Genevieve heard murmurs that sounded as though coming from afar. Her lids still drooped and were leaden with sleep, she struggled to open them. The murmur was becoming louder, more like people in conversation. She slowly opened her eyes. She lay still and watched unfamiliar silhouettes take shape and form around her. Her eyes soon adjusted. Her mom was in conversation with her father.

“Florence was ecstatic with the news,” Mrs. Robertson said to Mr. Robertson in elation. They heard Genevieve moan as she woke.

“Honey, how are you feeling?” her beaming father asked her.

“What happened?” she asked.

“He did it Genevieve! He healed you. That old man healed you!” Mrs. Robertson said with eyes flowing with tears.

“I did not believe it myself, but the doctor just confirmed it,” Mr. Robertson said. “He told us nothing is wrong with you, you’re just fatigued. The cancer is gone.”

“The man,” Genevieve began, “the man who had his hand on my head, who was he?”

“Honey, that was Mugara, the healer,” her father said and her parents looked at each other.

“Don’t you remember?”

“No. I’m asking about the other man. The man in the hooded cloak that had his hand over the old man’s hand, who was he?”

“No one had their hand on your head except for the old man,” Mr. Robertson told her.

“The man who came through the smoke. The old man’s wife was speaking to him when his hand was on my head.”

“Smoke? Honey, what on earth are you talking about?”

“You were probably dreaming, sweetie,” her mother said. “We’ll leave you to get dressed then we will head back to the hotel.”

“Maybe we might go sightseeing tomorrow. You know, have the African experience.”

Genevieve knew what she saw and it wasn’t about to escape her thoughts. She got an excruciating headache when Old Man Mugara started the service and saw smoke no one saw and a mysterious hooded figure. She felt better than she had in years. She really felt that she had been healed. But why wasn’t she happy like her parents were? She had to find out.

After getting back to the hotel, she decided to escape from her parents the moment they left the room. She saw the bus she saw the day before at the service, with the great picture of Old Man Mugara. She decided to get on the overloaded bus with the masses. The two hour journey to Kadoma Village seemed to take even longer than when she was traveling with her parents. The stench was suffocating.

When she got out at Kadoma, she saw a familiar face.

“Tendai!” she called out and ran to him.

“Hey, Jennifer,” he said.

“It’s Genevieve,” she corrected.

“Little madam,” Tendai’s father greeted, “the ancestors have truly blessed your family. Where are your parents?”

“They are a bit busy today.”

“I pray Old Man Mugara may call out my son’s name today. We have been waiting for nearly a year now.” Genevieve saw the heartache on their faces as Tendai’s father said this; the sadness in their eyes as they knew that time wasn’t on their side.

The ceremony was about to begin and curiosity sprung up inside Genevieve. She went to the backstage entrance and asked the guard if she could see Old Man Mugara to thank him. She never had the opportunity yesterday because she passed out. The guard said she should go back to her seat or they would escort her back. But before she could turn back, the old man’s wife called out.

“Let her in!” she said. The guard immediately got out of the way and let her through. Her eyes were full of wonder at the beautiful setting.

“International guests are always welcome.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Genevieve said.

“We’ve had many guests from all over the African continent, but never from America.”

“Britain. We’re from Manchester. Actually, my mom grew up in Harare.”

“How wonderful.”

“I know about him,” Genevieve said suddenly.

“Excuse me?” the old man’s wife said, looking perplexed.

“He is the one healing the people, not your husband. And you control him with that thing on your neck.”

The old man’s wife grabbed her necklace and stood up with an unpleasant look of surprise on her face.

“I help people,” she said approaching Genevieve, “I helped you! It’s a life for a life. I am cleansing the world of evil and replenishing it with good yet ungrateful souls like you. Ngirozi Yarufu, the angel of death is under my control. So, if I were you, I would be careful about the next thing that comes out of my mouth.”

“What? You kill people to heal people? What gives you the right?”

“Gilbert, get her out of here.”

The guard came towards Genevieve. When he was about to grab her, she made a run for it. She ran to Tendai and his father.

“We have to get out of here,” she panted, “these people don’t heal.”

“What?” Tendai said.

“But they healed you, young madam,” his father said politely.

The guards grabbed her and carried her to the exit.

“Don’t do it Tendai! They are evil!” the crowd cheered at the guards escorting her out. Insults were thrown at her for disrupting the service.

They threw her out of the tent. She sat by the busses for a long while until she saw Tendai and his father coming out. She ran towards them.

“I want you to stay away from us, young madam,” Tendai’s father said sternly and pulled his son towards their pick-up truck.

Tendai wanted to listen to what she had to say, but his father was having none of it. The old man’s wife was wrong to be playing God; choosing who lives and who dies. It was not her place. She was controlling the Grim Reaper.

The following day, Genevieve came an hour early before the service and saw all the guards gathered at the back of the tent smoking and sharing jokes. She snuck in the back of the tent and saw the necklace hanging between scented candles. She rushed towards it, but was stopped by the clicking sound of a cocked gun.

“Don’t even think about it,” the old man’s wife said, “I knew you would return. You white people are always curious.”

“This is not right, you have to stop doing this,” Genevieve said. She froze and did not turn around. She heard the oncoming footsteps of the old man’s wife from behind her.

“I will stop you.” Genevieve said.

Old Man Mugara appeared from the doorway. Genevieve screamed for help to the old man, but the old man passed as though hearing nothing. The old man’s wife laughed.

“You’re wasting your breath child. Mugara died a long time ago, what you see right there, is nothing but a shell. He is my vessel.”

The service was about to begin.

“Today you’re going to save a life, my child,” Old Man Mugara’s wife said with a sinister smile.

They got out of the room and put the guard outside the door. The service began. The old man’s wife called out the first two names, but the third name gave Genevieve the shock of her life.

“Tendai Katsande,” the old man’s wife called.

Tendai’s father wept with joy as he took his son to the front. The applause reverberated around the tent. Tendai fell to the floor unconscious on his way to the front.

“Help!” his father cried out, “my son! Please help my son!”

The old man came towards him and put his hand on Tendai’s forehead and sang his songs in a trance. Genevieve suddenly saw smoke in the room. Terror overtook her instincts, she bumped the candles and the white linen caught fire.

“Help!” Genevieve screamed. The cloaked stranger appeared again and was coming to her, both arms stretched towards her. The hooded face came into the light as the fire grew bigger.

“Fire!” someone screamed from the tent. Panic befell the service.

The face of the cloaked figure was nothing like Genevieve had seen before. It was just skin and bones. She had met the Grim Reaper. She saw a wooden necklace identical to that of the old man’s wife hanging on the Grim Reaper. She pulled it off, but nothing happened. The Grim Reaper covered her whole head with both large hands. She quickly felt her breath escaping her. Her heart was failing her. She dropped the necklace and it fell to the fire.

The Grim Reaper suddenly let go of her and ran out of the room through the walls. She coughed furiously. She kicked the door open and chaos. The old man was dead on the floor and the Grim Reaper had his hands on the old man’s wife. He let go of her, and her lifeless body fell to the floor. Genevieve also witnessed a wailing father over his son’s lifeless body. Tendai was no more.

***

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