After a long lonely walk in the wilderness, he finally arrived in his village of Buyani. So much had changed over the years in this place. The world had unearthed the possibilities he never thought had existed. Everything had enormously changed in his hometown, including his own home. It was as if he had arrived into a new and unknown place to him.

The two-roomed house had been extended with three more rooms, making the house bigger and more beautiful among the village houses. Although he was jubilant to see his family for the first time in a decade, Thabo still knew that the past could not be as easily broken as glass. He knew how other people would still view him as a dangerous murderer and criminal. Even though he tried to prove his innocence, no one listened; in their eyes he would forever remain a rapist and murder.

When he knocked on the front door of the house the sun had already begun to subside behind the mountain, paving way for the night. A young petite woman carrying a child on her hip swung the door open. For languid seconds, the two stared at each other’s face. Thabo found the woman to be a complete stranger however the woman cordially welcomed him and gave him a chair and a glass of water. Suddenly he felt all alive again, this thirst quickly died down. Before he could narrate his story, Thabo asked the woman who she was and why she lived in his mother’s house. The woman slowly narrated that she had bought the house two years ago.

On enquiring about the whereabouts of his mother and sister, Thabo sadly learned that his mother had died five years ago from pneumonia, while his sister went to live in town to run away from abject poverty. What enraged him the most from this painful story was that his sister was working as a prostitute.

Thabo tried to fight back tears that suddenly welled in his eye lids. He bid farewell and thanked the woman as he prepared to walk to town.

There was darkness everywhere. Thabo walked in the dark, his legs felt extremely heavy, a flood of tears began to trickle down his cheeks as he introspected about his life. All he could reminisce was a life filled with painful childhood memories. He wondered why he had been born into this world full of thorns at all. He wondered why no one believed him. He wondered why he had to serve ten years in prison for a crime he had not committed. But his questions remained all unanswered.

***

Tell us: Do you think Thabo should try to prove his innocence?