Superstitious

2. Hills and huts.

Mbali

Honestly, William Wordsworth is not wrong about nature in his poetry but this, this is torture. I'm woken up by a singing bird and whoever finds that sound harmonious clearly hasn't lived in a quiet, birdless surburb. I mean, that thing is loud and disturbing.

I lift my phone up from beside my pillow and check the time, It's only five thirty... five freakin' thirty! And there's no way I'm waking up this early on a Saturday. I need full sleep or I'll have bags under my eyes, I'm too damn pretty to have those. So, I pull my blanket up to my head and attempt to get back to my sleep as soon as the bird shuts its wormhole, which lasts for about twenty seconds until it decides to prod, constantly pecking at my window and I just wish I could pull my ears out. I wait for a few seconds, hoping it will stop and fly away but it doesn't. The pecking continues intermittently.

God! Am I being punished?

The only thing that's allowed to wake me up is a good morning text, not this!

It's official. I hate villages.

I eventually wake up and sit up straight with a huff leaving my mouth. I'm now staring at it as it keeps on pecking. The window is on the wall where the headboard is reclined, so when I sit up, I can see through it and it's mountain view.

Did I mention our house is next to a mountain? Yep, and you know what means? It means a jaguar or possibly, a lion might come down one day and eat us all. I'm saying this because I saw a monkey the first day we arrived and there's more where that came from.

The mountain view is not an eye sore at least, I can see the sunrise at the horizon, the trees and their dark green leaves, rocks and boulders. I've never been one with nature but this, this is beautiful.

I stare at the mountain for a few minutes and then swing my feet to the carpeted floor and stretch my arms and feet with a yawn and then get up, heading out to the living room.

Maybe something interesting is on.

"Hey, I'm heading out for a few hours", I inform Jason and Tumelo who are lazing on the couch in the living room.

It's now past four in the afternoon and I've been up since six, sitting here and feeling miserable. I'm not used to sitting at home the whole day unless I'm on my period or PMSing or just in the mood to stay in, which does not happen more often.

"Where precisely are you going?", Jason asks.

I don't know exactly. I'll walk around in circles, that'll be better than staying here.

"I'm---", before I could finish, Tumelo's annoying voice disturbs.

"Wait wait wait", he says, lifting up his palm at me while looking at Jason, his face clouding with humour and that's when I know, he's about to ridicule me. "I know, she's doing a meet up at the river", he says to Jason as if I'm not standing here and they annoyingly burst out laughing. Apparently, my life's a joke.

Jason cackles. "Oh yeah, like-- ", he trails off, laughing hysterically, "like in those village movies where the couple meets at the river and get all mushy and stuff", he continues laughing until he sprawls on the sofa.

I sigh and fold my arms across my chest, realising how unlucky I am to have these two in my life.

Tumelo starts singing while stifling a laugh. "I'll meet you at the river, I meet you at the river!"

Seriously?!

"Uzong'thola ng'blom' emlanjen, sthandwa sam!", Jason finishes the song and they both laugh, harder. I stand there for at least five seconds, waiting for them to finish but they don't. Their laughing just gets prolonged.

I finally cluck my tongue annoyedly and trail off the room before I kill one of them, then, I leave the house, slamming the door behind me.

There are jerks, and then there's those two.

I need a sister!

The roads here are steep but lucky for me, we live next to a mountain so now It's just sloping down. It'll just be hard when I get back.

I guess I'll just have to sell my heels online then 'cause they won't be of any use here, I would literally fall. For now, I have my AllStars sneakers on and they're comfortable for this kind of roads.

As I'm walking, the streets are empty, not even a sign of kids running around, people are in their houses, if not there, then at the cafè.

I walk for thirty minutes, no idea where I'm headed, trailing my route so I won't forget and get lost. I pull my phone from my back pocket and check whether there's any service and it's there. I let out a breath of relief then continue walking until I reach the last set of houses. The road ahead is just empty, just occupied with trees, large rocks and a river.

I keep on walking to see where I'll end up but as I do, a catch a sight of a hut, an actual hut. You know, those round-shaped, dry grass roofed small houses, possessing one window and one door.

Without any hesitation, I walk straight to it, pass the river and eventually find myself standing at its door. Not knowing what to expect inside, I push the wooden door with coerce, using my palm and it opens. I first peer inside from the doorframe, then eventually, stride inside.

The first thing I do when I enter is cough from the dust that hits my nostrils, but after that, I face lights up at the interior of the hut with instant fascination. I saunter on the dry cow dung smeared floor that-- apparently was used for the maintanance of the floor and It doesn't look bad.

Although the floor is maintained, it is messy and untidy... there's half curved planks, pieces and splints of it, nails, screws and some steels sprawled on the floor. The owner of this hut must've been handy, or at least that is what they considered as work back then.

I tiptoe my way around, eyes focused on the ground, being careful not to trip.

On the other end of the room, there's a decorated grass mat laid down on the floor, long enough for someone to sleep on. Some are leaned on wall. I then remember seeing ones like them on my grandmother's house. Next to the mats is what looks like a bench, a woden bench but without a lean on and arms.

The most fascinating thing about this room is: the different kinds of animal horns and teeth hanged by the wall with a string from the roof.
There's elephant and warthog's teeth, cow, buffalo, springbok and the one that costs a fortune today, the rhino's horns. And do I think of money when I see the rhino horn?

Of course, who wouldn't?

I expect to see some animals' skin but unfortunately, I don't. I continue sauntering around and suddenly, I hear some ruffling and pivot abruptly enough to eventually hit something with my foot and the next thing I know, I'm thudding on the floor and I land on something hard.

It's under my butt and It feels square-shaped, I pause for a second before pulling it out from under me. I heavily lift is up and find that it's a book, an actual book with pages and everything.