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Episode 30
So Thuli was doing std 8, now known as grade 10. In EC high schools started in std 8 (I think the still do except for the newer schools), FYI. Moving on… High school was good for Thuli, she hired a room in the Phepheni area which was a small village in which her high school was in. The room already had a bed and a wardrobe and she was to share with another girl who was in another class, also doing grade 10. On her first month Nomsa brought her groceries so she would not have to worry. However she was going to buy her own groceries the following month.
At doing std 8 she realised that all the repeaters in her class were grouping themselves. She and other new comers then were all by themselves. Thuli did not know anyone at that school. The person whom she had known and who had introduced the school to her had passed their matric. So she had to make new friends. Thuli had grown to be a fit girl, about size 32 and she looked older like she was 18. She was also a tall girl. So some of her classmates kept assuming she was older, more especially because she was brilliant in her subjects, so they thought it was because she was older. Thuli never argued with that.
She was a loud girl so in no time she had made a few friends in her class. There was even one of the repeaters named Ntombi who was 18 years. Ntombi seemed to like Thuli so much, they clicked, especially because it seemed like she(Ntombi) liked stories and she also enjoyed reading, just like Thuli. So whenerver Thuli went about telling stories, Ntombi would be there listening. Ntombi would even request stories from Thuli, even if meant for Thuli repeating a same story. Thuli enjoyed telling stories. Ntombi might have like reading but Thuli realised that reading did not necessarily make everybody smarter. Ntombi was good only in the languages, especially creative writing; she was pretty bad in the rest of the subjects, average in most.
Ntombi was also living in a room which she was renting out, she and Thuli rarely met over the weekends. Thuli did her washing in the river every Saturday and she assumed that Ntombi did hers on Sundays since she had never seen her at the river. One day Thuli asked Ntombi about her weekends and Ntombi said she went home over the weekends. “I go home too over the weekends, but only during month end. You go home every weekend?” Thuli asked surprised. Ntombi said yeap, it was like that.
One of the days after school the girls were walking together from school and a van came past them and stoped right in front of them. They went past it and the passengers’ seat window was opened. “Ntombi?” the driver called. The driver was an old man and Thuli thought it was Ntombi’s father. Ntombi went over to the driver’s side and spoke a bit with the driver. After a few moments the driver greeted Thuli over the window. Thuli responded by saying “molo tata (hello sir)” then the man continued talking to Ntombi for a few more minutes then Thuli saw him giving Ntombi some cash notes and Ntombi said bye. The man left. “Wow was that your father? He gave you so much money” Thuli said to Ntombi. Ntombi just giggled.
They went their separate ways and Thuli went to her room. On her way she was wondering what it would be like to have her own father, would her father be having a car like that and coming to school and giving her money like Ntombi’s. Some people were lucky. That reminded Thuli that she had come to mt Allyf so she could look for her own father. It was mid Feb then and not even once had she ever gone to Mt Allyf town. She had been really busy getting to know the place and adjusting to the new environment that looking for her father was at the back of her head. She had planned that when she went to that small town she was going to go ask in that furniture shop which her mom told her about and see if Thami was still there or if the people working there could direct her (Thuli) to anywhere.
Well she did not have enough money at the time and so she decided to wait for month end after she would come from her home. In that time she concentrated on mingling with high school people and adapting the high school life. Living on her own was indeed great. Yes there was the lady whom she was renting the room from (mastandi) who at all times was checking how the girls were behaving themselves. She did not allow boys to go in her yard, she locked the gate at 6pm and had a prayer meeting everyday at 8. She had 4 girls renting in her yard, Thuli and her room mate and 2 more girls who were in std 9 that were in the other room. But that lady was not her mother or mam Lindi, Thuli still felt pretty much liberated.
If the girls wanted to be naughty then they had to jump the fence and get the other girls to cover for them. Thuli however still had no boyfriend, never had a boyfriend even from back at home and she was still a virgin. She did wish to have a boyfriend but she always got such freight when she thought about what her gogo said when she was still a young girl. She really feared to become a boys’ dish cloth.
Episode 31
Thuli had always thought that Ntombi’s family was loaded because Ntombi always had money during lunch breaks, lucky for Thuli who was Ntombi’s friend she got to share that, especially when it would be close to month end and Thuli would be extremely broke. Ntombi did not mind sharing her lunch money.
It was close to February month end “We should go to town this month end Thuli” Ntombi said to Thuli one of those days. “mmm I don’t know, I already had plans to go with a friend of mine” Thuli responded.
Ntombi: Your friend?
Thuli: OH ya he is my frined, he also comes from Mzimkhulu from the same village as me.
Ntombi: mmm so he is your boyfriend, how come I have never seen you with him?
