The next day, after she walked her sister to school, Luniko took a taxi and headed to town. She needed to scan all her documents so she could send them from her phone.

“You know you can just download the scanner app and do this from home,” Xoli had said last night.

Luniko knew this, but she wanted to get out. She wanted to see town, maybe drop a few CVs if she could.

In the taxi she thought about Joburg, the life she left behind. All her friends were having fun and constantly updating their social media. Luniko hadn’t posted in days. People probably thought she was dead, but nobody had even asked how she was. But such was the world of social media; friends were not real, only virtual.

Even though she had been happy in Joburg, she had to admit she didn’t really feel like she belonged. Her life was all about the events and products she was marketing. She hadn’t found a purpose, a cause to live and fight for. She had hoped she would find this when she returned home. But right now her heart and soul were as dry as her hometown.

But maybe the meeting Jezi had invited her to would fuel some fire in her, keep her busy and give her purpose.

“You should ask him for a job,” her mother had said. But Luniko wasn’t ready to do that.

Jezi called as she left the internet café and asked to take her out to lunch. Thrilled, she told him she was already in town, and they arranged to meet. He gave her the name of his favourite coffee shop and asked to meet there.

The place had free wi-fi, which gave Luniko access to the internet for the price of a coffee. As she waited for him, she browsed social media and also looked for jobs she could do remotely, like managing social media accounts for small companies, or blogging. She had built up a following while she was in university and now wondered what it was all for.

Then Jezile arrived, looking ever so fresh in his shirt and jeans. She wondered if he knew how sexy he was, and whether he knew how much she still liked him. He greeted her with a hug and she found herself lingering longer, sniffing the freshness wafting from his sweet cologne.

Jezile was always a gentleman, ever neatly dressed and crisp. His clothes, though sometimes old hand-me-downs he got from his brothers and cousins, were always clean and ironed.

Over coffee, they talked about life after high school. Luniko was impressed about how great Jezile’s life was, all the work he had done, and the things he had achieved.

“All my brothers left and so it’s just me and the old man.”

“Why did you never leave?” she asked with interest. In school he was seen as the guy who would go away and succeed; some even imagined him going abroad.

“I couldn’t just leave. This is my home,” he said. “Plus, had I left, I would’ve never seen you again.”

Luniko found herself blushing. The air-conditioning in the coffee shop seemed to be suddenly switched off. She could feel her scalp starting to itch, her hands and armpits starting to sweat. She needed him to look away and stop smiling at her.

“Besides, Makhomeni is a wonderful place. It just needs to rise again,” he said.

Yes, finally something she could engage him on.

“You should run for councillor.”

He laughed. “I’d need a good campaign manager, someone with over 4000 followers on their social media. Someone from Joburg.”

Luniko’s eyes widened. Was he offering her a job?

“I follow you on social media, you know? And I think you could do a lot of good with those platforms.”

“I don’t know. I never have anything important to say.”

“You have more followers than myself and our councillor combined. Maybe you just need to find your fire.”

He could be her fire, any day. All he had to do was ask. She felt herself getting hot again.

Tell us: Have your ‘found your fire’ – found some issue that you are really ‘fired up’ about?