After the afternoon class, I went straight home, and I didn’t even go to the library as usual. When I arrived home, I saw a car parked outside our home. I went inside, and there were many people sitting inside. My brother, was one of them, and Papa Nene brushing his back.

As soon as Tshepo lifted his head up, sadness was written all over his face. His eyes we red and watery. As I was looking at him, he stood up and came straight towards me with both his arms wide open to hug me.

“Bro what’s going on, where is Koko?” I asked my brother.

“Koko is no more Kagiso, she passed away two hours ago,” Tshepo responded. “Please be strong for me, little brother. We will pass this phase, the same way we managed to pass a lot of bad and terrible phases in the past, this will pass too.”

After hearing the news, I couldn’t say anything and tears were the only words that came out of me, showing just how hurt and broken I was. Losing the one person who never gave up on you; the one person who sacrificed happiness just to be with you and take good care of you; the one person who showed me that I was loved and taken care of; is never easy.

The news didn’t sit well with me, and I didn’t know how to mourn for my grandmother. It all made no sense to me, so I had to go somewhere in order to clear my mind. Losing a grandmother is like losing a part of your soul. I was nauseous each day, which caused me to not attend school the whole week.

I couldn’t handle myself, and all I did was cry each and every time people came in to say their last words about our Granny. Some people came in to say their condolences to us as a family, but none of our relatives were present. We only had our neighbours and people from Koko’s church.

It is true when people say, “The real family you have is the one that lives close to you,” and also, “we are not strangers, we are friends that have never met.”

The date was set for the day our lovely grandmother will be laid to rest, and it was the following Saturday. The Friday afternoon before Koko’s funeral, while I was busy polishing my brother’s shoes, Aphelele came in and sat next to me.

“Ola boy,” Aphelele said.

“Yha,” I said in response.

“Boy, I am sorry for what happened, this will pass too my friend.”

“Yha, ntwana, this will pass too.”

“When are you going back to school bro?”

“This coming Monday.”

“And Magriza, when will she be laid to rest?”

“Tomorrow morning.”

“Askies ntwana, but you need to clear your mind ntwana. Let’s go to my stepsister’s birthday bash, we’ll be back before midnight.”

“No man, I can’t go. There’s a funeral coming up, and I can’t be going to parties. Besides that, my brother would never let me to go.”

“No man, he won’t find out. I have already told Palesa, your crush, that you’re coming ntwana.”

“Palesa? She’s coming to the party?”

“Yeah ntwana. I told you, it’s going to be lit. You need to clear your mind from all this stress of losing Magogo.”

Palesa Gumede was my crush since we were young, and she still is, but she moved to Durban to further her studies. She is two years older than me, but I have always loved her.

“Since when did you start speaking to Palesa?” I asked Aphelele after a while.

“Hehe awazi ntwana? Palesa is a good friend of mine,” Aphelele responded.

“Oh okay.”

“So, are we going?”

“No man, I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Hayi maan, stop feeling bad. Let’s go ntwana, you’ll be back before midnight, and besides, we have my father’s car.”

“I’ll ask my brother and see if he allows me to, but if he doesn’t, then I won’t come. Are you sure Palesa will be there?”

“Yes.”

“I just want to see her, it’s been years man.”

“Then let’s go, man. Look, I’ll come back and check up on you by five pm. You need to be ready if you want to meet Ms Gumede, meat to meat, hehe.”

“Hayi! sies man.”

“Sho ntwana.”

“Sho,”

Tell us: If you were Kagiso would you go to the party? Why or why not?