Thuli: No Ntombi, he is not my boyfriend. I really do not have a boyfriend, I told you. He does not go to this school, but he is here in mt Allyf”
So Ntombi let it go for that day. The month end came and on that weekend Thuli went home so she could get money. Sanele had brought her phone, she was really happy. Sanele also suggested that Thuli should open a bank account so Nomsa would put the money in her own (Thuli) account instead of Sanele’s. Thuli thought that was a great plan. It would also save her trips home every month. But she planned to do that over the Easter holidays as she would not have time and she did not really know what to do. So malume or Nomsa would go with her.
Thuli got back to school and Bonga reminded her over the phone that they needed to go buy groceries for the first time since Thuli got there. Indeed the 2 of them met in Kostad town nad went to Spargs. They just checked the prices then Bonga suggested that they go check out some clothes. Kokstad had some nice clothing shops. They went into Mr Price and Bonga bought a top for Thuli and another one for himself. He said it was just a way to show his friendship, plus Thuli’s birthday was in that month March.
When they went out of Mr Price they went out Thuli saw a car that she recognized. It was the same bakkie that Ntombi’s father was driving the other day. Approaching the car was Ntombi and her “father”. Thuli realized that the man was actually holding Ntombi on her waist and coaxing her. They were coming from spur that was there on that shopping center. Thuli thought it was strange for a father and daughter to hold each other like that. But it was none of her business “what are you looking at?” Bonga asked as he was pulling Thuli who was almost hit by a car on that paring lot.
“Hayi it’s nothing” Thuli said. Ntombi and her “dad” did not seem like they had noticed Thuli and her friend. Thuli kept it like that. They went to Spargs Cash and Carry and bough their groceries and then went to the taxis. They were using different taxis. Thuli on the way thought about Bonga and how he just randomly bought her a top as an early birthday present. Thuli had never seen Bonga as a boyfriend kind of guy, ever since she knew him when they were kids he was always just a friend and she always saw him like that more especially because he was a year younger. But after that day she had crazy thoughts like what if Bonga could be her boyfriend. Bonga was matured and clever, even thoug he was younger.
Bonga did not seem like he would play with her. Oh by the way Thuli now understood what gogo had meant when she said “boys turn you to their dish cloth”. She had seen girls getting pregnant and being insulted and called name She knew girls that went around sleeping with boys, even though they were young. There were even rumours of some girls who did abortions and nasty things were said about them. It was really terrible, she really did not want to be any of that. Even though she was afraid of boys she thought to herself it could not only be the boy’s fault for a girl to be a dish cloth. You could not just go around dating every guy and sleeping with them. Now that was what made Thuli even more scared of boys. What if after you have sex with a guy then you start wanting everyone. She did not know about that but she was willing to investigate.
It was Monday again and Thuli saw her friend. As usual she had lots of money and she told Thuli that over the weekend she was in Kokstad Shayamoya, there was a party there and she told Thuli all about it. Thuli wondered at what point did she(Ntombi) go to Spur with her dad. But she did not dare to ask, she (Thuli) was just putting the pieces of the puzzles together. But she did not want to admit that Ntombi was dating an old man. She just could not digest that. So she(Thuli ) chose to keep what she knew and her assumptions to herself.
“It is your birthday next week neh? Mmm my friend, we should defiunately do something” Ntombi said to Thuli
Episode 32
“Wow I have never done anything for my birthday, that would be cool. But what can we do?” Thuli asked Ntombi. “I’ll tell you, you deserve to be spoilt on your birthday child, leave everything to me” Ntombi said. “I’ll tell you everything next week, but I am sure we will have so much fun” The girls continued with their conversation with excitement, Thuli was really excited to be doing something on her birthday, gogo never really celebrated birthdays when she was still alive. Sanele would just buy a cake and they would eat it over the weekend. That was all she ever did. So anything that exceeded that would be new to her and she was looking forward to it.
On the other hand Bonga was calling her on daily basis. Well Thuli assumed that was because she recently got a phone, before then she would be the one calling him from the public phones and Bonga would sometimes get hold of Thuli on the other girl’s phone that lived in that yard. It was always exciting to speak to Bonga. They always had interesting stuff to talk about and he always made her laugh. She started noticing that she sort of had a crush on Bonga but she tried very hard to dismiss it. Bonga was like a brother to her and he was younger than her. She would not have him as her boyfriend. But a crush is a crush and that is just what it is, you can not just “dismiss it”
So anyway the days went by and Thuli did have enough money for herself to go to mt Allyf and start the search for her father. But as time went on and the idea grew bigger in her head - was the more she got cold feet. She was afraid. She did not know what she was scared of, but for some reason she kept postponing going to my Allyf to look for Thami.
