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Episode 15

The music was switched off and
the TV on. Zakes had brought them
a new TV and her mother and
sister were so grateful! It was
Isidingo and Ntombi liked to watch
it. She liked to lose herself in the
characters’ lives. It made her forget
about her situation for thirty
minutes every day. But tonight
there was no way she was going
to squash on a couch next to Zakes,
drink his cooldrink, and watch a TV
that he’d probably stolen. There
was no way she would ever be
grateful to him for anything, or put
herself in his debt.

She got out her diary and started
to doodle on the page. She had
promised Mr Ntlanti that she
would come up with the lyrics to a
song for the magazine. She could
write about an evil stepdad and a
mother gone crazy with love. Or a
teenage girl whose dreams to
become the next teen idol came to
nothing because she was trapped
at home looking after her younger
sister
 who was drinking
cooldrink and making out like
Zakes was her best friend.

Ntombi wished one of her
girlfriends was with her. They were
always good in times like these.

They would sympathise with her.

Asanda would make fun of Zakes.

She was good at impersonations
and she would have them rolling
around the bed with laughter, as
she pushed out her tummy to
make a beer belly and scratched
her bottom like he did.

Just then Ntombi’s cellphone lit up
in the dark. She smiled to herself –
that would be one of the girls now.

Often when she thought of them,
one of them would SMS. It was like
they had some telepathic
connection, and could read each
other’s thoughts. But when she
looked at the screen, she did not
recognise the number. She checked
the inbox. There was a message:
Hey gojus. I’l b waitin on da taxi
2morow 4 u. Can’t wayt 2 spend
mor tym wit u.

Ntombi read the message ten
times but it didn’t change. He
called her ‘gorgeous’; he “couldn’t
wait to spend time with her”. No
guy had ever said that to her
before. She held the cellphone
against her heart. She knew she
was being sentimental, like the
girls she laughed at in class, who
carried around love notes from
guys and lost their heads – but she
couldn’t help it. Mzi made her feel
something she had never felt
before.

She wanted to SMS Asanda
immediately to ask her advice on
what she should SMS back to him,
but she stopped. How could she?
Her friends didn’t approve of him,
or his brother. Ntombi thought
again how unfair it was for them
to bundle him and his brother
together as if they were the same
person. Look how different she
was from Zinzi It was hard
sometimes to think they were
related. No, she was on her own
for now.

Sho

she typed
 and pressed the send
button
.

Perhaps she should have made
him wait, act like she wasn’t
waiting for the phone to ring, but
it was too late, the SMS was gone.

There was no turning back. She
waited, expecting another SMS to
bounce back, but her screen
remained blank. Anyway, it would
be uncool of him to respond so
quickly, she told herself. And
tomorrow was just another sleep
away.

“Ntombi, Zakes is going. Come and
say goodbye,” her mother called to
her from the lounge, but she didn’t
respond. “I don’t understand that
girl,” she heard her mother say,
then she heard them all laughing.

But now their laughter didn’t
matter any more. It was going to
be alright because Mzi had SMSed
her and she would see him on the
taxi the next morning.

When she heard Zakes’ BMW
revving outside and then speeding
off into the dark, she came out into
the lounge. Her mother had left
her a plate of food. But suddenly
she wasn’t hungry. Is this what
love does to you? she wondered.

“What’s got into you?” her mother
asked her. “Why are you so rude to
Zakes?”
“Why do you think?” Ntombi shot
back.

“Maybe Zakes is right,” her mother
said. “Maybe you are jealous.”

“Jealous of what?” Ntombi was
getting mad.

“Because you haven’t got a
boyfriend,” Zinzi chipped in.

“So whose side are you on?”
Ntombi turned on her younger
sister. She couldn’t believe her
sister was changing sides because
of one lousy bottle of cooldrink.


“Mama, Zakes is not what he
seems,” Ntombi whispered to her
mother later, as they lay in the
dark trying to sleep.

“What do you mean?”

Ntombi hesitated. She didn’t know
if she could tell her mother what
Olwethu’s granny had said; how
Zakes was a thief. It would hurt her
mother terribly, and although she
thought her mother had gone
crazy and she didn’t like her at the
moment, she didn’t want to hurt
her before she was sure. Besides,
maybe the granny’s friend had
made a mistake. She could not
speak to her mother until she
knew the truth herself. If only
there was a way she could find out
more about Zakes.

“Have you ever been to his
house?” Ntombi asked. Her mother
was silent.

“Zakes is a proud man,” she
eventually replied. “I think he is
ashamed of how small his house
is.”

“I thought he earned all this
money?”
“He’s saving. He wants to give us a
good life one day.”

“Has he ever introduced you to any
of his family?”
Her mother sat up in bed. “It’s not
easy for him. I am separated from
your father. But we are not
divorced. Until we are
” Her
mother went quiet, just as
Ntombi’s cellphone buzzed, and all
thoughts of Zakes were forgotten.

Ntombi could almost hear Mzi’s
voice, whispering in her ear, as the
words gudnyt bby 



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