Behind the Scenes of Life

Chapter 8

During the second term holiday, arrangements had been made for Tisha to come and live with me. So, at the start of the third term, Tisha lived with me. I had always wanted to host an exchange student so this proved really exciting for me. The weekend before school started, on a Saturday, Tisha arrived at my house with the agent in charge of her. We helped Tisha with her luggage and then furthermore, it was just unpacking to be done. The bags sure were heavy. I had cleared out one of my cupboards in order to provide Tisha with space. In our bedroom, Tisha took out individual gifts that she had gotten everyone. For my parents, there was a chocolate tray, for my brother a chocolate and for me a chocolate too.

“Thank you very much Tisha.” My mother said to Tisha.

My mother had an Afrikaans accent as she spoke. English wasn’t her home language and some words in the English language were hard for her to pronounce. Tisha had the same problem. The two of them were going to have to play charades in order to communicate.

Tisha and I headed back to our bedroom. I sat on my bed while she unpacked, occasionally helping her where I could.

“Your parents are very nice.” She said to me, folding a sweater and placing it in the cupboard.

I snorted. She clearly didn’t know them well.

“Well, I hope you like it here.”

“I do. If I didn’t come here, I will be in Korea.”

I nodded. “I didn’t want you to leave so.” I shrugged.

She smiled.

That evening, Tisha and I laid in bed whispering to each other. It felt great to have some company that was not my annoying little brother. So much things were happening this year, I had no doubt that it was going to be one that I was never going to forget.

Sunday morning, Tisha was first to wake up so she made the first trip to the bathroom. Everyone in the house was pretty early up to get ready for church. It was Tisha’s first time at a church like ours and you could see she was new. After church we went Mike’s Kitchen for lunch where I ordered a large stir-fry with cashew nuts in.

“So, how are you finding things so far?” my father asked Tisha as we were all sitting around the table sipping our drinks while waiting for the food to arrive.

“It very nice.”

“That’s good. Have you been on Table Mountain yet?”

“The mountain? No.”

“We have to take you sometime then.”

Tisha smiled. “That would be very nice.”

 Our food arrived soon after that and we were all silent, except for the occasional remark, while we were eating.

The next day at school, it felt so weird to arrive with someone else. It was something I could get use to though. Tisha and I stood by the fire hydrant while we waited for the rest of our friends to arrive. The moment they came they all asked about the moving. They were all happy that she had found someplace to stay.

“I’m so happy for you Tisha.” Kerry said with false enthusiasm.

“Thank you.” Tisha responded politely.

“How do you survive with Jane?” Art asked her. “I can’t even survive with her in only Accounting and Physics. She’s too crazy.”

Tisha laughed. “She not bad.”

“Are you sure? Did she tell you to lie? If she’s forcing you to do anything blink once.”

“Hey Art, don’t get her paranoid over nothing. I’m harmless.” I said to Art.