He walked briskly to the back climbing through the back fence towards the mountain. He had a favourite spot up top that he used to run to when he was a boy when someone had annoyed him. He would watch everyone around the village as they went on about their business: men taking their livestock home while the women climbed up the hill with buckets full of water. Those who didn’t have coal stoves gathered wood or digopha (dried aloe) to make fire as they still relied on fire pits.

The villagers lived a simple life even when electricity was being installed. Already the poles were lined and Noko had almost fully built a big water tank for clean water. He had a bridge built to help farmers and the villagers move from one village to another easier after rainfall as the rivers would fill up. His work as a civil engineer and connections made the villagers proud even though a few village heads didn’t actually like his family.

There were attempts to burn his family’s crop, stealing some of the livestock and his mother falling mysteriously ill and Mabotse’s death. Although, Noko understood life had challenges and nothing happened was out of the ordinary.

The spot on the mountain was where he used to dream. He sat there for hours, chewing wild grass, if he hadn’t picked wild fruits such as mahlatswa, marula or foiye (prickly pear) – shaved off the thorns on the grass. He loved watching the sunset.

He saw Boledi walking towards him. Noko had been there for more than an hour without moving, musing over old memories and thinking deeply over his decision to be a victim in his family’s plans.

“Oh, I didn’t think anyone was here,” Boledi said startled as she looked up and found him, looking at her. “I come here so often that I have forgotten that this is your favourite spot,” she said softly. Indecisive, she looked up the mountain and down at the village, “I will leave you alone to think.”

“Wait?” Noko stopped her with a hurried voice, still feeling slightly annoyed by her and her new attitude towards life. “Why are you allowing this to take place? I mean, I didn’t understand why you married Nare in the first place.”

Boledi looked down, turning further away from him and her body got tense, “I don’t think you could ever understand that everyone in this village isn’t the same as you or your family,” she spoke softly. She turned to face him and the old fire ignited a little in her tired eyes. “We aren’t all well off like you or privileged enough to dream.”

Noko stood up and slowly took a step towards her. “No, some people might disagree with you,” he said, now standing almost a touching distance, hands tucked in his grey chinos.

“You and I used to be of the same mind, what happened to that girl?”

Boledi was surprised by the steeliness in his voice that she turned around and nearly tripped over a rock behind her, Noko reacted fast and reached out to steady her. And she grabbed on his arms to steady herself on her feet, looking up at him in a fright and he asked, “Are you okay?” She nodded.

The mountain was rocky, filled with all kinds of boulders and short trees without much grass to caution her fall, that she would have gotten seriously injured had he not caught her. Her heart drumming hard in her chest, Boledi felt the steadying of Noko’s arms around her. Holding her with care that she felt her eyes fill with tears at the misery her life had been, being married to a man she didn’t love wasn’t great. As much as she cared for Nare, he treated her like she was a nuisance and as someone who he thought was too opinionated and didn’t know how to behave like a proper wife.

Tell us: Could there be a thing between Boledi and Noko?