Superstitious

3. Are village monkeys violent?

Jason

Tumelo and I are sprawled under the tree at the backyard. Staring at the  colossal mountain that's also staring at us.

The last time I sat under a tree was at my uncle's. There was a family gathering and the kids sat under a tree so they won't listen to adult discussions-- like they had anything interesting to talk about. Anyway, we had fun that day, my older cousin brought weed and we smoked some when the ulduts were inside and got pretty damn high, they didn't suspect a thing.

I turn to look up at Tumelo, squinting at the sun that's lightening him up, making his brown eyes pop. "Do you think we were a little harsh to Mbali?", I ask. "She was annoyed when she left."

Tumelo lets out a chuckle and looks at me. "Harsh?", he says, looking mountainward again. "No, she got the joke."

"I guess."

"Unless", he chuckles, "unless she's really meeting some ram", we both laugh at the same time. "But on a rather serious note", he starts. "We need to not only joke about her involving herself with rams but warn her too, you know", he squints at the sun, "protect her."

"True", I say. "I don't want to be an uncle at the age of eighteen... or twenty."

"Exactly", he says, "I've seen girls at school drop out because of unplanned pregnancy, that shit's---", he trails off when his phone buzzes from his pockets.

Tumelo is always on his phone, texting most of the time and sometimes just scrolling on Twitter or Instagram. I have both of those things but I don't use them alot, my friends used to complain about my unavailability but I can't help it if I'm not social media addicted like them or Tumelo or Mbali. Mbali is in fact obssessed, she's always on Youtube staring at make-up tutorials.

Tumelo was not on his phone much today, in fact, I didn't see him use it except when he was checking time. Now, he takes it out from his black denim pockets, turns it on and starts scrolling and tapping. I'm staring at him the whole time and he looks irritated and troubled. Then he suddenly clucks and set it down on the grass after turning it off. It's more like a gentle throw.

"Something wrong?"

He sighs. "These people are starting to annoy me", he says, staring mountainward again.

"What people?", I ask curiously.

He turns to me. "Today is Lucky's birthday", he starts, "so they're busy wishing him happy birthday and tagging me."

"Oh...", I mumble, not knowing what to say to him, shit that comes out of my mouth is never helpful.

Lucky was Tumelo's long time best friend, almost like a brother to him. They went to high school together and became roomates in varsity. They were very close but I never knew him intimately but Mbali did, only because she always tried to get his attention whenever he was at the house and she had crush on him. She kept saying he's hot and she stalked him occasionally.

He only visited once at home when  they were in varsity and the second time was not a success. That's when he died. He was on his way to our house, M&D (mom and dad) had invited him over for lunch and the horrendous weather started when he was driving to our house. The blustery wind bursted his car windows and the shards of glass stabbed him to death. He was then found inside his car at a parking lot after the wind had slowed down.

So, he never made his destination.

And of course Tumelo was devasted,  he went through all the stages of grief and anger was the worst. We would find him breaking his mirror and punching walls. His temper got shorter and that's when I noticed that under all that humourous and sarcastic being, there's an angry one.
It's a miracle he made it through.

"I don't get why they should tag me", he says. "I know very well that it's his birthday."

"People can be a nuisance sometimes", I finally say something,  "they just don't know when to shut up."

He chuckles. "Yeah", he says. "I just miss him, you know?"

I pad his back. "I know."

He suddenly winces and I think it's because of the pad but it's not, he tilts his head to the side and says, "Is that a monkey?", he asks, pointing up at the mountain.

I look up and there's something sprinting down. "I think so."

It's fast, like really really fast. I look clearly and it looks like it's heading our way, and just before I could report that, Tumelo yelps. "Oh no Run!"

He jolts to his feet, laughing in the process, and I swiftly get to mine and follow him. We sprint our way around the house and get to the front door, waltzing inside and closing the door behind us, panting and bursting in laughter.

That was honestly amazing.