Courtesy of THE PROFESSOR

+Lulu Lumbiwe


     

                      PREFACE

Let’s be honest, true stories are boring. But if you add a little spice to the truth, you don’t exactly lie but you come up with a good book.

            What you are about to read is not a lie. Well, it’s not the truth either. I’d prefer calling it an interesting version of the truth. I’ve been through a lot of pain and suffering my whole life. I have friends that have been through worse. So this is a collection of so many life experiences compressed into one character, ‘Senzo Zulu’, a South African child that travels the world for his father’s sake just in search of happiness to be restored to his life.

            This story is a journey so buckle up your seat belt, just don’t cry.

               

                      CHAPTER 1

                                                 HEARTACHE

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                When people argue, someone has to be wrong and someone has to be right. I like to make myself believe that nobody is wrong when my parents argue. Well, quite honestly, they argue so frequently I can no longer differentiate between an argument and a joyful conversation, a smile and a frown, laughter and a cry.                                                                     My name is Senzo Zulu. I live in Kwazulu Natal South Africa. Nobody cares about me where I come from. In the eyes of many, I am just a mistake that occurred twelve years ago when my parents fornicated in a bush near their school. Yes, I am just considered as a product of two drunkard teenagers that dropped out of high school and barely knew each other until they discovered the pregnancy. I sometimes feel like I am the reason why both my parents got rejected by their families to live in this joy-forsaken pit just to starve to death and show the world God's punishment for sexual immorality.

            How do I become happy knowing my parents love me yet that's more than anyone can say for what they feel for each other?

            I wake up one morning and find my father crying on the floor, ''Where is your mother?'' he asks me.

            l keep quiet because l honestly don't know where she is but the bad dreams l had the previous night kept me up long enough to see her tip-toe  out of the house last night. But still I keep quiet because I don't know where she is.

            ''Where is your mother?!'' he screams in my ear.

            ''I don't know!" I respond.

            Then in anger he leans over and slaps me so hard it feels like a fist. It’s not the first time l bleed at the hands of this beast so l don't make a sound.

            "Outside, now!" he shouts.

            On my way outside, my brain is crowded with so many things and none of them is prayer because many are the times l have prayed for God to save me from the wrath of this mad man without being answered. Atheism for me is understandable.

            He follows me out and picks a huge stick and I already know what follows. Imagine, l could feel the pain even before he began flogging me. Then just before he swings the stick, a voice exclaims from behind, "don't hurt him!" it was my mother, the other beast.

            He looks at her with relief and rage. l never understood what was going on. The reason why he was so hurt just because my mother went out. As l wonder in perplexity the reason for this whole enigma, he begins to cry again. Unbelievably, I feel bad and begin to cry with him. Somehow I'm glad l don't understand what is really going on because l don't want to side with anyone.

            The situation suddenly becomes violent. He runs towards mother so quick she doesn't even have a chance to run. He reaches for her neck and strangles her until they both fall to the ground and he starts punching her in the face and she begins to bleed like an overrunning tap of water. It is not the first time she bleeds by the hands of this beast either.

            This is all l live for; violence, pain, horror and anger. l hate my parents and l love them at the same time. I summarized my life as an ugly beauty, but little did l realize the many secrets that were kept from me. This is not my life, it is just a picture my parents painted in my head that is yet to be unveiled...

            ...my name is Senzo Zulu, and I don't know who I am...

                                                ...not yet...

                                                                                                                                                                                                             to be continue