Edith who?
There must be a mistake.
No. No. No.
The news set tongues wagging in Highfields.
She was the perfect wife and mother. Definitely any man’s dream wife. Any child’s mother. Edith Ramoke had played her cards right as a mother and wife. No one could say anything bad about the Ramoke girls, her teenage twins, their father’s dream come true. They were a replica of their mother. Dressed in the finest at all times, their hair neatly done. They never roamed around the Location or behaved in unmannerly ways. Edith’s girls as they were known were exemplary. Like mother like daughters. To the outside world, Edith lived a perfect life in the comfort of her perfectly built home surrounded by blooming flowers year-round. Lucky Edith!
Love
Loyalty
A life so serene in the eyes of many.
Edith, the darling of the community was often the first one to visit a home struck by tragedy. Her car on standby to ferry the ill or bereaved. Edith’s home, open to anyone in need except her Simon was never there. Many didn’t even know him. Sundays, Edith drove to church with the girls after making sure that Simon would not be inconvenienced in any way. She left him his favourite Sunday meal, sweet potato pie.
At St Johns Church of England, Father Zambezi and his wife Dora relied on Edith. For with her any assignment would be perfectly done. Edith helped Mrs Zambezi run the mother’s union. For the provincial meetings in Harare and Bulawayo, she had several reliable ex-Japanese cars to take the mothers there and she never asked for a cent from the church coffers. One Saturday a month, she hosted the church youth at her home where she played mentor in between drinks and food. The youths loved these meetings, the food and Mama Edith! Everyone then wondered what had happened to Edith in between all this.
Her marriage seemed intact. Simon’s absence could be explained. He had businesses and they kept him busy and money flowing into the family bank accounts. The money afforded Edith luxury including the seven ex-Japanese vehicles, one for each day, in their driveway. Edith could buy whatever she wanted whenever but she was no spendthrift.
“Why Edith? Why?” Everyone in Highfields asked.
If it obviously wasn’t about Edith wanting money and Simon having secret sexcapades as many first assumed, what then was it all about?
“Simon only thought about spinning money and his family. The twins were his main concern. He wanted them to have a hassle-free life.” Edith revealed.
Turns out the girls had come after years of visiting one fertility clinic after another. When all else had failed and Edith and Simon had settled for the status quo, the twins arrived. A big surprise! Simon was overjoyed. He worked harder, for his girls, Surprise and Joy. To Simon, life was about being wholly devoted to his family; he would die for them if need be.
Neighbours said Edith lived a simple life and did not gallivant from one kitchen party to the next like the local ladies. She only went out to Mbare once or twice a week to buy vegetables and the sweet potatoes for Simon’s pie.
“You make the best sweet potato pie in town!” Simon would tell his wife much to her pleasure. Their home was full of love and laughter. Edith in charge and on top of her game.
When Simon woke up one day unable to walk, Highfields was left in shock. Many concluded it was the devil’s doing.
When her work load more than doubled after Simon became wheelchair bound, Edith did not change. She washed, dressed and fed him. She took him to the park and shopping mall now and then. Many saw this and said, “Amazing Edith is a blessing to the world.”
Clever Simon had life and disability cover running into millions so Edith didn’t struggle for money. Life went on except Simon now had people running his businesses, an arrangement which did not appeal to Edith.
“Let us sell and concentrate on you,” she said to Simon. “Money isn’t everything.”
Good wife. Good moral values. Everything Edith said made sense. And, she did concentrate on Simon and his favourite: Sweet potato pie. Everything under her control.
Despite having a driver, Edith drove herself to Mbare so she could buy the potatoes, hand picking each one of them for Simon’s special pie. Sometimes she took hours in Mbare but always came back home and prepared the sweet potato pie right away.
I will love your sweet potato pie until the day I die,” Simon joked.
Whenever Simon said this, goose bumps grew all over Edith’s body. She however never hinted that his jokes were not as funny as he assumed. She laughed instead and teased him too.
Be careful of what you wish for young man!”
Despite that the pie was only for Simon, Edith never got tired of making it. The twins hated sweet potatoes. Edith preferred yams.
Yum. Yum. Lucky me! All the pie is mine until the day I die!”
Simon continued with his jokes until one afternoon the twins found him dead with the Herald he was reading in his hand. Edith was in Mbare buying sweet potatoes. What was supposed to be a normal school holiday for the twins turned into a nightmare as they mourned their father.
“Very sad indeed,” the community said.
A year down the line, on 14 August, Simon’s birthday, another story emerged. It was not just about Simon’s sweet potato pie, Mr Ramushu had divulged.
“I can’t keep the secret anymore!” Edith confessed right away. In between buckets of tears, she said the secret was about the twins, Simon and her.
“Our life is ruined. Everything upside down because of that Eric Ramushu,”
she sobbed as she confessed to the police that all her life, she had loved Simon too much.
That is why I gave him the twins. Simon loved me too much and he trusted me too, too much. The twins loved their father. They all looked up to me. What was I to tell them?”
“But why Mrs Ramoke?” The police asked.
Turns out Eric Ramushu had written about mercury in Simon Ramoke’s sweet potato pie. He mentioned the more than a decade old secret and lots more. I will not waste your time,” Edith said after learning about Eric Ramushu’s statement.
She explained the frequent trips to Mbare for a fling with Eric Ramushu who had been her boyfriend since high school.
“We never stopped our affair. He got more possessive and made more demands. He wanted me to leave Simon and move in with him.”
Ramushu out of frustration wrote a note with explicit details about:
The outings
His girls.
The plan to end Simon Ramoke’s life gradually.
Deceit, deceit and more deceit!
When Psychiatrists checked Edith’s mental state tests proved she was ok upstairs. No sign of depression. No anguish.
“I meant no harm. I did Simon a favour! He would have died from heartbreak anyway,” Edith shouted as she left the room in chains.
—
Read – Attorney at “Low” – A Short Story by Kaluwe Haangala, Zambia
Thabi Moeketsi lives in Zimbabwe where she divides her time between writing and running her own business. Her fiction has appeared in Ibua Journal, Potato Soup Journal best of 22 Anthology, Eclectica, Literary Yard, among others.
