Score Twenty Four

Score Twenty Four (Episode 1)

Have you ever been rescued from the hate and cruelty of this world ?

Well I for one with pride can answer "yes" to that question. Saved by who, you ask? Before I get into detail, please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Lolo Mndeni and I'm just a 24 year old girl from the streets of Soshanguve. Okay, this is the story of my life.. #LightsCigarrete..

I was only about 12 years old when both my parents got caught up in the middle of Soshanguve's biggest gang fight.

They were walking back home from an old friends wedding just a few blocks away from where we lived.

It was a bit late so let's just say they were unfortunately at the wrong place at the wrong time. A few witnesses who saw everything say mom and dad were peacfully walking down the street sharing some jokes and laughing as they held each others hands like a high school couple who had just met. On the other hand, dad had mom's beautiful heels and my mom held her long dress up as she was walking bare foot.

They were unaware, of the fact that in just a few seconds there would be hundreds of bullets blazing from each end of the street but hey, even you and I wouldn't think of such especially on one of the happiest nights of our lives.

The witness says one of the gang members who had seen mom and dad jumped up and tried to tell them to get out of the way but when the opposing gang saw him jumping out with a gun in his hands they assumed that he was about to fire so they opened fire and just began to shoot out of control. I guess we all know what happened after that right? Well I was a bit young but I remember everything like it happened this morning.

I remember standing at the scene in my neighbours arms. Mom and dad laid there with a million bullet holes all over their bodies. Their hands were still connected as if they were still alive. One of mom's heels was still in my fathers hands and the other one was a few metres away. I stood there and looked at them, not knowing what to do or say. They were even bleeding from the mouth and nose and I thought, " is this really it? Am I really an orphan?".

Automatically, I just began to cry and scream which was no surprise to everyone else. My neighbour held me tight and just couldn't hold her tears back as everyone else just looked us and shook their heads with sympathy...

I got back into my neighbours car and we drove back home. That night my brother did not come back home and his phone was off so no one could get hold of him but it was no surprise because he was probably out with his friends as always. He was never home but that night his absence did matter because I needed him so much. I did not sleep at home ither because the neighbour insisted that I spend the night with them. As hard and impossible as it was for me to fall asleep I eventually got tired of crying and dozed off on that dripping wet pillow but not for long though.

At about 3am, Ms Zwane woke me up and told me to follow her to the dining room. When we got to the dinning room, there were two policemen who for some reason took off their caps when they saw me. Ms Zwane took my hand and told me to sit down next to her but what amazed me was the fact that the last time I had seen her she was sleeping next to me but suddenly she wasn't in her pyjamas anymore.

I looked at her as she wiped off her tears and took a deep breathe. She looked at me and said "Baby. These men came here to fetch me a bit earlier when you were asleep because they wanted me to help them with something. They wanted.. they.. baby they wanted me to identify a body.. Lolo.. Your brother was found dead in the backyard of one of the houses that were close to where your mom and dad died. The police say its possible that your brother was part of the gang fight because they found two unregistered guns on him and one of those guns were in his hands... I'm so sorry baby..YOUR BROTHER TEBOGO IS GONE."
The word "gone" echoed again and again in my head. I even pinched and slapped myself because I just could not believe it. It all felt like a bad dream.

Fast forward

A few days, later . I was the centre of attention standing before 3 brown coffins at the graveyard. I just fell on my knees and began to scream with endless tears. Everyone took a turn to walk by and give me a tap on the should and a kiss on my head. Everyone stood there silently as the pastor said the final prayer. I'll never forget that TLING sound that we all heard when all three coffins began to make their way into the ground. I rolled on the ground and out of all names I shouted "Mama!!"...

By the way, for some evil reason, none of our relatives were there and I did not understand why until it hit my mind. They were all trying to avoid having to take the responsibility of taking care of me. Our neighbour opened her arms wide and took me in as her own. A few weeks later, the wall between our house and our neighbours house was taken down and to me it made perfect sense.

In both my parents wills, it was written that I would only be able to claim my inheritance only when I turned 18. As wrong as it may sound, just after a year I felt like I had a new mom. My neighbour took, good care of me like I was her own and maybe it's because she was also tired of the lonliness.

I even changed schools the following year and went to a very good private school in town. My whole lifestyle changed. I learned how to speak and write English, I learnt how to smell and look like a lady. I even got my very first cellphone and laptop. Me and Ms Zwane went out for lunch and movies every second weekend. I was, living large ne? I know that's what you think.

Well brace yourself because this is where the real story starts. When I turned sixteen, my school marks began to drop and when Ms Zwane looked into it deeply she found out that I had a boyfriend so she took, my phone. She went through my WhatsApp conversations and found out that I was not a virgin anymore. She found out that on some Friday's I bunked school and went to my boyfriend's house.

That was the first time I ever saw her angry. She barged into my room with a belt in her hands and imidiately started whipping the hell out off me. I tried to run out of the room but she was in the way so I pushed her.

You see that push, that push is my biggest regret in life.

When I pushed her, she tripped over my school bag and hit the back of her head on the edge of my dressing table. Her eyes were wide open but she was not moving. I checked her pulse and she was DEAD.

I shook and panicked until I stupidly convinced myself that the best thing to do was to run away. I packed a few things into my bag and ran as fast as I could. I caught a late night taxi and headed to town. The plan was to leave the province that night but as soon as I stepped out of that taxi at Marabastad Taxi Rank, a group of homeless men surrounded me and when I looked around, there was no one else there. I could see just by the way they were looking at me that I was about to face every woman's nightmare.

They grabbed me and dragged me to the other side where no one would here me screaming. One of them covered my mouth as the other one ripped my clothes off, two others held my legs open and just when it was about to happen a black golf pulled up and fired two warning shots in the air. I got up as quickly as I could and ran to the car. I opened the door myself and jumped in. There were two guys at the front and one in the back seat. The one in the back seat was bleeding and becoming a bit weak as the other two kept telling him to hold on.

I did not have to be a genius to know that these guys had just robbed a shop, a bank or something.

The car sped off and in just a few minutes were at this mini bush in Mamelodi. We helped the other guy out of the car and the other guy carried two black bags. They burned the car and we left it there.

After a minutes of walking we were at this place full of shacks .We carried the Injured guy to this other shack where a girl about my age was waiting with a first aid kit. We placed him on the bed and the girl attended to him.

The other one sat down next to the bed and the one who was driving looked at me and said "Can we trust you?". I nodded my head and asked if the injured guy was gonna be fine. He nodded then he stepped a bit closer and took off his black mask and hat.

He took my hands and looked straight into my eyes as he said "They did not hurt you did they?! What were you doing out there this late? Are you fine?" I did not even hear the question because I was thinking "I SWEAR I'VE NEVER SEEN A GUY THIS HOT". He was very light in complexion and his curly hair was coloured blonde...

"By the way,my name is Andile"

............to be continued............