TESORO (His hunted Treasure)

A Trip Down Memory Lane: Part I

TRIGGER WARNING: mention of sexual assault and murder.

I didn't describe it in detail, but I felt I should let you know to be on the safe side

as we know, triggers come in all forms, it could be one word or a paragraph

so I have to be careful

Enjoy reading.

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Johannesburg (South Africa)

Iva age 20

"Hawu mamas! Umuhle kanjan, uyakuphi ngik'khaphe?" (mamas, how beautiful you are, where you headed, I'll walk you)

I gave the guy a tight smile and I continued walking down the path taking me to the taxi rank, Johannesburg CBD, it looked all glitz and glamour on TV, but this place is shady and scary as hell, well there are nice parts, but where I'm currently walking, no, more than 12 languages spoken on one street and everyone understands each other, people come here to phanda (hustle).

They say it's where the money is, people are here to chase the gold some literally some well, I won't even tap into that topic, and me all I want to do is leave, there is nothing left for me here, this was my sister and I's dream, we would finish school move to the City of Johannesburg, get good jobs and live our best life, travel the world

We were getting there, so close but then things took a very bad turn.

My sister and I lived with our mother in King Williams Town, in the Eastern Cape, my mother had, me at a very young age, she was only 17 when she gave birth to me, resulting in her parents disowning her, so she dropped out of school, my father left her to fend for herself.

She found a job as a housekeeper for one Coloured family in Sweet Waters, they allowed her to stay with me there at their house, along the way she fell in love with their son and got married 2 years later, my sister Lerica was born.

My mother never went back to school, she juggled between, taking care of her family and taking jobs to help provide for us, her husband was a nice man, he treated me like his own and the family too, I had a pretty good childhood, but as the saying goes,

" Parents aren't supposed to outlive their children,"

Years of work and exhaustion caught up with my mother, she began to get sick and only Lerica's father was working, we were still a happy family just the four of us, but things got a bit bad when He died after being mugged and stabbed 8 times, my mother was devastated, she had two kids to support and no one to help her, Frank's parents had passed on when we were still kids, it had been just the four of us for a while, and now we were just three

At this time I was only 15 turning 16 in December and was about to start grade 12 the following year and Lerica was 13 years old, my mother despite her health went back to work, we were okay for some time when I finished High school, I joined the army, it started as a joke during career expo with one of my friends daring me to sign up, and I did, I never expected them to accept, but when they did and I saw the stipend they were giving to their trainees I took it in a heartbeat. The money wasn't for me, but my mother and sister, this way my mom could take fewer days at work and be there for my sister, but there was a catch the base was in Johannesburg and I haven't been far from my mom since birth, the furthest I had gone was when we went to the beach with our school that was about 45 minutes to an hour away with private transportation, and now I was expected to move to a different province on my own, I was terrified, but still I went through with it.

" After robot" I called out when I see my stop, and got off, walking to my apartment, I checked the time, it was almost 6:30 pm and I wanted to go for a jog but it was already late, I get lost in my thoughts again as I continue to walk on the side of the road