Untitled by Kgebetli Moele Page B

you cannot live without fear.”
    â€œWhere does it say in the Scriptures that you have to live in fear?”
    He said many things, always referring back to the King James version – so much so, in fact, that I had to have it with me when I was talking to him so that I could refer to it and validate what he was saying. The most daring thing he said was that my pastor is a fraud as are most of the pastors in the world. They are the ones making war in the world, labelling people to make them feel different – this is a Muslim, this is a Catholic – but they all serve the same God and are all hoping for eternal life. He used a parable form the Gospel according to Matthew to prove what he was saying:
    â€œIn the parable of the sower, some of the seeds dropped on rich soil and they grew and produced, some fell on poor soil and they grew but didn’t produce well and some fell on rocks and got eaten by birds. Whose fault is it that the seed fell on the rocks? Is it the sower’s fault or the seed’s fault?”
    â€œThe one who was planting the seeds.”
    â€œThen, my dear, redemption is yours because the person who planted you here wanted you here, and what you are doing here is because he wants you to do what you are doing. And that, Mokgethi, is something that no pastor will ever tell you.”
    Kevin is an exceptional Mr Liar Liar. He has been with his girlfriend for ten years and they have two children together, and he still has countless beautiful girls. He is a player. Those who know him say that once he sleeps with a girl, she will forever be his. They say it is because he uses traditional potions to get into the mind of a girl, but that is not true. It is just that he knows what to say. Kevin can talk his way out of hell and once a girl trusts him, she will trust him forever. He knows how to put words together. He will take his time imposing himself, but eventually he will overwhelm a girl. I summed him up as if he were a tricky trigonometry sum the first time I met him and yet he is still thinking and hoping that one day he will dip it in Mokgethi. But he never will.
    There are also community terrorists, powerful and above the law. Prison is a five star hotel for them. Tsietsi, for example. If Tsietsi shows up in a place, most people will disappear as fast as lightning.
    James is so full of balls and shit that he can defend his ground against an older man any day of the week, but in front of Tsietsi he kneels down and raises his hands. He will not even try to run away.
    One night I will never forget – the 27th of April, as we were celebrating our freedom – Tsietsi crept up on us like a lion. As soon as someone announced that Tsietsi was on his way, we all tried to disappear as quietly as possible. James’s girlfriend, Katlego, was with us and she suggested that we should avoid using the main gate, but unfortunately Tsietsi avoided using the main gate too.
    â€œHey!” Pause. “What is going on here?”
    We froze. There was no response. The sound of celebrating faded away and all I could hear was my heartbeat.
    â€œAre you running away on Freedom Day? On Freedom Day, are we running away? On Freedom Day? No. No.” He shook his head. “No way. We cannot run on Freedom Day. Never, ever on Freedom Day. Never.”
    He looked at James as if expecting him to do something and all of a sudden I wanted to pee, even though Tsietsi wasn’t even looking at me.
    â€œWe do not have to run from anything on Freedom Day. It wouldn’t be Freedom Day if we had to run.”
    I do not know what he expected us to say and it was clear that none of the others knew either. This guy lives on the same block as James, six houses from James’s house, so we know him well – we grew up with him. Although Tsietsi is not even twenty yet, he has been in more trouble with the law than anyone I know. At school he terrorised his schoolmates and stole from his