The melting man

Dr Robin Rose Van Wyk's Art Gallery

She had warned them about the melting man. Now it was too late.

They have had just about enough about their friend and her obsession with this painting. So they went back, with determined faces and the stupidity of youth in there steps, thought of "in order to move forward you have to look back" where laying heavy against the inside of their eyelids. They headed back to where it all started, the art gallery, Dr Robin Rose Van Wyk's Art Gallery. The one with the ancestor's persistence weighing on his shoulders and the other with the weight of friendship.

The earth was a muddy mess that follows the end of the rainy season like death does the plague, two pairs of gum boots littered the ground as it grew wings and made its way into the doors of the walls with the paint filled canvas with nothing but the sound of the moonlight and the loud humming of the generator to mask the wordless air from the lungs of two half adults. If load shedding was good for anything it was the breeder for crime and the stupidity of youth. Two determined half adults and some paint filled canvases.

And me. I was ready for them. I had a story and the words had been thrown together in a pot and stirred into some steaming pap and I was waiting to feed them spoonfuls. They will have to listen for the girl had warned them about me. Two determined half adults and some paint filled canvases and me equals three mouthfuls of steaming hot words and two pairs of eyes filled with half truths. For I had a story like a question leading to the truth hidden in a cage fighting it's way to the lips of a monster.

Mihle and Ayesha guilty by association. It is always better to not get involved. The involved knows nothing. Ignorance is bliss. Luckily for them this is not the story they are able to ignore and luckily for them they were far from involved. See even my ghostly self has a heart. There is three half adults I can save and only one of them was who I planed to save all along but I will save these two determined spirits as well. I cannot think of anyone more worthy then the young sangoma and self proclaimed devoted Muslim half adults.

Two pairs of marching gum boots and I closed my eyes letting the feeling of nostalgia grab a hold of me and I can see myself in the crowd watching a rainbow of umbrella men flow down the streets a memory of South Africa. Colours flowing threw every new year's. Drums, trumpets and any instrument of noise flowed in our blood stream against the walls of the ugly monster within that hidden. No one knows what lays there. I am here two force it out. I can free you of it's ugly hoard, your cage will not be so heavy.

Lights, camera, action. Both souls steps through the fog. I make myself known.

"Come with me, and I'll show you something" 

They stood there, with nothing in their pockets but with everything in their minds.

"I will not hurt you", the girl knew that much but everyone needs a little bit of courage when they come face-to-face with the truth. I am a lot of things and unfortunately fair is not one of them. As you know I am not a easy man to find even though all I ever wanted is to be found. Now that I have been found I will have to break some teenage hearts. I will have to tell them what they already know.

"Fear not children of the blue sky, I am not capable of harming the likes of those who breathe the fog".

"Does Karin breathe the fog?", Ayesha breathed the words out thickly, so thick I sniff out the venom that had been stirred thoroughly with her concern.

"My dear, your friend Karin breathes it the most."

Mihle was looking completely out of place in the fog, he was not afraid just a little uncertain. He fitted his words together.

"Why did the ancestors lead me to you?", The words that left his lips attached itself to the situation like another piece of the puzzle.

"Let's just say the ancestors like have me around, it is like a co-dependency, I need them they need me, it just works."

"That's not what I meant"

"Oh I know it is exactly what you meant"

"Ok then Mr—"

"Smith, Ayesha, you can call me Archie"

"Mr Smith we came to ask… I mean we just wanted to know… ya Allah why is this so hard"

"Do not be disheartened, my girl, you know not what you seek and there for you do not know what to ask"

"We were sent here for a reason and maybe you could help with that"

"Mihle you were not sent here to get help from me, I cannot help you, your eyes can see what I am. I am no help at all."

"You're right, she warned us not about you, but it is too late of that now, why am I here"

"Mihle you can see but you go searching in all the wrong places, use your eyes, and Ayesha use your mind, you'll see"

Intense sticks and change fill the corners of Dr Van Wyk's Art Gallery, flowing from two figures, two pairs of gumboots lost in their faith. Beautiful muddy footprints that stains the floors of the gallery. The two figures soon stand still and the walls over fill with silence. The figures linger a bit more in their self proclaimed failure. The leave the walls and the paintings with shame tied tightly around their necks dragging their heads down like a ball and chain. Their efforts had gone to waste. She had warned them about the painting. Now it was too late.