I have a brother whose name is Zaahir. He is also 17 and doing the same grade as I am. He attends school at Cedar House High School. Zaahir is much more ‘’Muslim’’ than I am. He performs Salaah every day and goes to Masjid every Friday. He never forgets to read his Qur’an. Zaahir is very smart and sometimes he has a temper.

I am Muslim also but I am more like my dad, Clint. I don’t read my Qur’an often and I almost never do Salaah. I feel so ashamed of myself for not committing to my religion. I don’t fast either. I currently live with my mom and brother. My older sister, Rushdiya, is at University and she lives there so we almost never see her. I have a really wonderful family but we always argue over things that mostly I cause.

One morning, while I was getting ready for school, Zaahir called me from his room. He looked very sick and sad. I asked him what was wrong and he told me: “Bishni, do me a huge favour… kanallah. I’ve made a huge mistake and I need you to help get me out of it. Sis, you are my only hope but kanallah don’t tell mom! I killed someone last night in order to be accepted into a gang… I know it was wrong! I know! But kanallah, Bish, help me! Astaghfirullah.”

We live in Cape-Town where all kinds of bad things happen. But I didn’t think this kind of thing would happen to my brother. I didn’t want to upset him any more than he already was, but somehow I had to find a way to tell him that the person he killed was a guy at my school who was also Muslim, and in fact, he was part of our family. He was our nephew!

I knew that it’d be hard for Zaahir to go to the funeral while he knows that he was the one who murdered the person, and what really broke him is the fact that the person whom he killed was his nephew. So, I decided to help him.

Zaahir then told me I must go to one of the gang members and tell them that he’s going away for a while and he had done what was asked from him. The body was already discovered by police detectives and was taken to the morgue for forensic analysis. I was really horrified. Worst of all, was when I had to make the decision to make an excuse to get out of school so that I can go and meet the gang member on time, and I still had a very important language test that day.

I arrived at school that morning and went straight to my friend, Sydney. I told her that she should come with me to go and meet the gang member, but, just like me, she was very afraid as well. After a while, she finally decided that she’ll come with me.

So, third period in Maths class, I asked the teacher for permission to leave class because my mom is at hospital and we have to be there because the doctor told us that they were going to switch the life support machines off today at 10 o’clock.

The teacher easily fell for it. Sydney and I were then on our way to meet the gang member. When he saw us approach him, he took out his gun and waved it at us. To me it seemed as if he was showing it off because it was a rarely found chrome spinning barrel. We were both really scared, especially Sydney. But I had to do this for my brother.

I went up to the gang member and just as I wanted to start talking, he aggressively said:

“Hey! jy, wat soek julla hieso? Wats julle name?”

I became terrified because I can’t talk Afrikaans at all!

“Ons was gister hier toe. Ek is Syd en sy is Bish,” Sydney said.

I was surprised because I didn’t know that Sydney could speak Afrikaans.

“Oh okay dan, wiet julle gesend?” he said.

“Zaahir sent us… or actually, he sent me. I just asked Syd to come with me because I didn’t want to walk alone,” I said and suddenly he looked really mad.

“Wag hiesa neh, eks nou hie… julle loopie,” I had no idea what he was saying but he just left and came back with another guy, probably the boss, I assumed.

“Hoe se julle, wie’t julle gesend?” said the boss.

I then started to shiver, thinking why I had come here. Why have I got myself into such a situation.

“Zaahir… My brother Zaahir sent us,” I said. He then said I must explain to him why he sent me and I told him everything, just like my brother told to me. The boss then said we must leave and never come there again. He sent one of his gang members to walk with us. Sydney walked home alone and the gang member walked with me.

I thought I’d start talking to him even though I wouldn’t understand him, but just to break the awkwardness.

“So what’s your name?” I asked. He looked at me, as if I’m from another earth.

“I’m Dario, and I speak English, that’s just an act… but my home language is Afrikaans sweety,”

‘Sweety’? Why did he call me that?

“That’s such a nice name. Mine’s Bishni.” We walked on again, as if we didn’t talk ever before.

“Bish… you’re beautiful. Look after yourself nuh,” he said when we got to my street. I was blushing but I hid it.

“Thank you Dario,” I said and he left.

Zaahir wasn’t there when I got home but my mom was and she was furious with me.

“Bishni Savahl! Is this the time to come home child!”

“Maaf mum… kanallah don’t be angry at me,” my mom looked at me.

“Who was that guy you were talking to Bishni?” How could my mom have seen that? Probably the aunt next door had told her again over Whatsapp.

“He’s just a friend mum… from school,” my mom didn’t believe me, she just finished with supper.

I went to my bedroom and I don’t know why but I thought about Dario. He looked so cute and hot. He was wearing a white vest and a tracksuit pants, his muscles were huge! He didn’t look like a gang member to me. He looked like a normal guy. I wondered how old he was…

I went to shower and when I got out the shower, Zaahir was sitting on my bed. He asked me if I told the guys about the body and what he said. I said yes I did, but I didn’t tell him I had a talk with Dario. That’ll freak him out! He thanked me and went back to his room.

I got in bed and started to think about Dario again. Does he have Whatsapp? I wondered. Does he even have a phone? I started laughing. I mean but really, do gang members carry phones with them? I thought to myself that I’ll go to him again tomorrow without telling anyone. I’ll just give another excuse by the teacher and go to Dario.

***

Tell us what you think: Should Bishni go visit Dario? Why? Why not?