Fallen

 “That’s the thing about this city”, he muttered to himself as someone tripped over his buddy and started swearing calling them filth and scum. This place was cruel, cold and very dirty, well this part of the city at least which is why he and Badger had chosen to sleep there the previous night. Luckily for the idiot in the suit Badger was fast asleep and did not feel a thing otherwise there would have been hell to pay for that man. He grudgingly got up and gathered his things around him not that there was much to gather but what is a man without his possessions right, he almost laughed out loud at that, a bus drove past very fast and splashed some water from the road their way, luckily they were too far away to get wet, Badger stirred and turned to face him, “still alive I see.” He smiled and replied, “still kicking” that was their version of good morning that also reminded them that it was all too easy for either one of them to die or disappear, nobody cared about homeless people, and if one of them happened to get a stray bullet in a drug shoot out or get hit by a car it was the better for the city’s image and tax payers money right. In its defence Cape Town was a beautiful city and he should know, once upon a time he owned a house in the lush suburb of Constantia, his house had been listed for R8.5 million, the view from his bedroom was incredible, past the pool area and the trees was the beach, white sand and blue waters that went all the way to the horizon, from the side of the pool was a cobbled pathway that led to the beach, a mere 50 paces and he could dip his feet in the cool water and feel the crisp breeze in his hair sometimes they would see a cruise liner or cargo ship in the far distance. On cool mornings when he had the time he would jog topless along the shoreline and feel the heat of the sun on his back and watch the gulls on the beach before it got too hot and too busy for them. He had felt like he was the king of the world back then, sitting in his patio smoothie in one hand and his tablet in other watching his investments make him more and more money, little did he know then that five years later he would look like the garbage and filth that sometimes managed to wash up on shore, funny how he always made sure the gardener always picked it up and threw it away as it was an eyesore on his pristine beach and now people couldn’t get away from him fast enough as if the mere sight of him would soil their perfect suits and shiny shoes. He shook his head and laughed out loud this time at the irony or turn of events or karma or whatever the hell you wanted to call it, Badger was up and sitting at the edge of the pavement with a dirty rag trying to clean his face with water in the storm water drain, he heard him laugh and looked at him curiously before returning to his morning ritual. The sun was coming up and it was set to be a scorcher so they had best start moving towards the beach area where nobody really took notice of them and food was plenty just in case the soup kitchen wasnt open today as it had been the past two days.

“So yous from here in Cape Town and you were rich and famous here in Cape Town and now you are a bum on the streets here in Cape Town, hows it niemand recognizes you man?” Badger asked him bewildered as they were walking slowly towards the old standard bank building where the soup people usually parked their caravan and stuff. “Well Badger, people only see what they want to, when I was living it up and living large people saw a meal ticket, a connection, the gravy train or in the case of my ex wife the lottery and now nobody expects to see anybody of value or worth in a street bum.” Badger was still shaking his head in disbelief, and all he could do was smile knowingly, the strange thing was that he didnt see anyone from his previous life either, not even by chance at a traffic light or in the window of a gym or store it was almost as if the Cape Town he lived in before and the Cape Town he lived in now were two completely different cities. As they turned the corner they saw the red top of the caravan and the line of people already queueing for what was possibly their only meal for the day or the next couple of days, he had gone from eating caviar and fillet mignon to drinking hot soup from a styrofoam cup. Here nobody judged anybody, no egos were pampered and no names were dropped, all anybody cared about was surviving today and for some they still wanted their next fix, he could see those that were going through withdrawal like he had and he could feel their pain. Going cold turkey on the street was a bitch, there was no soft beds and nurses to tend to you or even give you a cigarette. Here you either survived and kicked the habit or you died as simple as that.