She did talk about that with Bonga one day, bare in mind that ever since they talked about it a some years back and Bonga advised her against it, Thuli never brought it up again. She swallowed a spit and asked for an advice from Bonga “You should go for it.” He said to Thuli nd Thuli got a shock. As they spoke he explained that as he got older not knowing his father was starting to get to him. He told Thuli that he was not feeling like he belonged as well. He even said he wished his mother’s husband had not been bad to him, he(Bonga) would have gladly taken his (step father) surname.
Thuli understood exactly what he was saying because she was feeling the same way too. She also started to long for her father when she felt like she did not belong. So after the conversation with Bonga Thuli was confused. Reason she called Bonga was because she thought Bonga was against this whole father thing and she just wanted Bonga to make her forget about her father, but to her surprise Bonga had changed. Thuli not sure anymore. But the hole in her life was still there and she knew that she needed that closure. She was going to go to go seek but she needed sometime to make up her mind.
Anyway the following week which was her birthday week Ntombi announced to her that she (Ntombi) has organised that they go out and have some fun for the weekend. Saturday they were going to wake up early and they were gona get picked up and off to Margate. The fun fare at Margate was going to be open that weekend so they were gonna ride those the marry goes round and so on, go to the beach to swim, etc. They were gonna have so much fun. Thuli was told that she need not worry about the costs, everything was taken care of. “By who though?” She asked the excited Ntombi. “Don’t ask too many questions child, just trust me”
Thuli was not sure about this whole not knowing who they were going with, she needed to call malume and Nomsa and tell them what she was going to be up to. She had to tell them who would be paying for all those things. She did assume that Ntombi might bring along her “father” whom at that point she (Thuli) that there was a great possibility that he was her (Ntombi)’ s boyfriend or fatherfriend, lol. So Thuli pushed Ntombi to tell her who was going to take them.
“That guy we saw the other day in a bakie, his name is Bro Vusi” Ntombi said looking rather shy, Thuli could tell that Ntombi was not entirely comfortable talking about this bro Vusi. “he is a good friend of mine and helps me a lot financially, that is why I always have nice lunch. Enough with the questions please” Ntombbi said jokingly.
Thuli decided to let it go as well, it was getting uncomfortable for her too. She wondered how they were going to go with this guy if the situation is so tense while he was not even there.
Episode 33
The day of going to Margate arrived. Ntombi went to Thuli’s room to help her choose something to wear then when they were ready they waited for bra Vusi. He was not using the baakie on this day but was driving a private car. With him on the front seat was another guy whom Thuli recognised as a teache from a nearby Junior Secondary School. She had seen him (the teacher) one time when he had to address something to the highschool children of Senyukele SSS. He was Mr Vaphi. He was also an older guy, maybe in his mi 30’s. Bro Vusi looked older than Sir Vaphi, about 40 or so.
So the girls got to the back of the car and off they went to Margate. They stopped along the way to get some snacks and some food, Thuli thought that was some life they were eating so much and were not required to pay anything. They were not as tense because the guys seemed friendly and they were playing music that Thuli and Ntombi could relate to and the girls were singing along and dancing as they were on the back seat. (One of you asked how old is Ntombi, she is 18 and she is repeating std 8… moving on…)
They got to the beach at before 13:00 and they both decided that they were not going to swim the weather was a bit cold, so they went to play the games and had so much fun while the 2 men with them were at a nearby restaurant. At around past 2 to 3pm they were hungry and they went to join the 2 guys. The food was good and Thuli felt so lucky to have Ntombi as a friend. She naively let herself believe that bro Vusi was indeed just a friend to Ntombi. She did not want to think otherwise, she just wanted to enjoy her birthday and right there was when she was really having so much fun.
When they were eating they were sitting at a table that had four chairs, two on each side. They had found the 2 men sitting on either side of the table so the girls had to sit opposite each other as well. Each one of them sitting next to a guy. Naturally Ntombi was sitting next to Vusi and so Thuli was next to mr Vaphi. The guys were doing small talk to the girls, with mr Vaphi making small jokes about school. It was all funny.
After they were done eating bro Vusi suggested they all go and chill somewhere where there was green grass. They did and Mr Vaphi once again got himself closer to Thuli and he started telling her how beautiful she was. Thuli just blushed and like she always did in an awkward situations she played with her fingers. She knew she was not bad looking but it was rare for some strange old guy to tell her that. She was not sure what to think. She was 16 years old and she knew the things that happen. She knew that there was a great possibility that this Mr Vaphi guy was meant to be her “fatherfriend” just like Ntombi had bro Vusi.
The whole time they were there she was thinking about that possibility even though it was not bothering her. She was just hoping that it never got to that. But hearing Mr Vaphi saying she (Thuli) was beautiful and he said it randomly then all her hopes seemed to fade. She was flattered by the comment though, it was nice to be complimented. After mr Vaphi noticed that Thuli seemed shy he said “I mean it, you really are beautiful. You have a face of an angel”. That comment sent a smile to Thuli’s face and Vaphi was impressed.
