kiss the game goodbye

'We're here today to bury the soul of our beloved,'Pastor Leferetlho said. 'Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.'

As the pastor echoed those words, Saloon and friends were sitting inside the vehicle, a toyota Camry, on the freeway above the cemetery. He was crying.

'Eish!' Saloon said. His exclamation was followed by rears rolling down his cheeks.


'Sorry bro,' Andrew tried to comfort him.

Mobil nodded and wiped his spectacles. His eyes too were soaked with tears.

'He's gone now,' Saloon said. 'We'll never see him again.'
'I wish......'

'Sorry bro,' Andrew cut in. 'It seems like we'll mourn him till we join him.'

Mobil nodded again.

'Yep!' Mobil finally blew what was on his chest. 'We'll never find a good man like Oom Fantein nie (we will never find a good man like Old Fantein). May his soul rest in peace. Though he lived peacefully during his life on earth.'

Mobil accelerated the vehicle like Tom Cruise on a Days of Thunder movie set. All eyes looked to the freeway. It remided pastor Leferetlho of a psalm 121 bible verse.

'let's bow our heads,' pastor Leferetlho told those gathering to give their last respects to Oom Fantein.

He began to pray out loud; 'As i lift my eyes to the mountains where would my help come from. my help come from the Lord who made Heaven and Earth......'

as the mourners sang the last hymn, humming it, Saloon and his friends were already on their knees. they had tip-toed in the grave-side of his late father during the lord's prayer.

'and then?' pastor Leferetlho asked a question with his eyes glued on Saloon.

'we,' Saloon stummered. we.....'

"you what?"

'we're sorry pastor. we didn't want to intrude.'

" he-he!" this kid. you what ?"

'we're sorry for being late for my father's burial, pastor.ek soos al die mense hier (i like any mourner right here) I'm here to pay my respect. to bury the late Fantein. can we please talk privately?'

Pastor Leferetlho shook his head in disbelief.

Saloon's mother, Stephina, cried uncontrollably and said; ' you see Mavis, that's is the reason i couldnt hesitate but kick this rotten potato out of my house for good. he is the reason Fantein died of heart attack. he is still a gangster. how does a kid not be scared to look a man of God in the eye and lie?'

saloon was back home and his mother stephina threw him a welcome party a week just after the passing of her man, fantein. saloon could not be happier. the surprise miss party happened to be pastor leferetlho's daughter.

'huh?' saloon said in shock. ' i never thought you would be here.'

'i'm,' replied kenosi. 'relax.' how is your gangster friends?'

' i kissed the game goodbye, sweetie.'

'we're not an item, sweetheart.'

'with your dad, anything is possible. to answer your question on gangsters, it isnt a cool thing to be. the devil is hot and jesus is cool.'

'that's gangster!'

'what?'

'hearing a gangster repenting is hot.' i cant believe what i hear.'

'abel, mobil and their boss, colours, are ethers. they eat your soul like liquid objects.'

'that's science fiction,hun.'

'i have been reading my english encyclopaedia and got death threats from my ex-friends that was when i came accross the word; ether.'

'you sound sarcastic.'

'do you have a girlfriend?'

'what kind of question is that?' besides, there is no need. you're mine.'

'silly but right. i love you but no sex before marriage, right?'

'right.'

lerato

lerato

she was the most beautiful girl i had ever seen. she came to me when i was sitting on the bench of a train. i had seen her before. the priest was preaching in the train last year. he asked if there was a person who want to be prayed for. she raised her arm. she was playing with the phone. you know, scrolling. i was busy looking at her. when she looked back, i would shyly look away. she smiled.

she had seen that i loved her long before she said:' dont you want to join me in this?'

i was shocked but happy as well.

'okay' i said.

it was crazy. to me it was like our wedding day. the priest finished. she disappeared through the crowd after the train stopped. i could see her. she came back january this year beaming. wearing a short skirt. she showed me pictures of her family members in her phone. she said they lived in soweto.

'i love you', i quipped.

she laughed and hugged me.

'i have been waiting for this day.' she replied.

i cried tears of joy as i kissed her.

she was the most beautiful girl i had ever seen. she came to me when i was sitting on the bench of a train. i had seen her before. the priest was preaching in the train last year. he asked if there was a person who want to be prayed for. she raised her arm. she was playing with the phone. you know, scrolling. i was busy looking at her. when she looked back, i would shyly look away. she smiled.

she had seen that i loved her long before she said:' dont you want to join me in this?'

i was shocked but happy as well.

