ZANE AND I FIND a steel box buried in Tomtom’s paddock. We dig it up, hoping it is treasure. There is a rusty padlock on it, so Jonas crowbars it open. Inside the box are guns and bullets. My father calls the police, who come in a van with an empty cage.
One policeman tells us the ANC hid the box.
– The ANC?
– The evil men. They want to kill us all, the policeman tells us. You boys done something heroic for your country.
– Maybe you boys even saved some lives, the other one says.
Zane and I tell all the kids down at the polo club while my folks play tennis and we play polo on bicycles. I enjoy the awed look the polo kids give us, but I feel confused by the other time the police came.
I don’t feel like a hero. I am not sure which side I am on. In the few films I’ve seen at the drive-in, or the cinema in Howick, I always hoped the one on the run from the police would get away. I thought that this must be something evil in me. Until my mother helped the men from Mozambique.