The melting man

Under The Rug

Two weeks had passed and it happened again. This time with witnesses, well sort of, but a blind witness is still a witness.

It has been two weeks since I have had any contact with the unknown or dream land or as Milhe would call it the ancestral home land. I was feeling like blue crane free and well rested. Free of creepy dreams of the melting man and I was seemingly proud of this self proclaimed achievement. All I am saying is that not dreaming about a man should be an award winning, breathtaking achievement thank you.

It was a Friday because for me, Friday is the most "biedliekke" day in all my days of living. I hate Friday's, I am sure that I have a Friday curse and that Friday's are a day to inconvenience me. It never rains anymore, the effects of climate change and global warming run into South Africa two decades ago. So it doesn't rain much more but it does rain, rarely like once every season. When it does rain it rains for eleven to seventeen days. And Friday happened to day one of rainy week or half month depending on the forecast.

In these two decades South Africa had adapted to the new climate. The government had built boat communities which consists of shipping containers made to house each household within that ward because of the flood every three months. Flood proofing was done to all houses and building to prevent damages to the natural disasters that has now become a new normal to us South Africans. We had started with the national flood drill. First the precedent will address the nation, where he sits in the house of parliament telling us the forecast which includes when and how long it will rain.

After the nation address we start with the big move into each ward boat. Ward boats has the same amount of school and hospital buildings etc. Each school and hospital building is just made into five to ten shipping containers. A ward is like an area code. South Africa was one of the first countries to adapt to the climate change in the globe, the first country was China. BRICS was of great help to this big change. Each ward consists of three thousand to seven thousand people. Shipping containers are stacked on each with ladders to our temporary house.

The big move was during school holidays consisting of ten days before the first day of rain in order to help the government workers with the move. The temporary house are already furnished with the essentials like rugs, basic houseware to make it warm because electricity is only available for two to four hours one to three times depending on the stage of load shedding put on the boat. Blackout happen more often on the boats then off the boats. The school kids have to let the workers in and help them pack items to move to their second home.

Shipping containers provide for little living space and because of this children aged ten and up are moved into there respective schools to prevent further accidents and injury. The government also put an alcohol ban on during this rainy season to help keep the hospital's resources from running out, because of accidents and injuries that could easily be avoided with a sober mind. During the ten day flood drill or as kids like to call it the government's way of cheating us out of our school holidays, the is a change in the usual sunny drought weather we use too.

We would have bitter cold days now. Days my annoying best friend Ayesha would not squirm in misery, which only added more to my misery. Ayesha was that happiest on these days of misfortune. And this bring me back to this fateful Friday, I was in my section of the room I shared with Ayesha and I was starting to rain cats and dogs. I was doing fine ignoring her plea' to go outside like a tikkop. There was a knock on the door so I went to open it only to find no one at the door.

Click Cluck

No, that cannot be what I think it is. Ayesha heard it too because she got visibly excited and run towards the sound. Honestly I do not know how I am still friends with this girl, she has no common sense but she is still my friend and I would not know what I would do without her I follow her like a tikkop would. I hate Friday's. I follow her and the sound to the Life Orientation class. She was ahead of me. I stood in front of the class not willing to enter. It had become dead quiet.

I opened the door and that is when it happened. Mihle stood there chair in his hand raised up about to come down on what looked like a rat moving beneath the rug. I turned and faced Ayesha, she had this confused expression on her face while I probably looked horrified.

"What is it? Why is he standing like that?"

"Shhhs, Ayesha I don't know what it is", I whispered back to her.

"Why are you whispering? Is it really Miss Click Cluck?"

"No, that is no ghost", both me and the rug whispered to her.

"Why can't I see?"

"I don't know." I said to her.

"Ok then, do you know what that clicking sounds was then?"

"If I had to it was a Xhosa ritual and that is not Mihle"…

…" Mihle is possessed by one of his ancestors for protection against whatever is under the rug"

"There is nothing under the rug", says Ayesha the blind witness.

"Something is definitely under the rug… wait something is happening"

Smudges of purple and grey started to faze through the rug carefully forming the perfect features, the darkest brown of mop curls I would notice from anywhere. The melting man stood.

He stood there, in the face of Milhe's trance state. Mihle dancing with the chair in hand. He looked at Mihle knowingly, the melting man knew who Mihle was. He reached his hand out to touch Mihle. The same hands that I had Jet Lee-ed two weeks ago. I had see enough of this man and I have had it with him. His problem is with me. I am the one. His heart choose me. Well, technically his heart mixed with the river water. I am confused, is it even called river water or is it just called river.

I stormed over to where he stood wanting to involve my friend in whatever this is. I tapped him on the shoulder trying to get his attention. He turned around to face his interruption. His pale thin lips forming that line I have traced over into my books many time over the years. This features looming into my reality. His eyes were dead, the fiery glow nearly extinguished as his pupils were dilated due to the darkness caused by this wretched weather, making look more cold and reminding me that the melting man is no man. He is a painting.

Common sense flowed back into my brain as I remembered what I was dealing with. The corners of his lips pulled upwards, the look was breathtaking and my heart rate must have spiked at the sight of his smile. My vitals could not take the change in his expression. My stood up right, chills ran down my spine and butterflies attacked my insides I felt like throwing up but I thought that if I did I would vomited a rainbow. I have had enough of this shit and so I grabbed him by the hand and showed him the door.

His hand was warm like the weather I was longing for and it's warmth spread throughout my body like a pandemic. He man was hot, of course he was, that explains why he keeps melting in front of my eyes like that. He pulled my hand and spun me around so that I face him once more, before I could refuse him, he took hold of my other hand. If I had not felt so threatened by him I would have said it looked as we where about to play a game of chappie's bubblegum but we were not friends.

"We need to talk", he said.

I choked. Not because of the sudden sound of his voice.

"Sorry, I didn't think you were capable of communicating", I said genuinely surprised.

"I wasn't, I had to wait for this weather because I had melted away before either you or I had gotten the chance to speak".

I just stood there looking stupid while blinking at him. This was another dream.  He waited for two weeks to pass, so he could terrorise me with a conversation I will be mulling over for who knows how long.

"My name is Archie, Archie Smith"…