No Turning Back by Beverley Naidoo Read Free Book Online Page B

only ate the food with our eyes and the music with our ears!” Jabu called behind him as they quickly moved off, not waiting for the reply.
    The waiter might inform a guard, who would chase them away from the center. It was a strange place, Jabu explained to Sipho as he led him outside to the supermarket exit. Rosebank people had a lot more guards to chase you away, but they usually gave much bigger tips when they paid you!
    What Jabu said was true. Within half an hour of helping shoppers, Sipho had already earned twice as much as he would have earned in Hillbrow. Here people often gave him fifty cents and sometimes even a whole rand at a time. Seeing him sweating, one shopper also gave him a can of Coke. Pushing amatrolley was easier here too because there was no hill to struggle up.
    After a couple of hours, they decided to change their work and help motorists park. While some people shooed them away, most let them get on with their work and paid them. By the middle of the afternoon, Jabu said they should return to Hillbrow. It had been a good day and they had been lucky. They could even afford to treat themselves to a burger and chips and travel back by bus. Sipho had never had so muchmoney of his own before. He could come back here another day to earn the money to buy the little rhino! With twenty-five rand in his pocket, he had to stop himself from taking it out to count and letting other people know he was rich! He had already heard plenty of tales about malunde being robbed, and he didn’t want it to happen to him.
    Back in Hillbrow, Jabu led the way to the secondhand store. Behind the furniture were clothes and in the corner was a rail of army jackets, like Joseph’s. They cost twenty-four rand, and as soon as he had seen them, Sipho knew he wanted to try one on. Still he hesitated. Most people he knew distrusted the uniform and the soldiers who wore it. People kept saying that things were meant to be changing, but where was this thing called change?
    “Come on, man, try it!” said Jabu, taking a jacket off the rail.
    Sipho slipped his arms through the sleeves and did up the buttons. Then he looked at himself in the mirror of a nearby wardrobe. He was aware of the shop assistant’s eyes on him. He straightened his back.
    “You can be a soldier for Mandela when he is president!” said Jabu, grinning.
    Sipho placed his money on the counter andkept the jacket on even though the afternoon was still warm from the sun. It was only as they were walking down the street that it occurred to him that while the army jacket might keep Joseph warm, it still hadn’t stopped him wanting iglue.

9. Night Attack
    S omething was wrong, and Sipho and Jabu knew it as soon as they entered the street leading to the pozzie. No orange sparks flickered in the dark above the fence. Instead of the muffled sounds of ordinary talk carried in the air, they were struck by the loud noise of an argument. One voice was that of Lucas, but the others were unfamiliar to Sipho, except that one of them carried an unpleasant ring. It was a deep, rough voice and almost every second word seemed to be “blerry.”
    Climbing through the fence, his eyes needed time to sort out the figures in the dark. Suddenly Sipho realized whose voice it was. The bushyhaired, red-faced man who had shouted at him on his first day in Hillbrow!
    “Hayi! These people, they always make trouble for us!” Jabu said softly. He was sure they had stolen their blankets and then sold them. By now they would have already spent the money, most likely on drink. “They thinkthey can do anything with malunde,” he added.
    The argument raged. It seemed that Lucas and the others had found the three hoboes settled on their side of the plot. They had taken the malunde’s cardboard to use themselves and were refusing to move. Lucas kept his voice steady as he repeated how they had agreed that the tree in the middle of the plot would mark their areas. Then Vusi cut in.
    “First you