Nkosazana
Everyone left and I was left with Phila. He disappeared for sometime and I stood there. I wasn't cuffed, wasn't blind folded i was like a guest. I stood there for sometime and than walked around until i stood in front of the greatest panting of all time. The Mona Lisa, i knew it wasn't fake when I moved closer to it.
Phila: Beautiful isn't it?
I turned and just there next to him " The kiss by Gustav klimt" was there and I ran and stood there.
Me: Oh my God, is this the Kiss?
Phila: you know your art
I stood in the middle of the passage and I noticed it was art collection of all the famous paintings and my bones told me that these are not fake. They real but the museums have fake and they don't even know it.
Me: growing up I was different than the other kids and so reading was my thing. I remember once wanting to be a painter but than God never gifted me with the ability to draw nor paint.
Phila: I see
Me: You literally have billions hanging on your walls
Phila: the art of stealing did pay off.
Me: and how did you manage it?
Phila: am no Da vinci but my work is being admired all over the world.
I turned and looked at him.
Me: you saying that you forged all these paintings at they respective museums ?
He nodded and I turned. Something about him was comforting, i should be scared since his admitting to being a theft and forger meaning that he going to kill me cause no criminal will just admit that and allow me to leave his home with my heart beating.
Phila
Me: how did you know it was me?
She blushed and looked at the paintings.
Nkosazana: your perfume at first.
Me: my what?
I looked at her confused.
Nkosazana: your perfume, iv never meet someone with that musky, spicy scent.
Me: Oh
Nkosazana: Than you turned and the dragon tongue showed and I knew it was you cause that time we meet your tattoo intrigued me.
Me: is that so?
Nkosazana: Yeah.
Me: so my perfume and tattoo got me caught by someone who has only been on the job for a week?
She smiled giving me the most perfect picture perfect smile. She really was remarkably beautiful. I shook my head wanting to be more clear, cause she really making me lose my mind.
Nkosazana
Phila: You something else
Me: so iv been told. Can I ask you a question?
We were now in his open plan stainless grey kitchen. I swear it looked like no one has ever cooked in here. I stood there admiring the neatness of everything as he moved about freely.
Phila: Your question
Me: Why this kind of work? Why steal when clearly you have brains and could work anywhere.
He smiled looking at me and i felt a tag in my heart and I looked at floor.
Phila: its all started as a need to live. Here i was doing my 3rd in varsity to become the best surgeon doctor in the world than I lost my mom and dad in a matter of minutes in a car accident. My world ended, my lovely mother was the best cardiologist in South Africa and my dad was the best Surgeon in the world but they both had gambling problems. Long story short they died left me in debts and I had no money for school. My friends helped where they could but it wasn't enough. I had to watch my home be taken apart piece by piece by the banks. My mother friends gave me handouts whenever they saw me feeling sorry for who I am until one day one of them invited me to they home and I stole a spoon.
Me: a spoon?
He smiled giving me those goosebumps
Phila: Do you know how much a silver spoon is worth?
I shook my head no.
Phila: 240 rands depending where you pawn it. And that covered me for two weeks worth of food. So every week ill go to they home for dinner parties and Ill steal a few spoons and pawn it. If I needed a book or something for school or my life. Ill go to any of they ridiculous parties and steal a few spoons and than pawn it. That how I survived a year of school till i got my bursary thinking that life was sorted but it wasn't. Xola mom got sick, i came up with a plan to help get him his money to help. Zola dad got deep in loan sharks, I came up with a plan to help him with that. Ntokozo bursary dropped him in his last year and his mom started panicking, i came up with a plan to help him stay in school. Mlu has anxiety problems that comes from a life of trauma and I came up with the plan of removing him from that broken home.
Me: How?
He looked at me and chopped his tomatoes.
Phila: I shot a bullet between his rapist of a father and planted the gun on his mother hand and left with him leaving her with the ordeal of explaining how did she allow her husband to rape they child for years and her without fighting back.
We were both quiet for some time.
Me: You always taking care of others. What about you, who takes care of you?
Phila: God...
I looked at him confused and I know he saw that but he took a plate placed my sandwich and passed it to me and I knew that the conversation was over when he took a bite of his food...
