It was morning and people were already going up and down. At the bus stop, school learners were waiting for the 6 o’clock bus to arrive. When Darkie approached, all of them kept quiet, their conversations stopped immediately. Oh!
Darkie, son of God, what have you done to Freeland, this our village?

The bus arrived and all the school learners got in, Darkie too. There was a moment of silence, but it was more uncomfortable for Darkie.

“Who’s that handsome guy at the back?” The bus driver asked.

All the passengers laughed at him, some laughed like goats just to offend him. Darkie means “black” and he was black in skin colour. Not any black but a unique black colour, he was slender, tall and had red eyes.

They arrived at school and assembly started. Their principal Mr Jazzman, opened with a morning speech. The principal then laughed, “Darkie will you pray for us? You look smart and handsome.” All of assembly laughed at him, even the teachers laughed until tears drop. What a shame, Darkie knew nothing about praying.

That day, some of his classmates offended him again and Darkie slapped one of them. Therefore, Mr Jazzman wrote a letter to Darkie’s father just to have a conversation.

“I’m here because of this stupid ugly boy, my time is wasted for nothing. I’ve got a lot of work to do,” said
Darkie’s father, Mr January. Darkie got offended again. His father left the office and went home.

On Wednesday, Darkie’s Grade 11 class was writing an English test. Darkie got 97%. His English teacher, Miss Cupcake was unhappy. She was jealous and claimed that Darkie was cheating. He was forced to rewrite the test and what a blessing, he got 100%. Miss Cupcake was not happy again so she called the Circuit Manager to suspend him.

Because the teacher was very jealous about his intelligence, the Circuit Manager asked Darkie to rewrite the test for the third time as they stood in front of him. But still, he got 100% again! The Circuit Manager was very happy and he gave him R150 worth of stationery and a school T-shirt written Good Plan High School for passing the test. No learners could afford it and he was the only one who had it. Gloria was very disappointed because she was always the top learner in the class but she couldn’t be jealous of him.

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Tell us: Can you relate somehow with Darkie’s situation, at home or in your neighbourhood?