This narrative essay piece is part of the FunDza Fellowship Project, showcasing the incredible talent of our 2024 Fellows. These stories were crafted by emerging young writers as part of their journey to hone their skills in storytelling. Each piece reflects their unique voice and creativity. We’re excited to share their remarkable narratives with you!

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Recently, I read a book entitled Trinity on Track. It is written by the famous female writer Fiona Snyckers, who has been long-listed four times for the Sunday Times Fiction Prize. She really goes big on mysteries. This book was published in 2019. I think this book would be perfect for anyone who loves relationships, drama, mystery, thrills, and happy endings.

This book is a fictional story that merges the past with the future. The lead character is a teenager, Trinity Luhabe, who lives in Johannesburg. She boards at the House of Sisulu boarding school, where all her thrilling adventures with her friends begin.

The unimaginable happens. Trinity finds out that the quirky boy she met and bonded with in one of the abandoned rooms, Jim Grey, turns out to be a ghost who died mysteriously on the school’s premises a long time ago.

With the help of an old diary stored behind a glass case at school, Trinity tracks down the death of “her ghost,” Jim Grey, after discovering that the diary was written in the same years Jim Grey lived as a student at the House of Sisulu. Shockingly, his name is mentioned in the diary.

This diary belonged to a pregnant teenager, Amelia, who had quite a disturbing life. Amelia got pregnant and was forced out of school. Her boyfriend, who didn’t want the baby, abandoned her—the boyfriend being “Jim Grey,” the ghost. She was forced to move away from her friends and all that she knew and loved because she was regarded as a shame. She was also coerced into giving up her baby under threats that she wouldn’t receive help raising the child.

It all relates to the past, as it was revealed that Jim Grey’s death was accidental—no one killed him, contrary to what Trinity and many others had suspected. Jim being a ghost was because he was trying to reunite with his daughter, who turned out to be Miss Waise, Trinity’s favorite teacher.

I really loved reading this book. It had a lot of surprises and warm moments one would love to witness. I also had the opinion that today’s women are still under the oppression of men and the community, especially when it comes to teenage pregnancy, until I read Trinity on Track. I realized that things are no longer as oppressive as they were. I read about how a sixteen-year-old, Nosipho Mamusa, one of Trinity’s friends, gained support through her pregnancy. Her friends, including Trinity, fought for Nosipho to stay in school.

They protested against the school’s decision, accompanied her to the hospital, supported her when the nurse was rude, and stood by her even when she gave birth. Trinity did all this because of reading about how Amelia had it tough with her pregnancy—how she was all alone, judged, thrown out of school, and lost her baby.

Teenage pregnancy is close to my heart, as I am surrounded by women who got pregnant very young and dealt with their situations the best way they could, putting themselves and their babies first, just like Nosipho did. On the other hand, Amelia was denied the chance to choose back then.

I have a cousin and an aunt who went through the same situations as Amelia and Nosipho. One had no support, just like Amelia, but she chose to keep the baby. The other had very little support and faced so much judgment, but she still chose her baby.

I would recommend this book to anyone who would like to be thrilled and learn about how the past treated women. It makes one realize how lucky we are to have had women who fought for us to be able to choose and voice out our concerns. Don’t read this book if you hate the truth about today’s struggles that young pregnant girls face, especially at hospitals and schools. Some parts of this book are really sad, but if you want to find out in exciting detail what Trinity and her friends uncover, this book is for you.

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