Tandia Read Free

to see if any blacks were on the streets, then she would do it. It would definitely be best to die on a Saturday night because on Sunday she had a half-day off and Mrs Patel got Patel's breakfast and so nobody would miss her, not even at lunchtime, because on Sundays Mrs Patel always visited the home of either Teddy or Billy in Clairwood and Patel spent the day at the boxing club.
    When they returned in the evening to discover she hadn't prepared the evening meal or even cleaned the house, that was the first time she'd be missed. Which gave her plenty of time to drown, be washed out to sea and never found again.
    Maybe they'd even be a little sorry about losing her. She didn't care about Mrs Patel, but she wanted Patel to be sorry. She wanted him to mourn her just a little bit.
    Tandia quite liked the idea of simply disappearing off the face of the earth. Though having to die in order to do so seemed unfair.
    By Friday however the bleeding had stopped again. Hope springs eternal and it seemed silly to kill herself when maybe she was cured. Tandia's next period occurred on a Monday and was over before Saturday. Once again she was saved from the watery deep.
    Tandia began to wonder about the disease. She could honestly say she felt no ill effects from it, in fact, after each time, she seemed if anything to feel better. Her breasts had begun to swell noticeably and her hips didn't seem to jut out as much either. But she had to face reality, for you couldn't get to be thirteen in a place like Cato Manor and not know that there were diseases black women got down there, horrible diseases that a person could pass on to someone else and which would also eventually kill them as well.
    It briefly occurred to Tandia to try to see Dr Rabin, who was a much-loved young white doctor who came even at night for coloureds and blacks and had once come when Patel's pleurisy turned into pneumonia. Except for smallpox and polio vaccinations, which had taken place at school, Tandia had never been near a doctor. Now, having convinced herself that the bleeding was something she had inherited from the black part of her, she became obsessed with hiding it from Patel or anyone who might know the family, even Dr Rabin.
    The Thursday her period came back Tandia was locked in the school lavatories when she overheard a conversation between Maree Ratchee and Fatima Suluman, two fifth-form seniors.
    'I wish I could get out of stupid basketball tomorrow, there's a Rasheed Mantella film on at the Odeon in Victoria Street,' she heard Fatima say.
    'Ag, man, do what I did, tell Miss you got your periods.'
    'God, I'm dumb! I should have thought of that!' There was a pause and Fatima's voice brightened. 'It's not too late, I'll tell her they just came!'
    'Better be careful, she takes the date down so next time she knows if you lying.'
    'But it's true, I really have got my periods, but, to tell you the honest truth I don't bleed very much. I could play if I wanted to.'
    'You're lucky, man. I bleed a lot every month and feel lousy,' Maree replied as the two girls left the lavatory block. Tandia felt quite dizzy. Period was a word she'd vaguely heard before from the other girls, always accompanied by giggles, but until this moment it had never occurred to her that it had anything to do with her own condition. After school that day Tandia waited outside the gates until Fatima Suluman appeared. Nervous, she fell into step beside the bigger girl. At first Fatima appeared not to notice her. It was not unusual for one of the brats to get a crush on a senior and she wasn't going to encourage the little coloured girl.
    While Tandia wasn't exactly ostracised by the girls at the school, for the most part their friendliness ended at the school gates…This wasn't so much a thing decided by the girls themselves as by their parents, several of whom had written to the headmistress suggesting that Durban Indian Girls' High was exclusively for Indian girls and that didn't, as far