The Train Driver

Simon splits a dinner of baked beans and bread with Roelf in the shack. He calls Roelf “Roelfie” and “Roofie,” and Roelf calls Simon “Andile.” Simon reveals that the amagintsa threatened him when he went to the shop, but Roelf insists that he isn’t afraid. Simon says Roelf knows nothing about his world and compares the amagintsa to the wild dogs of the bush.

Roelf asks Simon if he believes in ghosts. Simon responds emphatically in the affirmative. He claims to hear the ghosts’ sad voices at night. He responds to the ghosts with a Zulu lullaby in Xhosa that his mother used to sing to him. Roelf asks if the ghosts hear the lullaby, and Simon tells him that his song lulls the ghosts back to sleep. 

Roelf asks if Simon grieves or pities the bodies he buries, but Simon only cares about being paid. He marks the graves not out of respect, but to remind himself not to dig there again. He asks why Roelf keeps pressing the issue, and Roelf is horrified that Simon could be so apathetic towards “[his] own people.” With growing discomfort, Roelf explains that standing in the graveyard has made him empathize with the people buried there and with the woman he killed. He imagines her living with her baby in a pondok in a “fucking hopeless” life, and he concludes that he would want to stand on a railway line, too. Roelf laments that even in death the woman’s suffering is not at an end, because no one wants to claim her and the only man looking can’t find her body.

Roelf no longer wants to swear at Red Doek’s body. He isn’t sure what he wants. Simon suggests that Roelf speak to the woman’s ghost. Roelf puzzles over this, ultimately resolving that he doesn’t know what to do and neither does Simon. Simon dismisses him and continues to eat his dinner.