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30 September 2013

Short Story: BED OF REVELATION Part IV

“Modise…” that was the last word I said before everything turned black.

“What is he doing here?” I asked my traditional doctor as I saw Modise in my restroom a day after my collapsing after she told Modise came to see me. She told me that he had come to explain things but I told her to send him away. After he left I cried myself to sleep because I couldn’t believe that the man that I thought was my world just played with my trust. What I just didn’t get was why he bought the bed just to sleep with my best friend on it, why didn’t he bother bringing the bed to our hut, why didn’t he just send it straight to her hut. And talking of bed and a best friend, I decided that that was the end of the two in my life. I couldn’t believe that Dinny will ever do that to me, she was supposed to be my sister and now this!
Afer three days in the doctor’s nursing hut I was released.

I went straight to the hut that once belonged to me and Modise. I was to pack all my things and move back to my mother’s home. I didn’t know how I was going to face my father for he was the kind of man who didn’t believe that people should go against engagements or marriage vows because of misunderstanding. Well, I decide that if my father would not hear of that then I will go to stay with my city cousin. As I got in the hut I saw some bead necklace on top of the bed. The bead necklace was commonly known to be an exchange between lovers. So finally they were free to display their ‘love’, I thought, but how come I never saw it coming? It was probably because of my too much trusting character.

As I set to pack my belonging I heard a knock in the door as I went to open it, there I saw a worried face of Modise and he was with his brother.
“Any need to knock, this is your house remember?”
“So you are leaving?” he asked.
 “Got to give you and your girlfriend together with your bed some space”
 “Listen Belanca it wasn’t me with Dineo in the hut on the day you collapsed.” I tried to chase him out but he took his stand that I should listen to his part of story.

“Belanca, I am so sorry.” started Modise’s brother “Really I didn’t know that she was so evil and that she could do anything of that sort to you. On the day I arrived she asked me to the hut with her, she told me that you agreed to let her use the bed. I found out it was untrue by the conversation you had with her. I tried to intervene by you had already collapsed, so we had to rush you to the doctor.”


After those words I looked at Modise in a childish way of seeking for comfort and reassurance from his parents’ love.

Let's meet again next week... Whatcha say?

Setswana                        English Translation    

I love you                       Ke a go rata  

24 September 2013

Short Story: BED OF REVELATION Part III

The next day was to prove another drama in my life, I made up with Dinny and we continued with our friendship after Modise advised me to, saying we couldn’t throw away our friendship because of something so insignificant and I agreed with him. As I was preparing to go to the market I asked her to accompany me there but she said she couldn’t for she have promised her mother that she was going to help her with thatching her hut. 

That puzzled me for I knew how she loved going to the market, I mean she would lie or do anything just to go with me there but anyway we parted ways agreeing on seeing each other in the afternoons. At noon I returned from the market on high spirit, thinking of what I was going to cook for Modise, pap and vegetables since they were his favorite dishes. As I got near our hut I heard some noise from within and I slowly approached the hut in order to earshot on what was being said inside.

To my astonishment I heard Dinny’s voice saying, “But you love me more than her, don’t you, love?”
“Yes I do.” That voice! I knew the voice! That was Modise’s voice!
Without thinking I cried, “what!?” and as a response to my outburst came out naked Dinny wrapped with a cloth around her body and devilish smile on her face and said, “Well thought you were his only woman, huh? Guess what, dear! You were wrong and stupid to think so!”

 I tried to get inside but with push me away from the door. “You see, Belanca I am sick and tired of being under your shadow, Of you always going like, Modise this, Modise that. I have been planning to show revenge on you and this bed couldn’t have come at the right time. Now I get to sleep on ‘your bed’ first with your man! How nice!”

“By the way do you know what made that beautiful branch to hit your curves? Oh no, you don’t! Because Belanca my darling you are so trusting, so innocent that no man can resist you. You took my man away and now it is your turn to pay.”
“Your man!? Whom are you talking about?”
“You even think low of me! You have even forgotten that there are men who are interested in me even if their number is not as countless as yours. You took my Tshepiso away from me!”
“Tshepiso? What are you talking about? Dinny you are like a sister to me and I’ll take your man away from you or let alone do anything to hurt you.”

 “You still can’t get it, huh? Why do God always forget to give the beautiful ones some little brain, doesn't He know the pain that we, the ugly people, have to through in order to prove that indeed the mouth is part of the head and not leg! Belanca, Belanca my dear let me tell you a little story. I loved Tshepiso with all my heart, I gave him my all but did he love me the same I loved him? 

"No. because he was loving someone else and that someone else was none but the lovely queen of our village. I tried everything that I could but I never saw the day he turned and look at me the way he was looking at you when he thought no one was looking. Yes I tried everything but I guess I could never beat you to the angelic life you were living.


"No man in this village cant resist Angel Belanca, and me as the friend I just had to live under her shadow but now it will never be like that, oh no, for I have charmed my way to your bed and not only your bed even you man.”

                        Want more? Let's meet next week...

