The following morning she woke feeling lighter. She walked onto the window, opened the curtain and the sun out there seemed brighter today.

She opened the window, and the fresh air through it felt good against her face. It was like she broke out of the prison sell she was kept in for years. Life was suddenly something different than what it was yesterday.

It had so much more to offer.

Her phone beeped, disturbing her from indulging on the offerings of nature.

She ran right to it hoping it was Tshepo.

I will be back later during the day. In my room under the mat next to the bed, there is some money for you to buy bread. Please take only a thirty rands. Ps your mother.

She found a lot of notes under the mat there. But she did as she was told, took R30 and went to wash her face. She changed into something fresh and went next door to see if Lerato was fine.

Lerato was sleeping when Thuli got there. She had a hangover, fortunately her mother wasn’t home yet.

“Mi, sela la. Here, drink this.” It was a strong, black coffee Thuli had made for her.

“Eish!” moaned Lerato from the headache. “Thank you chomi, you are such a star.”

“So, did you do the ‘do’?” Lerato asked sipping her sugarless coffee.

Thuli said not a single word, but her smile was glowing. Her yellow cheeks turned red. Her smile brightened up the whole room.

“Hey, you did. Didn’t you? Why didn’t I see this coming mara?” said Lerato. “How was it, was he gentle enough chomi?” she continued asking. “Are you going to do it again, maybe in a taxi this time. It’s nicer doing it in the car,” continued Lerato drawing in some saliva.

Thuli remained quiet, perhaps she was thinking about what Lerato was saying, about having it in the taxi. Maybe tonight, or tomorrow afternoon after school.

Now it was about to turn the tenth hour on the clock, and Tshepo hadn’t called to say anything or wrote anything to her. It started bothering Thuli. Maybe he didn’t like it, I bored him with my strict condoms rules, she thought. “Guys don’t like living under the girl’s rules,” she overheard one lady saying as she ran down stairs.

She and Lerato were going to the shop to buy food and airtime to top up some data bundles.

They had run out of airtime and data. She would have called him or sent a WhatsApp text should she had any of those. She wanted to know if he was fine. She hid her worries from Lerato all along. On their way back, there was SARAFINA.

He stopped next to them. It was in the afternoon now. The girls decided to go to the mall, and they spent a lot of time there.

“Lotjhani. Greetings,” said Tshepo.

He was wearing a black bucket hat with green weed flowers on it, and a matching t-shirt.

“Yebo. Hello.” The girls replied.

Lerato waved goodbye, silently walking away from them.

“Come, let us go somewhere nice. Somewhere quiet, where we can talk privately,” he said.

She got in the taxi and they drove to the zoo. She hasn’t been to the zoo very often, although it was just around the corner. He joked around a lot, making her laugh a lot too. He tried his best to make her day memorable. He was getting attached to her. And so was she. The fact of their age difference skipped their minds. It didn’t matter. Thuli felt very close to Tshepo, It felt good to have a male giving her such attention and protection.

“You are mine, Tshepo. Now and forever. I love you so much,” declared Thuli.

“Remember when I said that day I met you, my life turned a corner?” asked Tshepo lying on the laid back front seat of a taxi. “I meant every word.”

He was being honest now. Yes, Tshepo had lied to a lot of girls before. But it was before Thuli came into the picture.
Weeks went by. The love between the two love birds was burning hot. They had sex almost every now and then. They enjoyed each other.

He picked her from school daily and dropped her off every morning.

*****

One Monday morning, Thuli woke up feeling very sick. She was nauseous.

She spent a lot of her morning vomiting. Her mother didn’t come home last night. She hadn’t seen Lerato in weeks now. She spent too much time driving in Tshepo’s taxi lately. She even some times spent days in a hotel with him. Just like last week.

She tried calling her mother and it was answered by someone other than her.

“Who is this?” She asked in pain.

“This is detective Mabena. Do you know Brenda Masango?”

“Yes, she is my mother. What did she do, is she arrested?” panicked Thuli.

“No, she… She… Your mother was found strangled to death. We would like for you to come down to the Sunny Side police station as soon as possible.” said the detective on the other end of the phone.

“No, no. There must be a mistake her. She is alive. My mother is alive,” said Thuli weeping in disbelief.

“I am sorry ma’am.” He said sincerely.

She cried. She vomited and she felt weak. She tried reaching for the cell phone on the side board. She dialed Lerato’s number, but it took her straight to voice mail.

“Hey. You’ve found Lerato ne. But unfortunately I am not able to attend to you currently. Leave the message after the beep.”

“Lerato, I am in trouble. My… My mother… Was killed.” She said leaving the message.

She tried calling Thoko from the breath of strength she has drawn. The same detective answered her phone.

“No, no. no.” She hung up.

She called Tshepo, fortunately he was one person left to help her.

“Sthandwa sami. My love.” He answered, one hand on the ear and the other on the wheel, he was driving.

“She… she… They… They… I’m…” She couldn’t get words out.

“Baby… What… Who, where are you baby?” He said trying to get what she was talking about. He felt that she was in pain and he never wanted her to hurt.

The taxi was full. He lost concentration and he drove through a red light onto a dangerous goods truck and there was an explosion.

All she heard from the other end of the phone was people screaming.

“No. Bye my love!” He said screaming.

Thuli was there on the bed feeling sick, crying feeling like dying.

The End

***

Tell us: Have you ever experienced loosing loved ones at the same time? How did you cope with it?