After that they all engaged in small talk with Mr Vaphi constantly saying good things about Thuli and he also included the things he did with his money. They were talking about how Mr vaphi’s car was on service and they were talking about his (Vaphi) shop too. Thuli was listening wit interest and from the stuff they were saying she figured out that mr Vaphi was as much loaded as bro Vusi. Not that it flattered her. She had no intentions of dating the guy…
Episode 34
Finally it was time to go. Thuli admitted within herself that indeed she had a great time for her birthday. She thanked bro Vusi so much for everything. Bro Vusi told her that she should thank Vaphi even more because he(Vaphi) was the one who payed for most of the things. Thuli turned to thank him(Vaphi) and he just smiled and said “anything for a smart girl like you”. Thuli smiled as well, then they went to the car.
When they got back to the car bro Vusi requested that Ntombi sat next to him in the front seat so Thuli would sit at the back with mr Vaphi. Thuli was not really comfortable with that and as Ntombi and Vaphi got in their respective seats Thuli was just standing by the door shyly. “Come on in, I won’t bite” Vaphi said jokingly. Thuli got in and sat by the door so there was a huge space between her and Vaphi.
Up to this point Thuli had been calling mr Vaphi as “mr Vaphi”. His name was actually Mtheza (Mthetheleli) as bro Vusi was calling him. She did not hear what Ntombi called him (Vaphi). So to Thuli mr Vaphi was still a teacher and a senior to her even though he was teaching at a Junior Secondary. As a matter of fact she made herself believe that he(Mtheza/Vaphi) did all that he did that day because he was just a nice teacher. She did not care how gullible that thought seemed, at least she had some thing to hide with should things get out of hand.
So as she was sitting by the door in a car Vaphi started talking to her, she became more uncomfortable and for some reason she felt vulnerable since she was sitting alone with the guy. “Why are you so far? If that door were to open by mistake you would surely pop out” Vaphi said and he did not have a “come closer” tone, he talked jokingly and was not really expecting a response. Thuli was surprised with this, maybe Vaphi then was not into a relationship with her, that thought set her mind at ease just for a little bit.
Bro Vusi started a general talk and Mtheza joined in and Ntombi too. Thuli could not help her-talkative-self, she joined in. In no time she was free again and Vaphi was not doing/saying anything that made her uncomfortable, as a matter of fast he did not say anything directly to her at all, not even those compliments he was paying while they were still at the beach. Thuli once again was amazed and impressed; this guy was not bad at all. According to Thuli he was nothing like bro Vusi. That was why she had no problem with giving him her cell phone number when he asked for it; besides she did not want to seem funny after everything he did.
They got home eventually with their plastic bags full of nice nices, shwams shwams, sweet sweets, etc… It was indeed a great way to celebrate a birthday. Thuli admitted to Ntombi as they were at Ntombi’s room. Thuli had never been there before. Ntombi was not sharing her room. The room was well decorated and the wardrobe which they found open was full of clothes, Thuli could tell that the clothes were really beautiful even though she was looking from a distance.
Also the yard Ntombi was renting at had no mastandi (landlord) that lived there, everybody who lived there was renting. They were all students. There was a main house which was rented by some boys from the same high school as them, and then Ntombi and other two girls were renting the 2 outside rooms, with Ntombi not sharing. None of those people were first year’s and only Ntombi was in std 8, the rest of them were ion std 9 and matric. Thuli was impressed. Ntombi explained to her that not anyone got to live there etc etc. Thuli envied Ntombi, she (Ntombi) was having a good life.
Anyway the girls talked about the birthday fun and Ntombi explained to Thuli that she(Ntombi) did those kind of things every now and then. She (Ntombi) said if Thuli was game they could enjoy that kind of life together. Thuli did not think much about that, she was just excited and happy, she said “of cause my friend”… She then went home.
When she got home she got a call from Bonga who asked about the birthday fun, (Thuli had told him before she left that she was going to have fun. However she did not give him all the details.). Thuli told him that it was a blast and they had so much fun. Bonga did not comment much about it “Are you still on about your father?” he asked changing the subject. Thuli remembered that she had not thought about her father for sometime since that time she had decided that she needed more time to think about it.
When Bonga brought it up everything came back to her. “Yes I am still on. I think I am going to go next weekend to Mt Allyf.” Thuli said without thinking twice. “Oh that’s cool, you should come pass here if you got enough time” Bonga said. He was living somewhere between Mt Allyf town and Phakade (Phakade is a branch that went to where Thuli was living from Mt Allyf town) those who know the area will get the idea. Thuli said she would think about that, “seeing Bonga would be great, she thought.”