After Tears

Fifteen: Friday, December 31

111 FIFteeN Friday, December 31 It was still only nine o’clock in the evening, but there was already great excitement in our street. Most of us kept glancing at our watches in anticipation of the special New Year to come. In just a few hours we would be entering the new millennium. No one, including small kids, was prepared to miss the excitement and drama that always accompanied the New Year by falling asleep. “Bafana, please fetch me the sponge from under your bed,” asked Mama. “Yuri has to sleep outside so he can see the first day of the new millennium. we’ll wake him up at twelve exactly. he can’t sleep in there, it’s too hot,” she said, pointing at the house. I went inside my room where Yuri was sleeping on another sponge that Mama had spread on the floor. his mouth was open and his thin hands had been bitten by the mosquitoes that were buzzing angrily in the room. Sleeping on my bed was sis zinhle’s daughter, Mbali. I fished underneath my bed and came out with a sponge. “he has made it already, chomza,” declared sis zinhle as I brought the sponge outside and Mama entered the house to fetch Yuri. “Most people thought he was going to die long before the millennium, and look!” Mama came out with Yuri. She laid him down on the sponge and immediately covered him with three blankets to prevent him from getting a fever. After doing that, Mama suggested that we should all close our eyes, kneel down and pray. praying was a strange rite to me, but I agreed, while uncle Nyawana, Dilika, zero and pp refused. 112 Mama ignored my uncle and his drunken friends and started to pray for us while we all held hands, but my uncle and his friends didn’t stop talking while Mama was praying and I heard them arguing . “why should I pray?” said uncle Nyawana. “I mean, god already knows all my problems and if he’s willing to help let him come forward .” “Bra Nyawana, do you expect god to come and find you?” zero asked when our eyes were closed in prayer. “I have my pride. If he’s willing to help, he knows where to find me, I’m not hiding like he is,” my uncle replied. As we opened our eyes I heard some singing coming from the direction of priest Mthembu’s house. Nosily, I went to the fence to see who was singing, but all I could see was a group of people standing right in the middle of the street, singing and dancing to a popular hymn. Linamandla, linamandla, (It’s powerful, it’s powerful, it’s linamandla igazi lemvana. powerful, the blood of the Lamb.) Lisusa zonk’izono. (It removes all the sins.) priest Mthembu had told us that Jesus would come at twelve on the dot to destroy the sinners. that thought made me a bit nervous as it was obvious that I would miss Jesus’s bus to heaven because of the lies I had told to my family and my secret drinking and smoking. I left the fence and came back to sit on my chair next to zero. “who are those people singing out so loud, Advo?” asked my uncle as I sat down. 113 “they’re the church people at the corner there by maMfundisi’s house.” “Somebody must tell them that today is not the day to be serious. they must put a smile on their faces because we’re approaching the millennium,” responded my uncle. * * * As the night slowly descended on us, uncle Nyawana’s dog, Verwoerd , started to yap and squeak as massive firecracker after massive firecracker exploded in the sky above us. eventually, he crawled between my uncle’s leg and stump for protection. “Bafana, please go and wake my daughter,” asked sis zinhle. “It’s almost time now and I don’t want her to miss the millennium.” It seemed I was there only to run everybody’s errands and I hated it, but I did as I was asked. I stepped inside my room where Mbali was sleeping on my single bed, with her knees pulled up under her chin. She was fourteen years old and beautiful like her mother. “wakey wakey, Mbali, it’s the millennium already!” I said, shaking her gently...