“I am worse than Adam and Eve,”

Jake sighed to my whining and sunk in his seat, “You made a mistake, stop whining. At least you realize it now,”

I stopped whining and turned to him with an accusing look, “Mistake? You were there with me, how come you didn’t stop me from doing it?”

“What? I did, I told you to ignore Eulalia. Remember? I even lied to that lady to get you the sweets. Let’s just hope she doesn’t call the school to ask about it so she can look like the perfect mother,”

“Okay, don’t get mad at me. What should I even tell Eulalia when she asks why I’m back to my old self?”

Jake thought for a while, “Say this, quote exactly what I say,”

“Sure,”

“When she asks say, ‘I am tired’. She will ask what you’re tired of and you will say, ‘tired of looking like a useless whimsical. Some things are just not for people with a brawny unique character like me’,”

I pinned his words to the back of my head and stared outside the window, “I’m sorry I dragged you into this,”

Jake tried to be modest, “I wanted to. But you’re right. I supported you, so we’re both worse than Adam and Eve,”

There was silence as I stared out the bus. After seconds he spoke again, “So when are you going to tell them the truth?”

“I don’t know,”

“But you do know you have to right?”

“Yes I do, but I don’t know when. Do I even have to? I mean, my mom has a new makeup set, she got a new shawl from town. The sweets? I only took four, what difference does that make?”

Jake then began his lecture. He usually did that whenever I began to neglect school or spoke bad of someone, “It is not about the difference or that she replaced it. It is about the fact that they know that there is a child amongst their children who can be a thief and a lair. That child might end up like Boko Haram or even the Japanese Akatsuki gang leader,”

“Akatsuki is from an anime Jake. And I’m not a thief, or a liar. I just borrowed, secretly,”

“It was really a gang in Japan, the anime copied it. Do your research fake weeb,” he realized he was going off topic and changed, “Yeah sure, you’re not a thief. But your parents don’t know that. They don’t trust you anymore, indirectly,”

That did hit hard, but how was I to explain to my parents the whole situation? Without getting a peer-pressure speech on top of that?

“I’m hungry Violet. Where’s your lunch?”

I shook my head and turned away, “It’s still morning, where’s yours even? Didn’t you eat breakfast?”

“That lady put beacon in everything.”

Jake did not eat beacon.

“She did that on purpose?”

“Yes,” he frowned, “Dad didn’t even notice that I didn’t eat. He has forgotten about me and my brothers, because of that lady. She’s even planning on having a baby,”

 

 

****

“What happened to the makeup and the skirt? Did it finish? You should have asked like I told you to,”

I looked up at Eulalia. She was glowing all over, too bright for my eyes. Oh, it was just the sun peeping through the window behind her.

“I got tired,”

“Tired? Tired of what?”

I shrugged and packed my stuff, “Tired of looking like a useless whimsical. Some things are just not for people with a strong character like me,”

It was after school so I ran out of the class and walked to the gate.

“Violet! Where is Baraka?”

It was Jake’s older brother, Zachary. He looked just like Jake but his skin was paler. Baraka was my brother, the second one in Seventh grade who had released air the other day, if you know what I mean.

“I don’t know, didn’t walk with him today.”

“You never walk with him,”

I faked a surprised look, “Don’t I? Maybe I just lose track of time,”

 

 

“Why are little siblings so weird? My little brother, the one I used to walk with last of last of last year, remember? Jake? You were in second grade.”

Zach and Baraka did not know that Jake and I continued to spend time together. Zach thought his brother just used the bus to get fresh air and Baraka thought I used the longest way to school because I did not want to be early.

I faked a thought before nodding, “Oh, yes I remember him,”

“He also doesn’t want to walk with me,”

I pulled the straps of my bag and sent out the ‘sorry but I have to go’ posture. I had to go and find Jake or else the bus would leave us, “Brothers are a little annoying sometimes,”

Zach was the most oblivious person in the world. He did not get that I had to go, and instead thought I was inviting him into a conversation, “Not that annoying. It’s good to have an older brother. That way when someone messes with you, you call him to beat them up,”

I could not ask Baraka to beat Eulalia up, that was gender-based violence.

