Kaboentle.
I look around at the busy neighborhood as it busses in and out with taxi's and cars and children and random vendors in the streets and people just trying to make a living.
I've never been exposed to this side of town even back home, papa or Abuti never exposed me to this side of life, they kept me in a bubble and not just Abuti Kghosi alone, all of the men in my life Siya Included and now everybody looks at me like I am crazy when I start to get exposed to the life that they've kept me from, they didn't give me a chance to experience the real world like everybody here is.
I pull my shades up and my hoodie down as I maneuver through the busy streets until I find the passage that I am supposed to turn to as Jabu had directed earlier this afternoon.
The passage takes me a little downhill in the middle of some shacks and I clutch on to my purse when a man squeezes their way in the thin passage with me and we go our separate ways.
A child, round about Nkanyezis age dashes past me barefoot at an intersection in the passage pushing a wire car and I stop right where he found me. I look left and I look right before I take out the small paper she gave me and I see that see that I need to make a right turn.
I move through the passage ducking through the dirty water and the passages that keep narrowing every now and then and people that keep staring at me.
At my next corner and a men is stood at a corner with his hands in his pocket and a Hoodie over his head and he looks like he might just rob me. I bolt across him on my last turn and I start counting the doors that lead to the shack that I am supposed to be meeting this person at until I find their door.
I stand at the door and I knock a few times and I wait. The door swings open and a man stands at the door and he looks at me up and down before he let's me in and as soon I get in I see another man sitting down behind the table and the other two sitting on the table next to him and the one that opened the door for me comes and stands behind me and small shivers run down my spine.
"I am looking for Skate, I found your contact through Mabutho."
"ungabi namahloni, khumula ama-shades."
[Don't be shy, take of the shades.]
The one that's seated in the middle says as he leans foward on the table and he gives me a smirk.
"No I'm... I'm fine... where's the gun ?"
"Hau sister, we don't bite, relaxa mahn we have time to spare."
He says as he starts to let out a small laugh.
"I don't have a lot of time... i have your money right here, so i just need the gun."
I say as I try to sound stern on my word even though deep down I am scared beyond anything.
These man might do anything to me and nobody would know, I wouldn't even be able to try and save myself. They could kill me and that would be the end of me. I am starting to regret what I've even had to go these lengths, why I keep compromising my humanity like this.
I open my bag and I place the stacks of money on the table and I stand where I've been and I go back to nervously clutching at my bag.
"It's all here..."
I tell him and he looks at the money before he looks at me, grabbing one stack of cash and he gives it a little smell before he flashes his gold teeth again.
"mnike isibhamu."
[Give her the gun.]
He orders the one standing next to me and I see him hand me something wrapped in a white cloth.
"Is it loaded ?"
"Yonkinto ikhona exactly like Mabutho asked."
He says and I nod my head at him as I continue to stare at it for a little while.
Are we really back here Kabo ?