As they sat on the ledge in front of the parking by the V&A parking with the sea behind them, Badger was chewing on a left over burger some stranger had thrown his way. “You never did tell how you ended up here with us lowly people,” he looked his way curiously still chewing loudly. He looked wistfully out to the sea behind them and then to the people bustling in and out of the shopping centre, he did not know where to begin he was not really sure when his demise began, was it when he got the multi-million rand tender from the city or was it before then when he had to grease palms and kiss-ass to politicians and their wives. Or was it when he started the affair that spiralled into chaotic cocaine fuelled chaos? He was not entirely sure and right now he did not want to think about it, rather he wanted to focus all his energy on moving on from where he was, that was another thing about this city, looking at the bright sun and calm ocean behind him, the cool breeze and the mountain in the distance he felt a slight surge of hope, maybe he could still rise from this, maybe not to his former glory but at least to a point where he could buy his own meals and sleep in a bed, the only problem was he didn’t know who to go to, there was no way he could approach any of his former colleagues and acquitences, his story had spread far and wide and no matter how well he cleaned up nobody would touch him with a foot long barge pole, that Max John Ridges was tainted. In all his thinking and musing he had not noticed that Badger was gone, when he looked around he saw him talking to a bunch of guys at the corner of the street, from what he could see the conversation looked intense, he edged closer slowly, silently hoping it would not get confrontational because he was a smooth talker for sure but not much of a fighter and by the look of them these chaps looked like they were the knife wielding type. By the time he was close enough to catch snippets of the conversation they started edging away and shouting their goodbyes.

Badger cam over to join him and started telling him about a job they could possibly get at the airport if they would just clean up and get themselves a shoe shining kit. He laughed a little and sighed so this is what his life was reduced to, getting a shoe shining job was what he had to look forward to.  Badger was still talking about how he didnt know what the hell a shoe shining kit was, he on the other hand was thinking about who would do him a favour without wanting an arm and a kidney and as they were at an intersection and a City of Cape Town bus sped by he suddenly remembered who might still think of him fondly or at least without trying to kill him, but it was a long walk away. “Come on Badger I think I know who can help us out, but its a long way away,” he looked at Badger who looked like he wanted to complain and said, “on the way I will tell you that story you’ve been asking for.” This seemed to brighten him up and bit. Where would he begin though, so he started right at the beginning; he was originally from Port Elizabeth born and bred there, one of the reasons why he spoke fluent Xhosa, his parents were poor, not dirt poor but there was a lot they couldn’t afford. His dad was a fisherman by night and a salesman by day, his mom worked as a cashier in a supermarket, from what he gathered from the odd piece of gossip and overhearing adult conversation, his dad had been forbidden to marry a coloured girl and he had defied them and as a result found himself cut off from the family without a cent and a surname. Yes his grandfather was that cruel, not only did he disown him he made him change surnames, so he had used his mothers surname Ridges. Anyway his parents did their best to make ends meet and support him and his two brothers, after matric he joined his father on the docks at night and fished, during the day he would walk up and down the streets of P.E looking for a job. After about a year doing odd jobs an old school buddy came back for the holidays and told him about a job in Cape Town, his company was looking for sales people for insurance, they didn’t need any experience and they would be trained by the company. So after New Years he packed one duffel bag and boarded a bus to Cape Town, the job was real and all he had to do was sell insurance to companies, he would call and set up appointments and go meet with whoever it was who had picked the shortest straw. But before he could go out on his own he had to shadow a few senior colleagues and learn the ropes and boy did he learn, he learnt how to cut corners and not get caught he also learnt that being young, good looking and charming certainly helped your sales pitch especially when your clients were middle aged menopausal executives bored with their husbands. Within two years he had worked his way up to area manager and had an entire team of sales people reporting to him, he had bought a nice car and had a flat in Pinelands. But it wasn’t enough for him, being wined and dined by those rich women had made him develop a taste for the finer things and he had seen the kind of doors money and power could open up for you. By the time he was an executive at the company he had made good investments financially and otherwise, he wanted to strike out and open his own financial consultancy firm, the only problem was he didn’t have an MBA or the money. So he called a few favours from those women who did not want their secrets known and before long he had office space in Tygervalley with ten employees; his company did everything from tax and accounting to insurance and investments his, clientele was the big corporates and those small start ups, the money was flowing he brought new Mercedes and his first house. He was content or so he thought, then one weekend one of his clients invited him to a weekend away, one of their guys had an emergency and couldn’t come.

