‘Last night I Googled the name Zumba Mbazo,’ Lethabo said to Kganya the next day at school during the lunch break.

‘Really? And what did you find?’ Kganya sipped her orange juice.

‘I didn’t find much, but the less I did find, you won’t believe.’ Lethabo took out her phone and started scrolling a few times. ‘Ok, hear this. According to this newspaper’s headline, dated 1890, Zumba Mbazo Denies the Allegations of Being a Wizard.’

‘What? He was accused of being a wizard? A moloi?’ Kganya stopped sipping her juice.

‘The headline says so. I can’t read the article because it is behind a paywall.’ Lethabo was looking at Kganya as if she was expecting a solution.

Something sparked inside Kganya’s head.

‘We should go to the local library; they must have the full article in their archives.’

‘Yes, that’s a good idea. When, though, because we are getting off at five, and it must be closed by then?’

Kganya got silent.

‘We’ll go on Sunday. On Saturday we are attending extra classes, so we can’t go then.’

‘Does the library open on Sundays?’

‘Yes, it does, but it closes early, at twelve.’

***

‘I’m so tired,’ Kganya complained.

‘Me too. If someone had told me that Grade 12 would be this hard, I would have failed Grade 11 on purpose.’

Kganya and Lethabo were walking home after school. They were dragging their feet, and the size of their schoolbags didn’t help them at all.

‘Maths and physics are the subjects I will have to work hard on this year,’ Kganya said.

‘Yeah, especially maths because universities look for it when applying.’

Kganya got quiet. She hadn’t thought that far in her life, and she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do after she finished Grade 12.

‘Are you going to further your studies next year?’ she asked Lethabo.

‘Yeah, aren’t you?’ Lethabo gave her a quizzical look.

‘I-I am not sure, chomi. I think I will take a gap year.’

‘A gap year? Doing what?’

‘Doing what people do on their gap years, which is nothing.’

‘No, that’s not a gap year, chomi.’ Lethabo sounded serious. ‘A gap year is when you’re working on the side, while your academics are on pause. By the time you resume your studies, you will have had enough experience working somewhere.’

Kganya bit her lip. She knew her friend was right. The truth was that she didn’t want to go to the university because she still wanted to figure out what she wanted to do with her spiritual Gift. She wasn’t sure whether to open an official practice, where people would come to consult her about their spiritual problems or see if she could explore it further and do what hadn’t been done before. But what was that?

Before she could say something, she saw the dustbins lined up on the side of their street.

‘They didn’t collect the dustbins?’ Kganya exclaimed.

‘Yes, I wonder what’s the excuse this time,’ Lethabo said, nonchalantly.

‘Last time they were on strike, right?’

‘Yeah, but they fixed everything.’

‘Urgh!’ Kganya said in annoyance.

There was a beggar picking through the dustbins near Kganya’s home.

‘See you tomorrow, chomi.’ Kganya hugged Lethabo and walked to the gate while Lethabo walked down the road.

‘Sawubona,’ Kganya greeted the beggar as she passed him.

He didn’t respond, so she turned back to look at him and try to greet him again. Her breath caught when she saw who he was. He was the homeless man from yesterday at the cemetery!

He had stopped picking through the dustbins and was staring at her with a big smile. It was weird because it was clear he had heard her greet him but didn’t respond.

‘How are you?’ She waved at him, but he remained dazed, with a smile on his face.

‘OK? This is weird…’ Kganya said under her breath, and walked quickly to the house.

She quickly opened the burglar and the door and got inside the house. She ran to the sitting room threw her schoolbag on the floor and headed for the front window. She parted the curtains and peeked outside. The beggar was still standing there, smiling as she had left him.

What was he smiling at? Kganya asked herself.

The beggar turned his head towards the window and Kganya let go of the curtains and ducked under the sofa. Did he see her?

After a minute, she stood up slowly and went to the window and parted the curtains, this time a little. He was gone. She parted it a bit wider and looked left and right, he was nowhere. He had left.

‘What are you doing on the window?’

‘Ah!’ Kganya jumped with a start.

‘Mama, you scared me.’ She laughed.

‘What were you doing on the window? Are you spying on people now, Kganya?’

‘No, it was just some homeless man who looked at me funny at the gate.’ Kganya chuckled at how silly this whole thing was.

Her mother just shook her head and went to the kitchen to start with dinner. Kganya composed herself, picked up the schoolbag from the floor and went to her bedroom to change and start with her load of homework.