[Jeffrey is with his friends at the local tuck-shop. It has become a habit for these friends to meet at the tuck-shop after the late-afternoon meal every day. The place has become a puff of inspiration following a long day at school and it was also a good hide-out for the gang smoking habits from parents.]

GODFREY: (Looks at Jeffrey with a concern) are you okay my friend? You look a bit distant.

JEFFREY: (His eyes are stressed) I’m fine, just worried about my academic record so far.

GODFREY: Don’t stress, our chances of making it to Grade 12 are promising. We forget chicken heads and study hard, victory will be ours.

ANDRIES: (Cuts in) Speaking of chicken heads, I’m high on good luck this year. Lizzy wants us to try again and she doesn’t mind that I’m with Mapelo, how is that? (Unleash a smile)

JEFFREY: So now you want to date an oldish soul in the magosha business? Why would you want to shag that wrinkly old magogo lookalike? You are such a mampara.

ANDRIES: Lizzy, like every girl, is just a whore of my lusting youth, no strings attached. (Smiles in victory) And you know Jeffrey; just because a girl wears a semi-nudity skirt doesn’t mean she’s a magosha?

JEFFREY: Not Lizzy. She’s in moral debts. If I and she were the last people on earth, I would become a monk and renounce the world. To be a sfebe is better than being a magosha, and Lizzy sleeps with men in exchange for money.

ANDRIES: (with no energy to dispute his friend) Thanks for your uncharitable comments, but your loss is my victory. But you’ll have to admit that the presence of beauty sits so naturally on her.

JEFFREY: Beauty? Lizzy is a chewed-up magosha with no figure than stick. She has an oversized head like President Msholozi with his double-decker head. (They cough out that careless laughter the gang is known for. Lethabo, a boy who attends at the same school as the unruly gang enters).

GODFREY: (Teasing) Hey person of Jesus.

LETHABO: My brother, have you accepted Jesus as your saviour and confessed all your sins? If not, I advise you to do so because we are nearing the last days of humanity; judgement day is not that far. Put your affairs in order with Jesus. And accept that He’s died for you on the cross and you believe that He’s the only begotten Son Of God.

GODFREY: (Mockingly) I will but first buy me a cigarette. Who knows what miracles we could see through your gesture? We might even quit sucking on the poison, nah meen?

LETHABO: No ways, if you want to suck on devils lollipop do it with your own money not at my expense. Brother, I will pray for your health (walks into the store).

JEFFREY: You let that kid talk to you like that?

GODFREY: He’s mzalwane and I was just teasing him. I know how he feels about habits that we harbour. After all he did not say anything offending. (Lethabo walks out of the shop).

JEFFREY: Screw that, they may be religiously sick but their sickness shouldn’t disturb our peace of mind. Hey mzalwane, mzalwane.

LETHABO: (Continues walking) That’s not my name. How would you feel if I started calling you a tuck-shop security guard?

JEFFREY: What? (Violently gets up from the rock he was sitting on) I’m going to cut-off his front-tail (Walks to Lethabo and stands towering over him) Wena, you think I’m your equal? (grabs him by the throat before throwing him to the ground. His friends interrupt as he was about to kick his ribs in final assault. They shove him away from Lethabo who’s covered in mushroom of dust) We can’t allow Christians who are exhausted by foreskin to address us like boys; we’ve survived shadows of the mountain. We are men not boys!

GODFREY; Ah mmata hold your cock, this brother was not talking to you. Why you want to assault him?

JEFFREY: Nah we must not allow stabane to address us like that, we are his seniors. And he should know that it is intolerant to use that tone with us. He must be taught a lesson. (Threateningly pointing Lethabo with his index finger) wena, you need traditional male circumcision to put you straight. You must be disciplined under shadows of the mountain where you’ll forget the black book and all you ever read in it.

LETHABO: (composed) God forgive you, Jeffrey Batho (limps away).

JEFFREY: Voetsek bloody moron. You should walk out of the closet and wear lingerie, stabane. Trade your jeans for your sister’s dresses, perhaps the weight between your legs won’t cramp your girlie style and everyone can finally know that you are a faggot (Lethabo disappears into the street intersecting with the tuck-shop).

GODFREY: (Confused) What’s the matter with you?

JEFFREY: (Angry) What’s the matter with me? You let that boy talk kak and you ask me what wrong?

ANDRIES: Take it easy, man. And what you did and said to that brother was not right, okay?

JEFFREY: Fuck it. I’m going home.

***

Let’s chat: Why do you think Jeffrey is so angry?