‘Who do you believe, chomi? George or Senzo?’

Kganya was silent for a minute.

‘Senzo,’ she blurted. ‘George’s story doesn’t make sense. Cats don’t hide inside of coffins. That thing in my dream was floating. So Senzo could be right.’

They were at the gate of the cemetery, and Kganya could tell that Lethabo was doing exactly what she was doing, searching for the homeless man Senzo talked about.

There was a small shelter along the cemetery’s fence that was constructed out of plastics. It startled Kganya how she didn’t see this shelter when they’d entered in, even though it was obviously in plain sight. And this is the attitude society has about homeless people. Somehow, it has mastered the ability to blur them out of its sight, as if they are nothing

Kganya peeked inside the small shelter. It was littered with rubbish on the floor.

‘Phuma!’ the voice shouted from the darkness inside.

Kganya moved backwards.

The man who emerged from the shelter was an exact definition of dirty. His uncombed hair was entangled in its dirt; his clothes had many holes, and so were his shoes. His face was dry, but his eyes were clear white, which took Kganya by surprise.

‘Sawubona…’ Kganya took the lead this time.

The homeless man just held a tin in front of him and said, ‘Two-rand, please. Two-rand.’

Kganya took out a five-rand coin from her shirt’s breast pocket and threw it in the brown tin. It clicked, telling Kganya that there wasn’t anything in that tin except her coin.

‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’ The beggar smiled gratefully.

He was preparing to go back to his shelter when Kganya stopped him.

‘Did you see someone running from the cemetery here last night?’ Kganya said.

The beggar, for the first time, gave Kganya a direct eye contact. If it wasn’t because of those beautiful eyes, he would have frightened her.

‘Why? What do you want to do with him? You want to hang him?’

‘Whoa! No, we don’t want to hang him.’ Kganya chuckled, turning to Lethabo, who was just as shocked. ‘Why would you say that?’

But the beggar had broken the eye contact. He was now facing the sky, revealing to Kganya the neck necklaced with dirt.

‘So…did you see him?’ Kganya asked gently.

The beggar laughed. After composing himself said, ‘No, I didn’t see him.’

‘Aw, siyabonga,’ Kganya said, dejectedly.

The girls turned to leave, but the beggar was standing there, staring at them.

‘Is he not going back inside his tent?’ Lethabo asked with a weird voice.

‘I don’t know, let’s keep walking.’

It had got late since the school was out. The sun was about to set completely on the horizon and this alarmed Kganya.

‘Lethabo, let’s hurry, we are late!’

 

***

Kganya, as predicted, found her mother already at home. But, as she didn’t predict, she wasn’t mad.

‘Wow! Six o’clock? Intense first day, huh?’ Ntombi said with a smile.

‘Y-yeah.’ Kganya said shakily.

‘Kganya! Why’s your uniform so dusty? Did you forget you are a Senior now, that you shouldn’t play like the kids in the lower grades?’ Ntombi said with irritation. ‘Take it off so I can soak it. Lucky that I have bought two uniforms, otherwise you wouldn’t have anything to wear tomorrow.’

Kganya ran to the bedroom to change out of her uniform. She was happy that her mother didn’t ask her how she got her uniform so dusty because she would have lied, and she had lied enough to her today to last a lifetime.