Smile’s matte black Golf 7 GTI roars and shoots down the N3 freeway past Cliffdale. The roar from the modified engine grabs attention and the unique mirror tint on the windows and equally shiny rims keep a tight grip on eyes until it is out of sight. It overtakes a white Toyota Quantum taxi on the one-lane Hammarsdale off-ramp.

Passengers scream as the taxi swerves to the side to give Smile enough space.

“Agh, damnit!” the taxi driver’s palm jumps to the middle of the steering wheel but freezes before it presses the car horn. “It’s that bloody Smile!”

Chatter bubbles like water at boiling point inside the taxi.

“Smile is the god of Hammarsdale, bra. He’s untouchable!” says a bald-headed guy in his early twenties to his friend seated next to him on the back seat.

“He won’t be the god of Hammarsdale for long because I hear Sphamandla is sending hit man after hit man to kill him,” says his friend.

“So what if Sphamandla is sending hit men after him?” says the bald-headed guy. “Smile killed Bhengu, Sphamandla’s father, a taxi owner with a whole fleet, in broad daylight with no disguise and didn’t even run. Smile chopped down everyone that came after him and he’ll continue to chop them down no matter how many men Sphamandla sends. Nobody can stop this guy!”

His friend chuckles. “I bet you’d clean Smile’s shoes with your tongue if he asked you to.”

“Who wouldn’t?” says the bald-headed guy.

Two rows in front of them, a man and woman in their fifties are having a more sober chat about what had just happened.

“It’s the guns,” says the woman. “All these kids have guns now and that makes them act wild.”

“They just haven’t messed with the right person yet,” says the man.

This catches the woman by surprise and she laughs. “Really?”

“I’m not talking about me,” the man says, and chuckles. “Do you remember the Unit 4 mandrax gang that terrorised Hammarsdale back in 1999?”

“The ones that robbed and stabbed a pregnant woman to death in broad daylight?”

“Yes! Do you remember what happened to them?”

The woman nods. “The community burned …”

“No, it wasn’t the community,” says the man. “That’s the story the police made up to cover up what happened because they didn’t have answers.”

“Okay?” says the woman, urging him to continue.

“A friend who lived next door to the old house where the mandrax boys camped saw the whole thing. He saw a balaclava-clad person walk into the old house that night. The mandrax boys had robbed and killed the pregnant woman that morning,” says the man.

“So all those boys were killed by one man?”

The man nods. There is a seriousness in his eyes now. He lowers his voice. “Seconds later, an eardrum-wrecking slew of gunshots and screams emanated from the house. The balaclava-clad man walked out and disappeared into the dark night as flames engulfed the old house. He had shot and burned seven people,” the man shifts in his seat and clears his throat. “My friend never told the police anything because he also wanted the mandrax boys gone. Everyone in Hammarsdale wanted those boys gone.”

There’s a short silence as they both mentally digest the story.

“I remember that story. Those boys got what they deserved,” says the woman.

The man nods. “That’s why I say it’s only a matter of time before gangsters like Smile get what’s coming to them.”

In the front seat, next to the driver, a middle-aged man still has shock stamped on his face after witnessing Smile’s reckless overtaking. “For a moment there I thought you were going to press the horn on him,” he says to the driver.

The driver, Jacob Ntuli, takes a deep breath and clicks his tongue. “Smile is crazy. I don’t know what Sbahle sees in him,” Jacob whispers under his breath.

“What?”

“Never mind. I’m thinking about something else,” says Jacob.

Jacob’s heart beats faster because he has heard the man and woman talking about the murder of the pregnant woman in 1999. He looks at their eyes in the rear-view mirror and relaxes because they are not looking at him.

They have no idea that that pregnant woman was the love of Jacob’s life. They have no idea that on the day she was murdered Jacob’s heart turned black. They don’t know that he was the balaclava-clad man who murdered the mandrax gang that terrorised Hammarsdale. They have no idea that the love of his life died but doctors were able to save the baby. And that baby, Sbahle, has grown into a beautiful young woman who is the light of Jacob’s life.

Jacob clenches his jaw as he hits the brakes at the T-Junction. It gnaws on his mind that his daughter, Sbahle, the light of his life, is dating this dangerous gangster called Smile who has nearly caused him to crash into the off-ramp guard rails by his reckless driving.

***

Tell us: What do you think of Jacob taking revenge?