Chapter 12Sonja had Boss stop at a small supermarket on the edge of Bulawayo. She had spied the sign she was looking for on the way into town – Cell phone recharge and coffins.
The AIDS pandemic had meant roadside headstone carvers, cut-price undertakers and coffin makers were a feature of every town, no matter how small, in sub-Saharan Africa.
‘What now?’ Joanne asked.
‘We need a coffin for you.’
Boss’s eyes widened. ‘Serious?’
‘Yes, Boss, serious. We’re going to stay outside. You go in, buy a coffin and six ten-kilogram bags of mealie meal.’ She counted off most of her remaining US cash and handed it to him. Now his eyes lit up. ‘Hurry.’
They waited and Sonja took Joanne away from the vehicle, to the shade of a mango tree that sprouted from the kerb, so that the store worker who ca
