TLADI

Chapter 1

The Sangoma, Umthunz'omnyama, shook her red and white beaded locks of hair out of a face that people hardly ever saw. She swatted the air in front of her face with her ox-tail.
"My child! Must you really know this story?" her deep rough solemn voice asked, her dark
yellowed eyes gleaming at Tladi.
"Yes," Tladi said, seriously, with her quiet threatening voice. Umthunz'omnyama chuckled,
a deep vibrating sound, effectively hiding her discomfort.
"If I didn't know you like such, I'd think you were actually threatening me. But I know you
naturally speak like such; like you're threatening someone..."
"Tell me," Tladi said, unblinkingly, her quiet threatening voice descending to a whisper.
"But I am your mother now... that is all that matters." Umthunz'omnyama uttered gravely, her voice, growing rougher, her previous attempts to change the subject having failed. Tladi did not always get along with the other children at the village. There were simply too many things about her that were different. The children liked to tease her about her eye patch,
Umthunz'omnyama could imagine how much worse it would be if she did not wear it. It was a beautiful eye patch; Umthunz'omnyama herself had killed the springbok whose pelt they had used. She had cut the slanted oval shape just where the springbok's stripes were. The brown, black and white smooth glossy fur went perfectly with Tladi's pale powdery skin. Skin that glittered in the sunlight, stretched over a small expectant face that looked seriously at
Umthunz'omnyama. Tladi's one beautiful eye shone blue and laser-like into Umthunz'omnyama
own dark eyes. Oh but why did children have to be so cruel?! She thought to herself. And why
did Tladi have to be so aggressive? Tladi had struck down another child who had been teasing her about her eye patch. The child, a boy, was egged on by his pride and the other boys' shouts of "What? You are just going to leave her? You're such a coward!" Therefore, he had had to
avenge this dent to his six-year-old ego.
"You witch-child!" he had screamed, tears streaming and nose running. "My mama said you
don't even have a real mama!" The children had gone deathly silent, they were all afraid of Tladi
and none of them would have ever ventured that far.
"What do you mean?" Tladi's quiet threatening voice had asked in confusion. She had never
raised her voice, not to anyone, under any circumstances. She had never even cried when she
was born or when she was a baby. The little boy, fuelled by his desire for vengeance and Tladi's
sudden vulnerability, plunged headfirst to open what was now Umthunz'omnyama's can of
worms.
"My mama said your real mama died when you were born and that you killed her and that...
the Sangoma (this was whispered in fear) took pity on you..." A victorious smile had spread
across his face. The result was this tall beautifully terrifying child standing before Umthunz'omnyama in the enclosed, private end of her medical hut, beseechingly seeking
clarification.
"No child, I'm not your mother by blood. I do not know what I would give to look like you,
to be your real mother! But I'm not..."
"You're not?" Tladi's one eye widened in shock.
"Then who are you?" Tladi's voice whispered stutteringly.
"I am the mother you never had. I'm not your mother by blood, but I am your mother by
love..." Umthunz'omnyama's voice gravely trailed off. She looked into Tladi's one eye, searching for understanding in the dark indigo depth. She did not find it. The six-year-old Tladi screamed, for the first time in her life, in rage and pain. Distant thunder rumbled. She began to cry; big wet drops dripped from her left eye. The rain clouds suddenly gathered. The six-year-old with a ten-year-old's height ran out of Umthunz'omnyama's enclosed end of the medicine hut, into the large, patient-filled hut and out into the coming rain. She was yelling through her tears:
"Why can't I just be normal?!" The wind blew fiercely; the storm was immediately upon them. Umthunz'omnyama wondered what Tladi had done to the boy after he had said those things to her. She really wished she knew. There was a hesitant knock at the entrance to her hut. Umthunz'omnyama raised eyes hidden by her red and white beaded dreadlocks, to the door.
There was a tall young Masai couple standing there, clapping their hands as a sign of respect. Umthunz'omnyama nodded her head to signal that they may come in.
"We have come about the matter of your child Tladi and what she has done to our child,
Unaletastima." The couple said, in the most deeply respectful tones they could muster.
Umthunz'omnyama recalled that she had wished she knew what Tladi had done to the boy who
had angered her. Be careful what you wish for, she thought. She nodded her head for them to
continue, her dark eyes on them, her beads rattling like a rattlesnake before it struck. The couple had actually come with an accusation, a serious, angry accusation. However, their fear far overrode their anger. This was a Sangoma after all. One gifted with the powers to heal or to do the reverse. Her name was Umthunz'omnyama after all, and it did mean "The Black Shadow."
One did not exactly go and whirl screaming accusations at a Sangoma. Many had died mysteriously after doing far less. Had Umthunz'omnyama not been a Sangoma, then war most
certainly would have been waged. The tall, dark couple was wise enough to know who would win.

"Tladi hurled a curse at our son." The mother said slowly and then paused. Umthunz'omnyama nodded for her to continue. 

"She said; 'with my eye that I miss, I curse you. By cock crow tomorrow you will be dead!' with one long finger pointed at my son. Now he has a fever, a very sudden, serious, raging fever."

"And we don't know what to do..." The father said, near to tears.
"We don't want our son to die, he's our only child!" The mother nearly raised her voice.
Umthunz'omnyama sharply turned her head. She was only gentle with her patients and with
Tladi. Inspiring fear was part of who Umthunz'omnyama was. However, her heart went out to
the couple, she understood their plight. So, in her solemn voice she said:
"You must teach your son the right way to treat people. You must teach him to know when to hold his tongue... I will consult with the ancestors to see if they call me to save his life. You may leave." Umthunz'omnyama bowed her head and exhaled as though they were already gone. The couple hesitantly stood and clapped their hands together in respect the same as when they had entered. You could tell that they wanted to say something like "But he's only six! He is a child! How can this be his fault?!" but they could not, would not say that, not to a Sangoma. So they humbly left and went home to hope and pray.

Umthunz'omnyama knew she did not have the power to save that boy's life. Only Tladi could do that, she was the one who had cursed him, only she could undo the curse. The best that Umthunz'omnyama could do was try to convince Tladi to undo the curse. She just stopped herself from shuddering. The child was only six years old and yet she was equal to Umthunz'omnyama, a grown woman, in power.
"Such power can only grow as you grow. Something must be done before such growth occurs..." Umthunz'omnyama muttered to herself. Lightning struck, shaking her out of her reverie. 'I must find Tladi' she thought to herself. She told her initiates, who served as her helpers, her 'nurses', that she would be gone for a while. They knew what to do. The supple,
lithe, mahogany-brown-skinned woman, who would have been seen as beautiful if she was not a Sangoma, stepped out into the waning sunlight and pouring rain. She ran, gazelle-like, for the hills to the cliffs above the sea; to a place where Tladi would always go when she was troubled.