The next day Kganya forgot to tell Lethabo about the strange incident with the beggar. She was so caught up with schoolwork that it slipped her mind. The day after, which was Saturday, nothing much happened, except attending extra classes from early morning to three in the afternoon. On Sunday morning, she had forgotten that they had to go to the library. Lethabo’s text reminded her.

‘Oh, no!’ She kicked off the blankets and ran to the bathroom.

Six minutes later she made up her bed and put on her takkies. Her phone dinged again, and she didn’t bother to check because she knew it was Lethabo telling her she was outside.

‘Hey, I thought you were resting today?’ Ntombi called Kganya who was coming out of her bedroom and going to the front door in a hurry.

‘I forgot that we had an—uh—assignment to do at the library,’ the lie came out her mouth smoothly.

‘Without books?’ Ntombi said with confusion.

‘They are—uh—with Lethabo, bye!’ she shouted as she closed the door on her way out.

‘Hey, chomi.’ Lethabo hugged Kganya as soon as she got out of the gate.

‘Hey, can you believe that I had forgotten?’ Kganya said as they walked down the street.

‘Good thing I texted you, then.’

***

They were in a small dark room that had one chair and an old computer on top of the desk. The librarian had just fixed the computer for them so they could browse all the articles released over fifty years ago.

‘Call if you need anything, OK?’ The librarian had said in her husky voice and exited the room.

‘What should we search first?’ Lethabo asked, sitting down on the chair. Kganya leant and looked over Lethabo’s shoulder.

‘Try the name,’ Kganya said.

‘Good idea.’ Lethabo clicked on the keyboard slowly, and pressed ‘enter’.

The search icon loaded.

‘It’s slow, urgh!’ Lethabo complained.

‘Relax, this is a public library.’

They both went silent and all they could hear was the computer whirring.

‘Oh, finally!’ Lethabo clapped her hands and leant closer to the monitor.

There were many articles from different newspapers, most of them Kganya didn’t recognise (probably ran out of business a long time ago, she thought). But their headlines with the name they had just punched in were scary.

‘Ok, let me filter the search by timeline, so we can see them chronologically.’ Lethabo worked the computer, and this time it didn’t take long to load.

‘Here we go. The first article is dated 1889.’ Lethabo clicked on it.

Kganya leant closer and was breathing near Lethabo’s ear.

‘The community of Sunshine Suspects the Healer Mbazo of witchcraft,’ Lethabo read the headline.

She scrolled slowly as they were reading.

‘Whoa!’ Kganya exclaimed after reading the article. ‘They say babies around the area got sick, and when they took them to Zumba Mbazo, they died two or three days later?’

‘Yep, that’s what it says.’ Lethabo scrolled to another article.

It, too, was as shocking as the previous one.

‘The community says he took the babies’ spirits so he could make himself powerful?’ Kganya was white with shock.

Lethabo didn’t answer. She scrolled down the articles in the timeline. She skipped some and stopped at the one they had read three days ago.

‘Zumba Mbazo was seen by one community member in the middle of the night going to the river, where he proceeded to do a Dark ritual. The community member, who’d like to remain anonymous, said that he had followed Zumba and heard the wailing of a baby, then ran back to report this unusual behaviour to the community leader. The community leader, along with a few community members, went to confront Zumba Mbazo. Mr Zumba said that his rituals are his business, and his business only. He said that he was slaughtering a cat, which was what they probably heard crying, and not a baby. Mr Zumba stated again that he was not a wizard, and he urged those spreading this dangerous rumour about him to stop,’ Kganya stopped reading the article.

‘He was slaughtering a cat? Who slaughters a cat, and for what ritual?’ Lethabo turned her head to look at Kganya as if she had answers.

‘Open that one,’ Kganya said, pointing at the monitor.

Lethabo clicked on it.

Kganya read out loud again. ‘The community raided Mr Mbazo’s compound when he was out to run his errands on the 12th of October, 1910. That’s when they found a baby’s head wrapped in a plastic bag, hidden inside his wardrobe. Other human parts like fingers and toes were found hidden in various locations in his hut. The community ambushed Mr Mbazo when he returned and they stoned him. In a mayhem, he managed to overpower the community members with his magical powers, but other Healers subdued him before he could escape, and they tied him with ropes on a pole. This was when they hanged him publicly. He was heard saying, “I will come back! I will come back and avenge myself. No one will stop Zumba Mbazo” before he was pronounced dead shortly after that. The police…’

‘Haibo!’ Lethabo covered her mouth with her hand.

No one said a word until the librarian came in to tell them to wrap it up because they were closing in ten minutes.