Novels by Evidence Makuni

Chapter 6Sometimes you accept defeat and simply lie down like a hen sitting on eggs. Nomatter was gone for good. That was when, wherever I went, I seemed to hear the same song by Macheso playing:"Be careful, someone might steal me from you. Look at me now, I was stolen from you!"Sometimes I would be heading to a bar to drown my sorrows and suddenly decide to go into a nearby church instead, where everyone would be quietly listening to a gentle sermon. Then, out of nowhere, a ringtone would go off:"Be careful, someone might steal me from you. Look at me now, I was stolen from you!"It felt as if everyone and everything knew that Nomatter had been taken from me. Even phones and radios seemed to know.That was when I finally stopped thinking about love and realized that, after all, Grace was actually a beautiful woman. I had thrown her away myself. By now, Nomatter was probably sleeping in another man's arms, satisfied and content. Some things simply have to be accepted. Why your ton

Chapter 5 Time does not stop moving just because life is not going your way. In fact, it gallops on like horses on a racetrack. I knew that what remained for Nomatter and Peter was simply their wedding. That was when I made one last attempt to change Nomatter's mind.She had sent me pictures of myself with Grace on my phone, and I despised myself for them. I despised my own weakness, my own lack of discipline and self-control.One day, Mr. Gumedhe called me and asked me to accompany Peter to show his future wife, Nomatter, the house in Borrowdale. I respected him, so I had no way of refusing.We met in town, with Peter driving the car. Nomatter sat beside him, while I took the back seat of his double cab."Come along, Officer," Peter said. "I'm taking Madam here to see her mansion. Unlike your place in Kuwadzana, where the houses look like they belong to gorillas."At that moment, I realized Peter had arranged for his father to call me. This trip was designed to achieve his own purpo

Chapter 4My job was not difficult for me. I arrived at work carrying a heavy heart. You know how it is when you are still considered young and inexperienced at work, yet you are assigned to handle hardened criminals—and those experienced themselves become intimidated by you. They do not know how great the house you came from was for you to end up where they are. Besides, the luxury vehicle Grace had bought me had left my colleagues with questions they could not answer.My bosses eventually relaxed when they realized that I was genuinely good at my job. I was trained in every aspect of criminal investigation until it became second nature to me. Crime scene attendance, interviewing criminals, even interrogation techniques—all of it became part of my blood, my daily bread. I deserved to be called Detective Sergeant A. Pamire. And with the gift of a full beard that spread across my cheeks and chin like beans scattered over a threshing floor, no one doubted those who assumed I was a real

The days rolled by as I returned to my normal work routine. As for Grace, I had already changed my phone line and remained in Kuwadzana, where she did not know my whereabouts. Nomatter and I spoke frequently, discussing the plans her family had for us and making our own plans about how we would overcome whatever obstacles lay ahead.One day, as I was walking through town, a car suddenly stopped beside me and hooted. Inside was Grace, dressed beautifully. I looked at her and felt my heart drift away. It wasn't that I loved her enough to marry her, but the lust I felt for her made me overlook the troubles that were falling upon me, like a man who already owns a pot but still covets another."Get in, you bastard," she shouted playfully, flashing her beautiful white teeth.Even though I was attracted to her, I felt compelled to tell her the truth about our situation. I wanted to tell her that with her beauty, she could find a man much better than me—a man of her own social and financial c

I went back home with a heart that was both white and black, like a chicken's droppings. White because I was eager to see my beloved, Nomatter. Black because I had cheated on my beloved with Grace, a light-skinned beauty who had left my mind like a hyena standing at a crossroads—one path leading to goat meat, the other to sheep meat. Which way was I supposed to go? In the end, I found myself trapped in the middle.I arrived home after dark. People had just returned from their evening chores with the groceries I had bought. At home were my younger brother, Nyasha, and my two sisters, Natasha and Joanna. They were all delighted to see their brother from the city, a man who had changed. I could now afford to wear expensive clothes and even buy them the clothes they had always wanted. I had also bought Nomatter a skirt and some undergarments.That night, I couldn't sleep. I kept wishing for morning to come so I could see my Nomatter. I briefly thought about Grace and laughed to myself, sa

When I was growing up, we were always told that education was the key to wealth. I was the eldest child, raised by my mother because, according to what she told us, our father had been "married off" to my aunt in Harare. My mother struggled to raise us by growing vegetables and tomatoes, walking from village to village to sell them.My father was always ridiculed by my mother and my uncle, who would ask mockingly, "Have you ever seen a man who gets married by a woman?" My uncle would sometimes visit our home late at night after we had gone to bed. Mother would wake us and send us to sleep in the kitchen while they remained behind discussing matters considered too mature for children to hear.As the eldest, I would sometimes hear movements at dawn as my uncle quietly slipped away. Later, my mother gave birth to a baby girl named Joana, by which time I was already in Form Four. Seeing the hardships surrounding us, I realised that my future was crippled before it had even begun.I buried