Sunday night, at exactly 19:59, two gentlemen arrived in his room. They were frustrated because they were looking for him all over the place and wasted their weekend.

“Ewe, nguye lo simtholile,” this is him, we got him at last. Early Monday they headed to the train station to travel to the village. They had him surrounded, he never liked the idea of leaving Joburg. He thought he was going to get things on track one day, soon. He tried everything to convince the duo to let go of him but they were on the mission from his great mother, Nonxina. He was also afraid to meet her since he did nothing better in Joburg.
He was eased by their statements when they said laughing, “Tell him I’m helping him.” Only after that he began to eat.

The journey was long. It took almost two unstoppable days in a train that left them at the town next to a village. They took the last trip by taxi and that got them home. Noxina was outside waiting for them, she had waited for them since yesterday. She didn’t wait in vain because they arrived with her one and only son.

“Thank you,” she said to her god called Qamata.

It was another morning of hard labour at the village. Nonxina woke up very early and woke everyone else and it was just another working day. Although her son was pleased, he had some worries for the rest of that day…too much worries!

He looked at his watch that reminded him of room. It was time to thank God for the working day. He saw they were in good terms with his mother since they were making enough money at home, especially during this season.

He wasn’t in good terms with his friends back in the big city. He had mistreated his friends and left without saying a word to them. So he went by the quite footpath to the top of the hill to just view the village after so long he had left it. He smiled as he shook his head that was balanced on the hand that was holding his chin. After a while, he was calmed by the beauty of the village and his mind volunteered to return to the issues he left back in Joburg.

Many thoughts visited him.

Jackals were living in the village until the end of their days. Jackals of the village never went to the more jackal-concentrated areas for their survival. Worse part, there were jackals in the desert that never left the desert and learned to master survival on it! It was not only jackals, there were even snakes. Jackals of the desert or graveyard snakes were worse.

If he forced being called a survivor, then what about his survival ethics he had lost?

But perhaps men were just weak. Since the butterfly and some birds that won’t make it naturally under certain weather conditions, they live because they have no brains. But the environment chose man before other creation to survive under any condition. All of that came from his hairy moustache and he asked himself why people all over the world left their environments just for survival…

He would never leave the village again under any circumstance of survival, he concluded as he slowly stepped down the top of the hill. If it can’t make you better then it’s not for you, but for someone else…

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Tell us what you think: What are your thoughts about the last sentence: “If it can’t make you better then it’s not for you, but for someone else.”