The Joy and Light Bus Company by Alexander McCall Smith

Author:Alexander McCall Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Liitle Brown, Book Group
Published: 2021-09-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Tea Is Required

While Mma Ramotswe and Mma Potokwani were visiting Mr Fidelis Mophephu, Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors was itself receiving a visit of some importance – from a valuer acting on behalf of the Commercial Division of the First Standard Bank, the bank with which Mr J. L. B. Matekoni had had an account ever since he had set up in business. It was also the bank that looked after the deposits, such as they were, of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, and its senior manager, Mr Tennyson Mogorosi, was on good terms with both Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi. He knew Phuti Radiphuti too, as Phuti had provided the bank with office furniture for its branches throughout the country and the two men had also served on a church poverty relief committee together. ‘Tennyson Mogorosi is a good man,’ Phuti had said when Mma Ramotswe had spoken to him on the telephone about Mr J. L. B. Matekoni’s doubtful bus proposition. ‘I am sure he will at least listen to me if I speak to him about your concerns, but you must remember that business is business and I am not sure if a bank manager can pay too much attention to what a client’s wife – or husband – might say about a proposed transaction.’ He paused. Even as he spoke, he was changing his mind. What Mma Ramotswe was asking for was impossible, and so he now continued in a less uncertain tone, ‘In fact, Mma, it is out of the question, I’m afraid. You cannot have this sort of interference, I think.’

Mma Ramotswe persisted. ‘Could I not warn him, Rra? Could I not just say to him that I may not be involved in the garage business, but I am the wife and if the husband loses all his money in a foolish investment, then it is the wife who will suffer as well?’

Phuti was hesitant. ‘I do not think that banks work that way, Mma. They cannot discuss their clients’ affairs with another party.’

‘But I am not another party, Rra,’ exclaimed Mma Ramotswe. ‘Since when is a wife “another party”?’

For a few moments, Phuti said nothing. Then, hesitantly, he said, ‘I understand why you are concerned, Mma Ramotswe. Business is a risky … well, a risky business, I suppose, if you know what I mean.’

Mma Ramotswe waited. Then Phuti continued, ‘A bus company might not be too bad a proposition, you know. You shouldn’t write it off just like that.’

Mma Ramotswe did not sigh, but she might have. She did not want to hear this and she wondered whether it was not simply a matter of men closing ranks. And there was something else to consider: Phuti was a mild-minded man, she had always thought that, but perhaps there was a side to him that she had not seen before – a risk-taking side.

The discussion had ended there, and there would be no attempt made to sway the bank’s decision. As a result,

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