Diamond boy

• The story is set in the Marange diamond fields in Zimbabwe

  
• The main character is Patson, who is recovering in a hospital bed and trying to remember how he got there
• Patson's father, Joseph, is a teacher who is struggling financially, and his wife, Sylvia, wants the family to go to the Marange diamond fields to try to make money
• On the way to Marange, Patson sees some young boys, referred to as "mailashas" or smugglers, trying to sell diamonds on the side of the road
• The driver warns Patson not to interact with the boys, as they are risking their lives by trying to sell diamonds outside of the syndicate
• Sylvia's brother, James Banda, runs a diamond mine in Marange and has been telling the family that there are diamonds for everyone to be found there
• Patson's father, Joseph, is a respected teacher who has won awards, but the family is struggling financially due to the hyperinflation in Zimbabwe
• Sylvia is frustrated with the family's poverty and blames Joseph for not being able to provide for them
• Patson has a gift that he has not yet discovered, and his father encourages him to nurture and grow it
• My father always met every problem with thoughtful composure. He lived in a world of books, and was at peace with the life he had chosen.
• This inward contentment often infuriated the Wife, who, if she wasn't afraid of the power of his beloved books, would have thrown every single one of them at him.
• I watched how he gracefully bore his young wife's taunting, and how he smiled at his friends who teased him about who wore the pants in his house.
• He never, not once in the three years they were married, ever said anything bad about the Wife to Grace or me.
• Teaching


  Not a job, but a calling. When you are born with a gift, God instructs you to use it carefully.
• My father phoned the inspector of education in the Chiadzwa district outside Marange, and offered his services as a teacher of mathematics and English.
• Two days later he proudly announced that he had received a fax from Mr. Ngoko, the headmaster of Marange's rural Junction Gate High School, and that there was an opening.
• The Wife asked scornfully about how much they would pay him at Junction Gate High School.
• My father replied that they would sort that out when they got there, and quietly retreated to the sanctuary of his desk.
• The Wife called after him "You might have plenty of brains, Joseph, but you've got no sense", and rolled her eyes at us.
• I hated the way she turned us into her accomplices, expecting us to agree with her.
• I wished my father would do something to make me proud of him. He might be a good teacher but it counted for nothing in Zimbabwe.
• My father said we were going to Marange to start a new life and be part of Sylvia's family.
• My father said he was not going to Marange to become a diamond miner, but to be a teacher at a different school.
• As we drove to Marange, we passed a police checkpoint where the policeman ordered the driver to open the trunk and then demanded a bribe to let us continue.
• The driver explained that the police were trying to stop people from going to Marange to look for diamonds, and that we were lucky to find a policeman who could be bribed.
• The driver then said it was too dangerous to continue on the highway, and that we would have to walk the rest of the way to Marange.
• The driver dropped us off under a baobab tree, where there were diamond dealers, and then drove away, leaving us with all our luggage in the middle of nowhere.
• The Wife angrily criticized my father for letting the driver leave us, and said we had no way to contact the person who had arranged the transportation.
• shook his head and opened my door. "Out, out! Quickly," he instructed Grace and me. We tumbled out as my father continued upbraiding the driver, who got back into the car and slammed his door.
• "It is not far from here." The driver cut off my father's protests. "You'll go east, toward that mountain, and the diamond fields are just on the other side. Maybe half an hour's walk. You will be there well before dark."
• The engine roared to life and he drove away, leaving us in a cloud of dust.
• "Joseph, how could you let him drive away? What sort of man are you? There's no reception out here. I can't get hold of James. What are we going to do with all these bags? You are useless! A useless man!" shouted the Wife, her voice becoming harsher at each unanswered question.
• My father arranged the pile of luggage in neat rows, dismissing her words as if they were no more than flies buzzing around his head. Grace looked up at me and sighed. We both knew that there were too many bags for us to carry any distance at all.
• "Walking won't be so bad," said Grace. "We've been in the car for hours. I think we should go and ask that man to help us."
• Grace held out her hand to me, and together we walked over to the man standing at the foot of a massive baobab tree. As the dust settled, the orange glow slipped behind the faraway hills, leaving us with maybe two hours before dark. The baobab towered over the forest, its limbs glowing in the dying light of day, and the man watched our approach with as much interest as a buffalo showed a pair of tiny ox-peckers.
• "He looks a bit scary."
• "Keep smiling, Grace, and let me do the talking."
• The man was tall, with broad shoulders and muscular arms. His head was bald and he had black eyes, a little hooded. His face seemed chiseled out of hardwood by someone with little talent, and his nose was bent completely out of shape. He wore a sleeveless maroon T-shirt and a white tie around his neck, neatly knotted and patterned with squiggly black lines. He was chewing slowly. The corners of his mouth were stained with the telltale flecks of red beetle-nut juice. He spat out a long stream of bloodred saliva and put another nut into his mouth. The closer we got to him, the smaller and more insignificant I felt. He was the ugliest man I had ever seen.
• "I'm smiling, Patson, but it doesn't seem to be helping," Grace whispered, gripping my hand tightly.
• In the face of his blank, hooded eyes, I tried to make my voice as strong as possible. "My name is Patson Moyo. We need to go to Marange."