Page 5 - The Mending Season

Tumane took her last breath in the room that would later become centraltohersisters lives. ShewastheeldestofthefourMasemola sisters.No one knew what took her life after two months ofincessant headaches,so everyone settled on witchcraft. Her sisters said she had been bewitched,\ and their neighbours agreed —they thought it must be apunishmentfor her many transgressions. They said that someone somewhere must have eventually decided to get even with her. Because they had known her temper and her madnessfor so manyyears, theyfound this easy to imagine."That's a mans kind o frage,"they would whisper to each other; as Tumane,barely clothed and armed with a knife,chased someone out o fthe house and into the street.They said, "Awoman knows better. What is she so angry about? She doesn't even have children. A woman only gets like that i fshe hastoprotectherchildren. Somedaythisragewillkillher—justyou watch!"Asnewsofherdeathpassedfrom oneneighbourtoanother;they said, 'Didn't I tellyou*? See what bitterness can do to a woman's heart?"Snickering and whispering, people walked on the other side o f the street when passing the Masemola house. The house itselfstood behind a large lemon tree, rising above the weeds and shrubs sur­ rounding it, barely visible to the outsider. Except to leavefo r work, the Masemolas hardly ever went outside, and never bothered with the yard chores like everyone else. Once in a while, they wouldplay their music at deafening volume, as ifto announce to the neigh­ bourhood that they were still there. It was banned music, the kindpeople could be arrestedfor. But because everyone said they were witches —and because the suggestion o fwitchcraft has suchpower — nopoliceman had ever walked through theirgate to confront them.Having lost their parents at a young age, the four sisters, Tumane, Malesedi, Malebone and Mabatho, had decided on their own rules. The neighbours disagreed with them on almost every­