Thandi and Tebogo were now engaged.

She was expecting a baby and the case about her husband’s murder was now old news to her. She figured that she was still young and beautiful, there was no way she would morn her loss for ever. She had to pick herself up, dust herself off and fall in love again. And the only man who was there to go on such as selfless and dangerous journey with was Tebogo.

Surely it was true what they said about falling in love, even though it came with warm feelings and bliss, it was rather a dangerous thing to do. In the process one could forget self and remember the other. One could even kill for this thing called love. One could even hate a thing to love another.

The men at the party’s military base had not heard from both Timothy and Simon in a very long time. They had already gathered that they were both running together since Simon was wanted for murder. They did not know of what they were doing until one morning when the newspaper boy delivered the newspaper with a head line that read White Man Killer, horror in the Free State.

“Sir, sir, take a look at this,” Tebogo said as he stormed into his superior’s office

“Come on young man, can’t it wait? I am with someone here,” he said.

“But sir, I think you will want to see this,” Tebogo said to them without the flinch of letting it die.

“Okay, hand it to me,” Jonathan said.

He did not show a sense of pity or sorrow as he read across the headline.

“Come on Tebogo, nobody has time for this, these men are killing each other there, it has nothing to do with us, unless they were killing our people,” Jonathan said to him. “I am busy here, so please show yourself to the door,” he continued and looked at the man who was sitting right behind his desk and gave him a nod of apology.

“But sir, I think I know who is behind those murders, and I do not think it is the white farmers,” Tebogo said before he turned the door knob to open.

The man who was sitting in the chair, turned around and gave him a look that said “continue young man, continue, you now have my full attention”.

“Sir I think that the killers are Timothy and Simon,” he said as a matter of fact.

“Hold on,” the man interrupted, “are these not the two young men who used to work with you?”

“Yes they are. And they are the very same young men who said they would commit such crimes before they ran off. And to make matters worse, they were both involved in the killing of Thandi’s husband. It is said that they stormed into her house with the intent to rape her. The man stood in the way and unfortunately heaven was his next journey,” Tebogo said.

“Come here,” the man now on his feet ordered him. “What’s your name young man?”

“I am Tebogo,” Tebogo said with a ‘v’ carved across his forehead.

“Well Tebogo, I am Bishop Masanka, here is my business card. I would like to have a talk with you about what you are saying, these men have to be found,” the bishop said in a confidential voice. Tebogo gave him a nod and Jonathan too. He turned around and headed towards the door, and before his full structure left the room he overhead Jonathan saying, “He is one of the best we have Bishop, and I think you would find him to be a very smart a motivated young lad.”

***

They had gone into a little trouble the night before.

During their serial killing routines they thought they had killed all the members of the household, but they had missed the son who was gone for a night drive with his sweetheart. When he got home he found them in the sitting room, right after killing the parents and he pulled out his pistol and shot Simon in the leg.

Breathing in panic Simon said, “My man what are we going to do? That young boy shot me and he saw our faces?”

They were trying to run away from the house, going through the bush that led to the hill area just after passing the swamp by the farm.

“Ish man, I am still trying to think. I can’t even take you to the clinic, they will arrest you from there my man,” he said with an out of breathe voice. As they were moving towards the hill they saw torches and heard dogs behind them at a distance.

“Ish man I have to leave you here,” Timothy said.

“What, are you mad? You know those whites are going to kill me man,” Simon said.

“No man, I can’t risk my life trying to save yours. Sorry man, one must live and the other must die,” he said as picked up his pace.

“Ah Tim, come on man, why are you doing this? Come help me out man,” Simon tried to plead as Timothy disappeared in the far distance.

Does God have ears? Does the devil have a heart?

He tried to pray but the words could not come to his mind, let more his lips. There in the distance he saw a face, he saw a person whom he knew. But for some weird reason he couldn’t see this face. He tilted his head to the left in the gesture to try and hear what this face was saying but still he could not hear.

***

Ring, ring

The phone sounded, the hall way filled by its sound.

“Hello, Bishop Masanka’s office, how can I help you?” the receptionist said.

“Hi, I’m Tebogo. I have been trying to get through your line, but been having some problems. Bishop Masanka is expecting a call from me, could you please put me through?” he said.

Well one could pick up two things from his statement; that he was telling a lie and wanted to be put through so badly. He did not call the office before, he was just saying this so that the receptionist could feel guilty and put him through to Bishop Masanka. And as if our ancestors saw caves as tablets to write their stories, Tebogo got through to Bishop Masanka.

The bishop answered in a very expecting a manner. From his tone one could tell that he was thinking that the call was from an investor. But when Tebogo announced himself, the bishop’s voice took a slight fall but still remained afloat.

“Yes, young man, I am rather busy at this moment,” he said.

“Yes sir, I know that you are busy. But I would like to tell you something that you never thought possible,”

“Yes, tell me,” the bishop said, the impatience in his voice louder than the heavy breathing.

Tebogo told him something and hung up before the Bishop could respond. The bishop called again but Tshepo did not answer for he knew that he had him by the balls.

*****

By the time the dogs got to him, he was already dead, lying in his own pool of blood. There was a scent to his death that was rather different; they could not figure it out. Perhaps it was the smell of other souls that he had taken, perhaps it was him in person doing thing that he never thought he could do. But he did have a distinct scent when they got to him.

The news spread on the farm like wild fire. The people were shocked to find out that these two men where the ones who were responsible for killing white farmers and putting them out of jobs. The people were rather angry, so like any ordinary group of people they went on a witch hunt or man hunt. They walked around the whole village trying to look for Timothy, but he was not there, he had gone.

In a taxi to Soweto he had his black hat on with black sunglasses. He kept to himself, mourning the loss of his friend and regretting why he had left him behind. He knew that soon he would be found and if he stayed on the farm it would be much worse, so he was on his way back home.

He got off at the stop sign and walked down the street. People kept on looking at him with puzzled looks. They already knew that he was suspected for killing someone, but none of them confronted him. He walked to his house and what he saw really took him off.

His house was burnt down. He stood there with shock written all over his face, he really could not believe what he saw. His neighbour walked out her house, he tried to wave at him but he simply gave him a dead and cold look.

The only thing that he could do there was await his fate. Unless you are from the township you will know that if a person is suspected for doing any kind of criminal act would be beaten up and killed. His neighbour gave him the look and he walked close to him. Without saying a word he took a brick from the ground and smashed his head.

The story was told by Bishop Toko to his congregation, on that Sunday morning.

***

Tell us what you think: Do you think that one should take revenge for things that happened in the past? Do you believe in reconciliation?