'okay' i said.

it was crazy. to me it was like our wedding day. the priest finished. she disappeared through the crowd after the train stopped. i could see her. she came back january this year beaming. wearing a short-skirt. she showed me pictures of her family members in her phone. she said they lived in soweto.

'i love you', i quipped.

she laughed and hugged me.

'i have been waiting for this day.' she replied.

i cried tears of joy as i kissed her.

"Why does it always rain?"she whispered,"Every day the same thing."
"It rains so we can cuddle up in front of the fireplace and drink cognac,"I laughed, pulling her closer.

belle

Belle was a fine, older woman. she had it all;a well paying job, a nice car, an upmarket house, nice clothes and jewellery, almost anything. The only thing that was missing when she got to her house was; you got it right! a man. a lack of a man knocked down her confidence. her only confidantes were her colleaguses who she began to suspect.

she would hurt every time they went out with their mates. they telling her about it, about them, was thought to be nothing but bragging.

She had dated men before. Men of all races and classes or at least she wanted her friends and the neighbourhood to believe.She no longer wore nice, shiny, engagement ring that she wore the first week she worked at KMPG, auditors firm. she had regular sex with strangers anywhere for over five months after she broke up with Tim.

She was still in love with him. she is the one who broke his heart by dumping him in front of her ex-girlfriends. she now missed him and cried herself to sleep. The only thing that she held tight on her chest at night was a warm, big, browm, teddy bear that he bought her and gave her as a birthday surprise. She got herself a helper because she could not do errands regularly. Her helper's name was Ralph. An early twenties young man straight out of high school.

Belle bought her everything a young man needed to get attracted to, and accept the attention given to him by the opposite sex.

Belle heared through her girlfriends that Ralph did school and college girls in the Mercedes she bought him. She tested him by secretly organising a candlelit supper for both of them. She tried to seduce him. He cried fatigue. It had been sometime since they made love. She went to his car and ransacked it. All that happened when he thought she had gone to the bathroom or the kitchen. He heared people screaming outside. It was his Mercedes on fire.

Minutes later the fire brigade team came and extinguished the flames.

"I did it," Belle told the police and whoever cared. "I want him no more. He betrayed me.

She fainted on the arms of aN emergency medical team man.

Ralph packed his stuff and leaved by the back door, jumped the wall into the back street and walked home devastated.

pearl and her theatre script

he always suspected that his fiance was cheating on him. he did not care. he never asked her about it. he never moaned. when he came back home from a two-week trip from work, he sat on his sofa facing the tv and watched comedy. he had a collection of comedies and comic books to keep stress at bay. he would draw people, cartoons and situations. he caught the tv executive exiting his neighbourhood on countless occassions. he had heared his ex-classmates telling him a story about a tv celebrity who came and had fun inside a man who is always away. they did not want to clarify when he asked for an explanation. they only told him to relax because it was not him.

he asked his boss to excuse him for two weeks because he wanted to catch criminals who break inside his house whilst at work. his boss understood but told him that he was going to lose a lot on bonuses come the festive season. he saw his house candle-lit whilst relaxing with his friends one fateful night and decided to go check what was going on.

reddy found a celebrity car he had seen just a week before parked under his peach tree. he slowly opened the gate, slowly opened his lounge door, tip-toed to his bedroom and saw a figure getting out of bed speedily and buttoned its shirt.

'who are you ?' reddy asked in the dark.

pearl lit the bedroom and replied; 'it's not what you think it is. forgive me.'

reddy wrestled the celebrity on the floor.

he hit reddy on the foot with a bedside lamp.

reddy's friends rushed him to the nearest clinic. he then laid a charge against the tv executive-cum celebrity. the whole thing became a front page news. pearl and reddy's housekeeper professed to have seen it coming. pearl expelled her.

reddy moved out of the house and filed for divorce.

pearl had been eyeing steven for some time. they had met at a theatre play; pinocchio. she was wearing a perfume and a shortk skirt that turned heads. steven wrote her an autograph with his cell-numbers on it. she was now a little bit famous because of steven's court appearance. she lied that she was the one who dumped reddy but professed that both steven and reddy have wives she knew. she dumped steven just after she passed her theatre script test. she then fell in love with paul who was a theatre actor for years and a theatre owner.