It turned out that the weekend was sponsored by some government official whom Gary did consulting work for. It was the craziest three days of his life, people were doing cocaine on half naked women, he was drinking alcohol he had never seen in any bar or TV advert before, there were women at their beck and call to do whatever it was you wanted of them. And not just ordinary women, beautiful exotic sultry women with bodies to make any man weep. And his wife was there among them, obviously he didn’t know her then, she kept glancing at him all evening and eventually as the party was dying down she came and sat on his lap and whispered in his ear, “Nandi is the name,” and she slid off slowly so that her dress rose up and exposed her buttocks. The following day they were flown off to Madagascar in a private jet for another party and there was Nandi again, by the third night he had gotten to know her a little better. At that point in the story Badger looked at him and laughed, after a year he and Nandi were married. He took her home to P.E to meet the family and they loved her, that was the thing about Nandi she was a chameleon, wherever he took her she fit right in but that also cost him. She was used to the finer things in life and wanted them but she had connections and knew people, with her in his ear he was suddenly “doing taxes” for drug lords and consulting for government departments. He worked hard to give her the life she wanted and she worked hard at making him feel good. But some of that feel good involved drugs, mostly cocaine and that did not come cheap nor did her bags and diamonds and endless need for new things. By now they were living in Constantia and were hosting parties almost every month, Nandi was burning through money faster than he could make it and his new habit was becoming an addiction. Then he met Claudette a simple young woman from Kuilsriver, she was an accounting intern at his firm and she was a breath of fresh air compared to his wife. He found himself in the accounting department more and more, he even brought her along to meetings on the pretext of giving her an opportunity to network and gain industry experience. One night after work he found her standing on the side of the street all panicked, apparently she had missed the last bus and he gladly drove her home. Another night they were both working late together and ordered pizza and one thing led to another and he suddenly found himself in a full blown affair. He started dreading the parties and events his wife dragged him to but he had to go in order to meet potential clients and get new business. He didnt know how his wife found out but she did and went ballistic, at the end of the fight there was broken glass everywhere and he had to go to the Emergency room as one of the vases had cut his shoulder. He decided to stay with his wife and work things out, Claudette was offered a permanent position at one of his friends company and it seemed like things were back to normal. But they werent, he started using new drugs now not just cocaine, there were hookers at these places and he paid good money for them. He started missing work and being less meticulous, he was burning through R50 000 a night, then the story broke. A government tender he had been awarded was suddenly suspended on suspicion of fraud and corruption, there was a picture of him giving a politician an envelope of cash on top of that a disgruntled drug dealer he didnt know released a picture of him doing a line at one of his joints. Nandi left him, the Scorpions seized assets and froze all his accounts, his businesses were liquidated and he was left with nothing. Pictures of him with prostitutes and him doing drugs were emerging everywhere and all his connections to the underworld were exposed. His mother had a heart attack and his father called and told him not to come home ever again. His friends suddenly didn’t know him and everyone else did not even want to be associated with him, he had been too busy getting high that he had never put a cash stash away, but apparently Nandi had all the years she was with him and had speedily moved with one of the politicians she had introduced him to, he had signed divorce papers on the boot of a car.

By now they had arrived at outskirts of Langa and a few of the local guys was giving them strange looks, he ignored them and walked on. Badger was glancing around nervously, “you sure we in the right place man?” he asked nervously. He nodded and carried on walking, “this is the only person who never gave up on me Badger and I’m hoping that she will be able to help me out one last time, come on.” He opened the gate and walked up to the door and knocked twice, an old lady with a cane and wool shawl opened the door and looked at them and said, “come on in Maximus and tell your friend to close the door.”