Once there lived a brilliant, young boy called Richard. He had no friends, nor a pet which could reduce his loneliness. He stood by himself in every situation he experienced and of course his family.
There was no peer who could play or chill with him enough in the dusty John Malatjie streets of Diepsloot. But the only thing that would make him excited was picking up things of which he could re-use if they were re-usable.
One day as he was walking on the street, he saw a book lying by the apricot tree near a tavern that was regarded as the kasi tarven. No thought came by on taking a good look at it. Instead he thought of what he had been told by his mother Thembeni, a supportive domestic worker that always said, “You should never pick up anything that does not belong to you.”
Whenever he saw something by the streets, he thought of these words and would just pretend as if he saw nothing. But as for that certain day, he picked up the book and ran as fast as he could to show his sister what a beautiful book it was since she had a great interest in books.
When he was about a kilo away from his sister, he saw money by the strand he had leaned on about a week ago, when he came from church. This time he did not even think of the words that he was told by his mother and picked it up as fast as a rat taking cheese in the trap. He quickly ran as fast as he could to reach his destination. He was as happy as a thief stealing millions.
When he had arrived where his sister stayed, just by the side of the gate, next to the swimming pool, he saw a very attractive, leathered, and silver fountain pen that looked new and clean. It had been dropped a minute ago but as for it, he just thought once, twice and decided to pick up the pen.
By the time he knocked, his very fluffy, brown-eyed friend came by to say “hello” and took a great sniff at his trousers. It was a puppy. Richard never liked dogs, apart from his fear it was just that it was a dog itself.
He held it and gave it a kiss just by the end of its forehead and by that time he just realised his sister had just left an hour ago.
Although his energy had just drained from 110% to 0%, he thought for about a minute on what he had to do next. As he thought and thought, he decided to have patience and wait for another 5 minutes, another 15 minutes he had spent in the yard.
His sister arrived with her baby Rehman, his aunt Anelisa and his dad Marco. But with their facial expressions, they looked very tired and kind of like they were looking for something missing. And unfortunately due to his curiosity he asked why they had long faces.
His sister said, “Richard, when I was heading to the mall I had given Rehman my novel, but now it seems like he just dropped it somewhere around that noisy kasi tarven.”
He wondered whether the book he picked up was hers or what? And for a second, his mind came and realised that it was hers. He thought whether he could just burst the balloon and give her back her novel or he should listen to the other stories. They looked like they were on their way and he choose to listen to the other ones.
His aunt said, “Richard, when I was heading to the mall with your sister, I had lost money which I had planned to use for groceries. But now, I don’t have any idea where it is and not knowing where it is, really hurts me. So without it, it’s starvation for me.”
He wondered whether he could just let the cat out of the bag or just listen to the other story.
His father said, “Richard, when I was just by the swimming pool at your sister’s place, I decided to take out my new fountain pen which I had just bought yesterday to write a note which was supposed to tell you what you should do when I went to work. But now it seems like I have lost track of it.”
He wondered whether he could give them back their things or what.
He decided to give them all their belongings back and continued with his daily activities but by that time he did not have any. He thought and came up with the final answer which was “YES!” And soon he gave them and they were all in relief .
Later that day, by luck, his mother gave him a few Rands for his hard work
***
Tell u: Do you ever try to find the owners when you find something?
