Year later my mom got a job as a domestic worker at some rich white folks. They managed to replace some of the items that were burnt that night and after the incident I had to drop school for a while because they had to buy some few household items and find us a temporary place to stay while the flat was being fixed. My school uniform and my school books got burnt with other things.
I was so happy when my mother got a job because it meant that I was going back to school. Me and my mother we went to my previous school and bought everything that was needed for to start attending classes and so on.
Things were looking better now that both of them were working. Yes, we were not rich but we survived and I was very very happy and so loved by my mom and Sipho.
When I was about to turn 10 years old TRAGEDY happened that changed my whole life into a Misery. I still remember it like it just happened yesterday. It all started as a normal morning. My mom woke up around 4am and took a bath and prepared to go to work.
At 04h45 she woke me up and asked me to look for her sandals under the bed and I just did that and went back to bed. As she was about to go she told me not to fall asleep because it was nearly 5am, my time to wake up. She said my father should find me all ready to go to school, and I mustn’t make a lunch box, Sipho would bring me something to eat at school. Then she went to work.
I got up at 05h10 took a bath, got dressed, checked my books and ate breakfast while waiting for my dad to come back home from work. After I was done with my breakfast it was exactly 6am, any minute now my dad would be back. He was always home on time, but that day 5 minutes passed, 15 passed and he was not yet home and that was so unlike him.
Now it was 06h45 and he had still not returned from work that’s when I started to get worried. What could have happened? What kept him to be so late? I couldn’t figure any answers out, but kept waiting for him. He finally got home around 07h10 and I ran to him and gave him a tight hug and I noticed how sad he was and his eyes were bloodshot red, I could tell he was crying.
He just faked a smile and said he was sorry he came back late, he got held up somewhere so he will have to accompany me to school by taxi. He couldn’t even look me in the eyes and he gave me R100 notes to buy lunch.
” How much should I spend?” I asked.
” Any amount you would like, it’s all yours,” he said.
As happy as I was, I was also shocked at the amount he gave me even though food at my school was expensive that was a lot of money.
As we were about to go out my mom’s friend came in and said she wanted to go with us, Sipho agreed and that was so strange.