We are featuring a new short story, “The Cape of Good Hope”, by Tendai Machingaidze, who was born in 1982 in Harare, Zimbabwe. She holds degrees from Syracuse University and Southwestern Seminary. Her short stories have been published by Weaver Press, Africa Book Club, The Kalahari Review, Lawino, Munyori Literary Journal, African Roar, Open Road Review, and Brittle Paper. Tendai’s debut novel, Acacia, was published by African Perspectives Publishing in April 2014.

It is always the same omen. Angry waves rock the boat. I am trapped in a sadistic cradle. Back and forth. Up and down. Too horrified to feel nauseated. I cower in a corner and cover my ears from the hurricane winds. They howl and whimper and whisper pirate words into the gloomy dark. I am enveloped in a deafening nightmare. I scream. A blood-curdling sound that no one can hear. I am a phantom shrouded in dark clouds and debilitating visions. I wanted him to die. I willed him to. Now I am doomed to sail tumultuous oceans forever. I am trapped on a ghost ship. The Flying Dutchman. A superstition. A portent of calamity. Never managing to round the headland. My name is Madeline but I am not real. I am an apparition with no form and no future. I will never escape from this hell I have built.   Read the full story here.