The next day was Sunday. Kganya was walking back from the park with Lethabo. They were dragging their feet and eating ice creams. It wasn’t that hot, but they had craved them.

“And she left just like that?” Lethabo asked, while licking the ice cream that was trailing down its cone.

“Yes, my mother wouldn’t hear anything she had to say,” Kganya told Lethabo. Although she had already told her the whole story, Kganya didn’t mind answering her friend’s questions.

“Weren’t you scared?”

Kganya took a second before answering this. “I wasn’t; you know?”

“Yho! I wonder what kind of danger you are in. Maybe it has to do with your nightmares. Remember all of this started early this year, and when they all seemed to have stopped, you started having nosebleeds?” Lethabo was not licking her ice cream, she was looking at Kganya with animated eyes.

“I don’t think it has to—” Kganya jumped away, scaring Lethabo beside her.

“What is it?” Lethabo asked her in fear.

“You didn’t see that?” Kganya asked, in a voice laced with terror.

“See what?” Lethabo looked to her left, where Kganya was staring at a spot with bulging eyes. There was nothing there.

“The big cat that just crossed the street.” Kganya was really terrified. She didn’t even realise that her ice cream was on the floor. What she now had on her hand was an empty cone.

“I didn’t see any cat here. I think your mind was playing tricks with you,” Lethabo laughed a little.

“I saw it! I saw a cat cross the road, now-now in front of us, going that way!” Kganya shouted at Lethabo, showing her that she wasn’t joking.

“Ok,” Lethabo said, in a more serious tone. “Let’s just walk home, okay?”

Kganya nodded and started walking, not dragging her feet this time around. She kept turning back while she walked, as if to make sure they weren’t being followed.

They walked most of their journey home in silence. Kganya swore that she saw a cat cross the street in front of her, so she didn’t understand what Lethabo meant when she said she didn’t see it. She was not crazy. She knew what she saw.

When they were just three houses away from her house, Kganya got another shock, this time when Lethabo told her that her nose was bleeding. Kganya reached up to her nose with her finger, and she was startled to see the red liquid on it. She was bleeding! She didn’t feel anything, though. How was that possible?

“Let’s hurry so you can wash at home,” Lethabo urged her.

But before she could hurry anywhere, Kganya felt numb. Her sight became blurry, and she heard sharp noises in her ears. Not knowing what was happening, she fell down.

Lethabo was shocked. She didn’t know what to do. She shook Kganya multiple times but she lay unresponsive. She remembered they were only three houses away from Kganya’s house. She left Kganya lying there on the ground and ran quickly to her house.

***

“I just don’t understand how they could just stop like that without warning,” Gladys said, in a tone that Ntombi didn’t appreciate.

They were talking about how Kganya had stopped having nightmares —or rather, Gladys was complaining to Ntombi about how Kganya had stopped having nightmares.

“Well, they just did. I guess they thought it better to leave her alone.” Ntombi sipped her tea and stared at the TV.

“I don’t know, maybe if we could—” Gladys started, when Ntombi cut in on her with frustration.

“Drop it, Gladys!” Ntombi snapped, putting the mug on the table. “They came on their own, and they left on their own. I understand that you are no longer winning on M’China, but you are not going to burden my daughter with this.”

“I was not complaining,” Gladys’s voice was soft and low.

“Yes, you were. You make out as if she decided on her own not to dream. Well she didn’t! Make peace with that.”

There was silence between them. Only the TV sounded for a few long minutes.

When the door flew open it startled both of them. Gladys nearly spilled her tea.

“Mama Kganya, please help!” Lethabo said in a high-pitched voice as she stepped inside the house.

“What is it?” Ntombi asked in worry.

“It’s … Kganya … she collapsed … on the street.”

“Where?” Ntombi shot up from the couch.

“Outside,” Lethabo gestured outside.

“Where outside?” Gladys and Ntombi asked in unison.

“There, near Mkhulu’s house.”

Gladys and Ntombi both ran out from the yard. When Ntombi saw her daughter lying there on the street, she sprinted forward, leaving Gladys slightly behind.

“Kganya! Wake up!” Ntombi slapped Kganya softly on the cheeks but she remained unresponsive.

“What happened?” Gladys asked Lethabo.

“We were walking when she started bleeding from the nose, and then she just collapsed.”

“No, Kganya, please wake up, my Nnana.” Ntombi started to panic.

Ntombi suddenly heard Gladys calling, “Mkhulu!” She saw her run inside a house that was near them. That was when Ntombi remembered that Mkhulu, an elderly man, had a car, and he could take them to the hospital.

“Nnana, wake up,” Ntombi continued to plead to her unresponsive daughter.

Tell us: How would you describe Lethabo’s response to what has just happened?