I looked around for any signs of my brother and I spotted the music room up the stairs, “Oh, why don’t you check the music room? He mentioned something about practice,”

He beamed, “Oh yeah,” a pat on my head then, “I’ll see you  around,”

 

He was not going to be seeing me around. I faked a smile and ran out of the school.

I found Jake behind the blue paper dustbin and we ran to the bus stop. Luckily, we had caught it on time.

We talked about Eulalia as usual and also about how Jake passed that Indian boy this time. Jake had brought fat cakes and polony from the lady outside while he was waiting for me, he shared with me and we ate. He seemed to like them so much that I would even take extra for him when my mom made lots for lunch. He had once said, “That lady from home doesn’t even know how to make them, she said they make you fat. This woman makes the best,”

We were enjoying the fat cakes when Jake spoke up, “Violet, this Christmas,”

I turned to him, “Jake, it’s October. You’re talking about Christmas,”

“It’s not me, it’s that lady. She started going on about Christmas,”

“What about Christmas?”

He kept quiet before saying, “We’re going away for the holiday.”

“Oh,”

Jake and I usually snuck out and went walking in town during Christmas days. There were extra classes in both our schools happening during the holiday that started at nine thirty on Tuesdays and ended at two in the afternoon, but whenever the learners did well and behaved the teacher would let us go at twelve. My parents did not know about the early leave so we got together, disguised ourselves and went to town. It was like our very own tradition, entering the decorated shops but buying nothing, getting ice-cream and sneaking extra sprinkles while the ice-cream man was distracted.

“Where are you going?”

“She wanted to go somewhere out of the country but my dad said he could not go too far, he had business to take care of,”

“So?”

“So we’re going to Cape Town, the beach and the mountains,”

I nodded. That was still far, but I didn’t show how upset I was. It was normal for Jake to go somewhere. I was just supposed to stay home and spend time with my sisters and brothers.

“Good for you. Crossing regional boarders, I’ve only been to Pretoria and all the hundred times I’ve gone there was to renew my asylum paper.”

“At least you travelled,” he finished his fat cake and beamed, “Enough about that. Tomorrow, let’s go in town.”

I gave him the ‘are you serious look’, “Yeah sure,”

“No I’m serious,”

“How do we go to town? There’s school.”

“I heard from a source that your school has a talent audition for Christmas tomorrow after school. My school also has one. Use that as an excuse,”

“Jake, you’re asking me to lie to my mom? You know she doesn’t go to sell until she is sure all of us are back home.”

Jake looked down before reasoning, “We have to. I don’t want this Christmas to be nothing but beaches, sun and that lady. Town is our tradition, remember?”

I took it in and thought. It would not be such a bad idea would it? Just a little excuse.

“Okay, but only for one hour,”

“Two hours,”

“That’s too much, one hour thirty minutes,”

Jake shook his head, “One hour Fifty nine minutes,”

“Jake? That’s one minute short to two hours,”

“Just say yes,”

“Okay, yes. Two hours. Happy now?”

Although I was acting less interested, I was actually super excited inside.

“Also Violet. Do it today,”

“Do what?”

“The big confession,”

That had changed my excitement to horror. When I got home, my mom was standing, ready to leave, as if she was waiting for me to confess.

“Good afternoon mamma,”

She nodded and smiled reaching for her bag. She seemed in a good mood. She had gotten new merchandise and she knew it was going to sell. That was the best time to get clean.

I put my own bag down and began to fidget around.

She asked in Swahili and this one I can write down, “Ni nini?”

“I-I-”

“You what?”

“I-”

“Violet talk,”

I looked down and blurted out, “It was me,”

“It was you what?”

“The makeup, the sweets, the shawl, the tissue. It was all me, I’m sorry. I regret it.”

She did not utter a word and I did not dare look up. I puffed my cheeks and got ready to receive a slap.

“Nyangalakatha. At least you were brave enough to own up. Come on, go and clean the toilet, I left it undone on purpose so you could do it,”

 

My head shot up, “You’re not going to hit me?”

“I was going to. I gave you until today to confess, if you didn’t I would have flogged you until your behind was as red as your grandfather’s second wife’s bleached face,”

So she knew it was me the whole time. How?

(Did you enjoy this story? You can read the sequel here.)