SHE WAS TOO YOUNG TO UNDERSTAND.

Short story

By Kekeletso Lucia Motseki

Summary

Busi was just a five years old girl who got traumatized on a very young age and she later realized it when she was in high school.

Busi was a five year old girl who lived with her mother (Nomathemba) and her father (Simphiwe), they all lived in a one room house in Phomolong. Busi was short, skinny and light in completion just like her mother and she was a happy kid until something took turn.

Busi had no father role in her life until she was four and her mother met Simphiwe, she used to refer to him as “baba”, she was just a kid she knew nothing until she was five and her mother told her that Simphiwe is not her father that her father lives in Turflagte. Poor little kid got shocked and started being different to the one she knew as her father.

As young as she may be, she was asking herself many questions about her own biological father and why did her mother broke up with her father, those questions were left unanswered. Busi had many friends she seemed to be an extrovert, her friends was Lebo, Nthati, them a, Loyiso and Rea. You would never hear any of them complaining while they are together.

They would collect used household stuff to go play on a dusty sports ground and pretend as if the were a family, in Sesotho they were playing “Mantloane” were by Themba would be a father, Nthati would be a mother, Busi would be an aunt, Loyiso, uncle, Rea and Lebo would be children. Busi would play till it’s too dark that’s her mother would get angry at her and whip her but she was hard headed.

One day she came home late and she was approached by the noise coming from their house, when she reached house she found her parents arguing and fighting. This thing of fighting started to become a habit in this house. Busi would be awakened by her mother’s cry for help while getting strangled by Simphiwe and he would say to her “I would kill your mother”. That’s when Busi started changing.

Busi was no longer the same she was a quiet and would cry if she was asked what’s wrong with her but still kept quiet without saying anything. There was a time where she started to become solituded and began slowly to become an introvert. Her friends saw that she changed but they were only kids, what would they have done?… they didn’t understand.

Busi’s friends were all gone, they had all visited the family members who lived far from the place they lived in, she was left alone. A strange man came and stood near the gate where she lived. He called her up and she came running, he said ” come let’s go play”, Busi tried to reject but the man showed her jewelry “look if you go with me I’ll give you this jewelry” that’s when they both left and went to the sport ground.

When they arrived at the sport ground the man wanted to play a role as a man and Busi as a wife but she wanted to be a kid, when he wanted to be a kid Busi would say she would be his mother but the man hesitated that’s when Busi wanted to live and the man said angrily “GIVE ME BACK MY JEWELRY” that’s when she threw it back at him and decided to leave.

As she was walking she saw that this man was following her and she said to him “where are you going?” but the man did not answer as he approached her. The man decided to pick her up and make her lay on the ground with her stomach, he to rape her but he did not succeed as she was screaming for help and some people seemed to be coming from a distance.

That’s when the man let Busi go and she ran fast as she could. When she arrived home she was asking herself questions like “what was he trying to do?!” but she was too young to understand. Busi kept the situation of being raped a secret. Till she was in her high school era and heard the Councilor speaking about Gender Based Violence that’s when she realized the man was trying to rape her.” Good thing is that he didn’t take my virginity or else I could’ve been more traumatized than I am” she said to her self.