TLADI

Chapter 7

It's dark, I saw her slip away, Stima thought, no one will see me... but she will. Aggh! He almost released an audible cry of frustration. No, I will not go. I will not go...

He will not come, Tladi thought as her one dark eye stared out at the dark night sea. His pride is too great, he will not come... she sighed and closed her eye. It is probably a good thing... she thought, inhaling the scent of the sea. Yes, it probably is a good thing, she was aware that she was trying to convince herself. She smiled, her eye still closed.

What a beautiful sight, he thought silently, watching Tladi, eye closed, smiling, with her cute dog's head lying on her lap. I almost do not fear her...he stood and watched the sight a bit longer, seemingly entranced. He always had been attracted to strangeness, and uncommon perceptions of beauty practically defined him. Perhaps it was because he was commonly perceived as beautiful. None could deny that he was a perfectly beautiful man. His ebony brown skin, his tall, lean gazelle-like form; his thick, dark-lashed, wide, almond-shaped, flood-river-brown eyes; his full, thick, pinkish lips and the final big red ribbon to wrap the surprise that he was; he was totally unaware of his beauty and a little shy. His name was Shamiso; it meant 'surprise' in Shona. They used to tease him and say that his parents gave him a girl's name because, for a long time, they were certain that he was a girl. However, he had a deep masculinity about him that often struck you when you saw the deep hollow of his back. He was like a great wild cat; elegantly graceful but powerful, strong, masculine and yet shy or even afraid of the eyes of the common person.

His instrument of choice was the flute. He lifted it to his lips and played a melody that blended in harmoniously with what Tladi was feeling; it was bittersweet. He had a knack for tuning his melodies to the rhythm of people's emotions. It was such that people always thought that the music was playing in their minds; it seemed too in tune with their emotions to come from an external source. Thus Tladi, wrapped in the characteristic white head cloth and cloak, did not even open her eye when Shamiso's tapestry of musical notes filtered through the air. He moved away and smiled to himself.

So, you are thinking about my greatest friend, Stima, Shamiso thought to himself. Thus the cause of the sweetness of your thoughts... but he is not here with you right now...thus the bitter sadness... Shamiso could practically read minds because of his perceptive musical talent. His greatest friend tended, teasingly, to accuse him of weaving a spell with the music of his flute to access people's thoughts without them knowing. Stima had said that it was especially effective because no one bewitched ever had a recollection of hearing Shamiso play because of how well his music blended in with people's emotions. Shamiso's quiet laugh whispered down the hillside as he recalled his greatest friend's characteristic teasing. He scratched his ebony muscled naked chest as he smilingly contemplated paying his friend a visit.

His white beaded necklace with the image of a black beaded eye rattled as his leopard-skin clad form moved like lava down the hillside... Unaletastima looked up unhurriedly, from the supper his ageing mother had prepared for him, as his greatest friend rolled into his hut. He noted, as always, how his fluid, gracefully fast, gait gave the appearance of being slow and dangerous like flowing lava. Shamiso's feline form unrolled a straw mat, laid it across from Unaletastima and sat down in one swift, fluid movement before he spoke.

"Greetings, Stima." His pleasant voice resonated with a smile in the name he called his greatest friend for short. It meant 'light', Shamiso was reminded; by the buttery yellow candlelight, flickering across his friend's slightly rounded dark mahogany features. He tasted a bit of Stima's supper of foo-foo with okra while Stima greeted him in kind.

"Greetings, Shami," he smiled, and then frowned as Shami helped himself to a bit of the lump of what looked like white dough and dipped it in Stima's bowl of sauce. Stima did not quite approve of everyone eating from the same bowl; he thought it was unhygienic even though culture dictated that people eat that way. Shamiso smiled at this. He swatted a moth from his ebony bald head as his pleasant voice filtered into the walls of Stima's hut.

"A lady waits on the cliff top. Her mind is sweet with thoughts of you and bitter with the sadness of your absence," he said solemnly, smiling with his flood-river-brown eyes. Stima looked up at him quickly, his darker eyes narrowing questioningly, his food-filled hand halfway to his almost smiling thick pink lips.

"Really? How do you know this lady's thoughts?" Stima asked, displaying his curious interest.

"I'm just a very perceptive person, Stima." Shamiso secretively smiled. Stima raised the food to his mouth, chewed and swallowed before he spoke again.

"You didn't happen to play your flute before your perceptiveness just happened to start working did you?" Stima asked with the same laughter-filled tone to his voice.

"And what if I did, my curious friend?" Shamiso replied mischievously.

"Then I'd say there was some kind of conspiracy..." He answered, laughing in molten, golden, little, interlinked bursts and turning his laughing eyes back to his food.

"I merely bring you knowledge, what you do with it is entirely up to you." Shamiso's pleasant voice was filled with suppressed laughter. Very few people knew this side of Shamiso.

"It's pointless anyway, how am I supposed to know who this 'lady' is?" Stima said, an edge of mystery added to his laughing voice. He was playing mind-games now, Shamiso noticed.

"What are you doing?" Stima's humored exclamation sounded as Shamiso played his flute before responding. Stima had always been better than him at mind-games so he did not bother playing.

"You know who this 'lady' is because you were just thinking about her." Shamiso said between ripples of his quiet laughter.

"I wasn't thinking about Tladi!" Stima reflexively replied, instantly realizing that he had given himself away and reflexively smiling his slight disappointment at his greatest friend as he shook his dreadlocked head.

"I think you just answered your own question," Shamiso said, visibly shaking with quiet laughter. A pleasant smile spread across his fine high-cheek-boned royal features. With a quick fluid movement, he had rolled up the straw mat and was flowing through the entrance to Stima's hut, smiling his 'goodnight'. Stima could not help but smile back.