Tandia by Bryce Courtenay Page A

underworld and he was going to bite her with his golden teeth. 'Don't bite me! Please don't bite me! Please, please! I don't want to have your baby!'
    Juicey Fruit Mambo bent over her and placed his' hand on her shoulder and Tandia became hysterical and tried to beat him off with her fists. The shock of finding herself confronted by the Master of Evil lent her strength. She rose up and, standing on the bed, beat frantically at the black man's chest. He brought his arms around her and held her tightly until what little strength she had gained from the sudden shock had spent itself. Exhausted, Tandia wept against his chest, blood running from her lip where she'd bitten it. Finally she lost even the strength to weep.
    'Shhhh! Missy Tandia, no more now, you heah? I am not bite you. Shhhh! You very sick but not to' die, I tink. No more for you cry, Missy Tandia.' After a while he laid her head gently back onto her pillow where Tandia, her eyes red from weeping but still bright with fever, stared up at him in catatonic terror.
    Mama Tequila heard Tandia screaming but her progress up the stairs was painfully slow, although she was hurrying and was panting fiercely as she came through the door. 'Jesus! What happened?'
    Juicey Fruit Mambo shook his head slowly, then he brought the' palm of his hand against his forehead and wiped across it, flicking the imaginary sweat from his brow. 'She has the hot sickness, madam,' he explained.
    'Go get some ice from the bar fridge. Also a towel. Quick, man!' Mama Tequila lowered her body onto the side of the bed and lifted Tandia's unresisting form from the pillow and held her tightly to her bosom.
    To Tandia, in her state of confusion, Mama Tequila was almost as great a shock as finding the Master of Evil hovering over her. She was wearing a huge pale pink silk kimono which was embroidered in the elaborate oriental fashion with brilliantly coloured roses, peonies, hummingbirds and butterflies. To Tandia in her state of confusion she looked like a garden dancing in the air with a grotesque disembodied head floating above it.
    Tandia believed that she was beyond help. She had been carried to the underworld by the Master of Evil who had bitten her, not only on the chest but all over, so that now her body hurt terribly. Too weak to resist or even to sob, she lay helpless against Mama Tequila's heaving breasts as the huge woman rocked her, making soft shhhing sounds. After a while, when Tandia's breathing had grown more steady, Mama Tequila laid her back on the bed. Tandia felt sure she was about to die. Horrible as this seemed, it was strangely painless and an end which she welcomed. Patel would never forgive her if she had the Master of Evil's baby. She must die! It was very important! He wouldn't love her if she didn't die to save his fragile ego from destruction. A man like him who was known in the best white circus.
    Juicey Fruit Mambo returned with a small enamel basin filled with water into which he had placed a couple of trays of ice cubes; a small towel was also draped over one arm. He placed the basin beside the bed and dug into his trouser pockets to produce a bottle of pills. Then he rinsed the towel, wrung it out to make a small square parcel of it, and placed it against Tandia's fevered brow.
    'Hold her head up,' Mama Tequila said, shaking two small pink pills from the bottle. Juicey Fruit Mambo lifted Tandia's head from the cushion and Mama Tequila slipped two tablets into her mouth. The pills tasted bitter and Tandia swallowed eagerly from the glass of water Juicey Fruit handed her, drinking its contents down completely. 'She is thirsty, I will bring some more/ he said, and left the room.
    The effect of the barbiturate soon sent Tandia to sleep and it was late in the evening when she wakened again. The fever in her still raged and she could hear someone singing, 'Lay that pistol down, babe…lay that pistol down!' It seemed to be coming from a long way away and she opened her eyes