Setswana                        English Translation    

Borôkô                            Good night                                        

17 September 2013

Short Story: BED OF REVELATION - Part II

Well, with that said I guess I should go back to the present. When we got home, I found Modise there and joy filled me as I put the water calabash and ran to him, hugged and kissed him.
“I have got something for my girl.”
“What it is?” I cried out “It’s a surprise, just go in to the hut and you’ll find it there.”

As I got into the house I was taken aback by what I saw. Instead of the skin that I normally sleep in with Modise was something I have always heard my city cousin talking about, A BED!! A bed in my hut! I officially became the first woman in our village to own a bed! What more could I ask for in this life if I had a man who can make me an historic figure in our community. Yes, I was part of our village’s history as the next day people gathered in our yard to see ‘the bed’.

“It a machine!” commented one ignorant youth
“No dull cow, that’s a sleeping gift, you can only get it if your ancestors allows you to rest or you family is in line with the god of sleep. It comes through a person you know or maybe a stranger, as long as you are allowed to rest at night. Oh! If only my gods will allow me to have a one good rest night rather than make me worry about my community and this no good youth” extorted an old woman known as Ngaka Gadima,  the village witch-doctor.
“How do you know?” shouted a boy who looked like he was still in his teen age.
“Yeah, old lady how do you know?”
“If you know about my powers, you would not talk to me that way but to answer your foolish question, my ancestors showed me that in my visions.”
“You mean your dreams? Well I would not care of any gods or ancestors as long as I get myself a man who can buy me that, what’s the name again?” came a wish from one of my fellow young woman.

I was left with Dinny after the crowd has reluctantly dispensed. Happily I invited her to my bed so that we can give it the first test together.
                                                                                                                               
 “I wonder why anyone would bother himself to buy a girl that he is not married to a bed and this wrenched low-life villagers, abandoning their works just to come and look at cheap thing like this! You’ll have thought better of them!”  Those were ‘encouraging’ words from my best friend. I looked at her with disbelief, a person who is supposed to be celebrating with me bullying me down.

“But, Dinny this is not cheap, Modise told me that he sold three cows to buy it and also we are engaged which traditionally makes me his wife.” I gave her an apology answer, wishing inside for her to show some warmth.
“What! engaged or unmarried isn’t that one and the same thing, huh? You are getting too clever for your own skin girl! Anyways Modise is such a stupid crack! He is supposed to at least give poor people those cows if he had no use for them than go waste them out. Too sad, Belanca you have got a moron for a man.”
I don’t know how my hand changed from a soft wifely hand to a hand fit to slap a strong woman like Dinny, knocking her down.
“Never ever call Modise that, you can say whatever you want to me but not my man, not my man”

I would have gone on top of her and beaten her up if it was not for the people who held me and led me to my hut. I sat on the bed and cried, I cried for my lost sister, I cried for having been stupid to see that all the time she was always belittling me, I cried that it took a simple thing like the arrival of a bed to see that she was jealous of my relationship with Modise.

Come Back Next Week for More...

Tswana Word(s) of the week:               English Translation:

Leina la me ke...                                       My name is...



4 September 2013

Short Story: BED OF REVELATIONS

“Now, now, Belanca, don’t tell me that you still can’t get enough of Modise, when he is always following you around like a shadow” sharply came the voice of Dineo as she helped me to put my calabash full of water on top of my head.

 “Well, I didn’t mean to sound like a pounding child, but hey a girl has to miss her man, more especially when he had gone away for more than two weeks.” I said this as we joined the path that led from river into the village. As I was gracefully walking I felt a pain on my back when I looked back I saw a tree branch swing vigorously and I realize what hit but as I turn I lost a balance because the path was slippery as a result of the rain that had been pouring down endlessly. Luckily enough no damage was down to my beautiful calabash for when it fell down the ground grass welcomed it with such care. I was forced to go back to the river to fetch water again but during this whole incidence I thought I saw a wicked smile on Dinny or maybe because of the pain I was feeling I was starting to hallucinate.
 
I have been best of friends with Dineo, Dinny as I fondly call her, ever since our childhood, she was the confident one and I was the pretty one. We had always hated our labels, I wish I was as confident as her and she wished to have my beauty but that was beyond our altering. I trust Dinny with my life and she too trusts me, well, I believe she does. And Modise, the love of my life, I came across him when he accompanied Dineo’s lover one summer evening at our village river bank where Dinny was to meet with her boyfriend, Tshephiso. We sat together as we waited the two lovers to finish up their cozy chat and touches. And that’s where my love relationship with Modise started. It was two years ago and since then Dinny and her boyfriend has broken up and she been nagging me that I should give up on Modise since he is her ex’s best friend which means it is going to be easy for him to break my heart but I told her not my Modise. After that conversation, Dinny started to give Modise cold gestures, it hurt me inside since she was like a sister to me and I knew that Modise was the man for me.
               To be cont'd next week...   Come next week for more...
 
Tswana Word of the Day:                             English Translation:
 
Dumela                                                         Hello
 
Tip:
 
When addressing an adult, you usually say 'Dumela Mma' for women or 'Dumela Rra' when addressing men.