The door of her bedroom flew open and Aunt Sophie burst in.

“Give me your cellphone!” she demanded.

“No,” said Gina, tightening her fingers around it.

“Give it to me! Now!”

Gina sat up on her bed. Her aunt’s face was distorted with rage.

“I’ll be dammed if I will stand by and let you lie on your bed all day and do nothing! This is the last year that I will look after you! You are going to get your matric and then get out of my house! Give me your cellphone!”

Gina could see that her aunt was in no mood to negotiate. Once before, she had refused to give her the cellphone, and her aunt had wrestled it out of her hand and slapped her face.

“I pay for the damn thing and so you better give it to me!”

Calmly Gina held it out to her aunt, who snatched it from her, turned on her heel and left the room, slamming the door behind her.

Gina sat still for a moment, and then she opened the books that were spread around her and found the place where she had left off. A moment later her aunt opened the bedroom door and Gina could see that her face was calmer.

“You can get your phone back after you have put in a good few hours of study.”

Gina was silent. Something told her that her aunt was not going to leave the room immediately, and she sighed inwardly.

“You mother was very clever you know,” she said, “like you are. The two of you are so similar. In many ways.”

Gina remained silent, but her aunt had stepped into the room now, and was approaching the edge of the bed. Gina held her breath while she sat down.

“She got such good marks. That’s how she got to go to America. That photo,” Aunt Sophie indicated the photo next to Gina’s bed, “was taken just before she left.” Her aunt reached out and picked up the frame.

Oh God, not more tears, thought Gina. She had heard all the stories about her mother a million times.

“The world was her oyster, you know Gina.” Aunt Sophie replaced the photograph and sniffed deeply. “She was the beautiful one. She was the clever one. She was your grandmother’s favourite child.”

Instinctively Gina wanted to protest at that but she knew it would be futile.

“And she threw it all away,” said Aunt Sophie softly.

“She fell pregnant with me, you mean,” said Gina with a sigh.

“Yes, she did.” Aunt Sophie straightened her shoulders. She had begun to slump on the edge of Gina’s bed. “She did. All the way in America. From some young American man, who didn’t give two hoots about her. He just used her.”

“And then she had to come home.”

“Of course she did.”

“And then I was born.”

Aunt Sophie stood up and turned to the door.

“Just make sure you don’t repeat her mistakes young lady. Because I won’t tolerate it. Never. Not for a second time!” And with that Aunt Sophie left the room.

Gina knew that her aunt would not tolerate any bad behaviour. Girls around her at school had fallen pregnant. Gina was always amazed. She was far too terrified to ever let that happen to her.

Gina had still been a virgin when she lied to her aunt about going to a hockey game, and took herself to the clinic to get the contraceptive injection.

Her clinic card was well hidden in her cupboard between the pages of one of her old school books. She knew that if her aunt ever found it she would have been told to leave the house, with only an empty field, and the group of homeless men and women, to welcome her.
“I love you,” Tyler had said to her for months before she had given in to him. His hands had already explored every part of her, and Gina had known that she would not be able to resist him forever.

“I love you too,” she told him between kisses, while her hands chased his as they moved in and out of her clothing.

Most of the times with Tyler had happened at Youth Club, around the back of the church, under the trees. There were sometimes other couples there, making out. Luckily, so many young people attended that it was difficult for the youth leaders to keep track of them anyway.

Besides, Tyler told Gina, he had come upon the Senior Youth Pastor, on a dark street, with his trousers down, in the back seat of his car, with a fellow matric student. The Senior Youth Pastor was married, and since then he and Tyler had an ‘agreement’ where slipping out of the meetings was concerned.

The first time Gina and Tyler had sex, was one Saturday morning while Aunt Sophie was at work. Tyler was strictly forbidden to come round, and even the neighbours had been asked to watch out for him. It was a very rainy day, and, while everyone ran around with their heads down, Tyler had slipped up the garden path, hidden by his hoodie.

As it was happening Gina felt watched by her mother in the photo frame, and she remembered Aunt Sophie’s warnings of fire and brimstone and burning in hell.

But with Tyler, making love was more like heaven, because, for the first time in her memory, she felt loved, really loved, by somebody.

***

Tell us what you think: Does Tyler seem to really love Gina? Is it fair of Aunt Sophie to compare Gina to her mother?