If You Keep Digging by Mopai Keletso;

Author:Mopai, Keletso;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 5844440
Publisher: Jacana Media

Skinned

WHEN LEHUMO ASKED YOU to meet his father, you were startled but flattered: no man had ever introduced you to anyone. Perhaps it had something to do with your reclusive personality. Or maybe it had to do with your skin; most probably that. You’re “too light”, as people put it. You glow in the dark. You scare toddlers.

Your best friend, Lolo, said to you: “They’re terrified of dating people like us. Samantha, it will never last.”

“Lehumo is different,” you told her.

You didn’t like how she’d said “they”, as if he was some extraterrestrial species and not a human being just like you. You remembered his genuineness when he said to you on your first date: “I don’t mind. I don’t know why anyone would mind dating an albino. My younger brother was born with albinism anyway.” You watched his thick lips as he uttered those words. You gazed at his melanin-kissed face and your heart quivered.

Sometimes you thought, no, Lolo’s right; it won’t work. But the two of you had made it together so far, eight months without you sensing any trouble.

At the coffee shop, the same one where you and Lehumo first met, your round blue hat and flowery dress drew attention. Lehumo stood up and waved you over, a huge smile on his face.

His father was sitting at the table. They could almost be twins, if not for Lehumo’s tall stature. When you reached out to shake the old man’s hand, you noticed a familiar hostility in his eyes.

“Haven’t you learnt anything from what we go through every day with your brother?” he began before Lehumo could even introduce you. “Now you want to bring somebody like this into our family?”

Your knees weakened. When you opened your mouth, words did not come out. You looked at Lehumo. He appeared even more embarrassed than you were. You knew then that you did not want to be there.

The blackness in your bedroom is almost comforting. It is 8 p.m. on the dot.

“Sam, open up!” Lolo’s squeaky voice pierces the door.

“Sam!”

As soon as you open the door, you wrap your arms around her and just weep. You would dig your heart out with a shovel if you could. If it means not feeling the heaviness of your bones. The dryness of your throat. The pain.

“Not out here, Sam,” she says under her breath, wiping the tears off your face. She pulls you inside and closes the door. “What’s with the darkness in this place?” she asks, struggling to locate the light switch.

“No, don’t. Please, I prefer it this way.”

The two of you lie in your bed in the dusk, staring at nothingness. Your luminous skin shimmers in the room. The air just silent.

Lolo finally says into the stillness: “I am sorry.”

“I know.”

“So, what did Lehumo say to you?”

“He said he was sorry ...”

You breathe in as deeply as you can, then add, “He said he loves me and that he didn’t expect his father to react the way he did.”

“That’s a nice thing to –”

“I broke up with him.

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