used when I was a gangster,” he says, when he sees the surprise on Mary’s face. “Be quick and get your stuff. I’ll keep a look-out here.”

Mary heads straight to the main bedroom upstairs, opens the safe with the small key and pulls the stacks of cash onto a bedsheet. She ties a knot in the bedsheet and puts it into a black refuse bag. They head back to Mary’s flat.

“Mary,” says Menzi, as they enter the flat complex. “Do you know that Rhino kept cash from their robberies in Arboretum?”

Mary’s heartbeat goes haywire but she acts calm. “No, I didn’t know that.”

“Please make sure you don’t take a cent from that money because Ndlovu and Bhubesi will hunt you down. My guess is they killed Rhino because they wanted the money all to themselves.”

“Were they not friends?”

“Blood money knows no friendship, Mary.”

“How will I pay for Rhino’s funeral if they won’t give me his share?”

“I’ll help you with money. Don’t worry.”

Mary’s father is taking a bath. They go into Mary’s bedroom. She puts the refuse bag with the money into her wardrobe. She is a picture of calm as she stares out her bedroom window but her heartbeat and thoughts are all over the place. Menzi’s warning has scared her.

“When would you like to have the funeral service?” asks Menzi.

“This weekend.”

Her phone rings. It’s a Durban area code. Mary stays on the call for thirty minutes. She keeps saying ‘yes’ to everything the other person is saying. She stays silent, in deep thought, for a long time after that call. When her father and Menzi ask her what is wrong she says, “Rhino had genuine love for me. That was his lawyer on the phone. He left all his properties and cars to me.”

There’s a sharp knock on the door before they get a chance to react to this revelation. Mary’s father is met by the barrels of three guns when he opens the door. Three men in balaclavas push him back into the flat.

“Not a sound, old man!” hisses one of the men as they close the door. “Where’s your daughter?” They push him around.

“What do you want with my dau–”

“Nx! Thula wena!(Shut up!)”

One man hits him on his head with the butt of a gun. They push him into Mary’s room where another man takes off his balaclava to reveal himself. It is Bhubesi.

“We want our money – right now, Mary!” demands Bhubesi.

“M-money? What money?”

“Don’t test me, Mary. Don’t make me bring out the animal in me.”

“Brothers, let’s talk this out. There’s no need to–” Menzi pleads.

“Why are you even talking Menzi? Did you take the money?”

“No ways, Bhubesi. I don’t know anything about money.”

“Why are you even here?”

“I came to console Mary.”

“Console her with our money?”

“We don’t know anything about your money. That’s the honest truth, my bra,” says Menzi.

Bhubesi pushes his face close to Menzi’s. “The safe in Arboretum is empty. When was the last time you were there?”

Menzi glances at Mary.

A menacing scowl deforms Bhubesi’s face. He brings the barrel of his gun to Menzi’s face. “You think we came here to play games, Menzi?”

“Bhubesi, my bra, I don’t know anything about your money. I would never dream of robbing robbers.”

One of the other men reveals himself. Mary’s heart nearly stops, because he is the man who put the money in the safe – while Mary was in the house in Arboretum.

He looks straight into Mary’s eyes and says, “You say you didn’t know there was money in the safe? You were next to me when I opened that safe.”

“I … I … I didn’t take it, I swear.”

“You are lying and I hate liars. Do you think you can rob us and spend our money with him?” He is looking at Mary but raises his gun and fires three bullets into her father’s chest.

“Where is the money, Mary?” His stare is still on her as she screams. The barrel of his pistol turns to Menzi.

“Where is the money, Mary?” he says with eerie calm.

“I will give you your money! Oh God!” Mary screams. She opens her wardrobe and takes out the refuse bag.

“I’m sorr–”

A gunshot to Menzi’s chest halts her apology. Menzi crumples to the floor. The three men run out of the flat with the money.

Mary takes one look at her father’s face and realises he is dead. She goes to Menzi and turns his body to face her. He opens his eyes.

“I love you, Mary,” he gasps for air.

Mary sprints out of the flat, screaming. She gets to the security guard booth to find the lifeless body of the guard crumpled on the tar. She runs past curious neighbours back to her flat. She calls an ambulance and the police. Mary touches the neck of her father, feeling for his pulse. He is ice cold.

She screams, “Because of dirty money I am now orphaned. What did I do to deserve this? Everyone who loves me dies.”

Menzi’s words cut her soul with a million razor blades: ‘I love you, Mary’.

Her screams echo on the walls, corridors and parking bays of the complex. She closes her eyes and sees herself all alone, wailing under a pitch black cloud.

***

Tell us: Do you think there is still hope for Mary? And Menzi? Why?