The Jaws of A Crocodile

Book excerpt: It is about an orphan girl called Tambudzai. Tambudzai stays with her grandmother. The two live in abject poverty manifested by a monotonous diet of sadza (thick maize meal porridge) served with wild vegetables or mufushwa (dried cowpeas leaves) as relish everyday. To break the monotony Tambudzai goes out fishing in a crocodile-infested mighty Save River. She catches a lot of fish. She is attacked by a crocodile. The crocodile drags her across a pool in the river and into a tunnel that leads to its nest. The crocodile dumps into its nest what it thought was a corpse to feed its young ones. The young crocodiles hungrily attack Tambudzai trying to tear off some flesh from her body. Tambudzai recovers consciousness and kills all the young crocodiles. She burrows her way out of the crocodile nest in a bid to escape. On coming to check on its young ones, the mother crocodile finds them all dead. It follows Tambudzai's foot prints and crawls out of the nest through the same hole Tambudzai had made and used. Once outside it sees Tambudzai and it goes after her to avenge for the death of its young ones. Tambudzai tries to quicken her step but she cannot run fast because her leg was broken during the attack. Tambudzai is saved by some dogs that were chasing a duiker. The duiker passed between the crocodile and Tambudzai. The dogs saw the crocodile and attacked it. This gave Tambudzai a chance to escape from the jaws of the crocodile.