Through the Grapevine

Chapter 1- Malawi

I sighed at my pile of unread books, as I picked up the book I've read 3,000 times.

This blog post described my life. Want another one? Here you go:
My life is a series of racism, sexism and memories. All I wish to forget.

Little dark, yes, but so was my life:

If my life was a time, it would 12:00 AM.

No, this was not the first 3 blog posts which I read on Tumblr. I am slightly more creative than that. At least today.

I was lounging in my bed, my black hair a halo around me. This was what I lived for. The peace. The serenity. The bliss.

So naturally, the phone rang.

"Hey," I tried not to sound like I wanted to kill them. It might be Nikita. And I definitely didn't want Niki to die. Unless I uncovered a shocking secret about her,but that wouldn't happen. Hopefully.

"Hello, Malawi," Definitely not Nikita. Instead it was Scarlett Berg.

Scarlett was nice, but she was just, you know,self centered ? I wasn't even sure if that was the best way to describe her But I had to talk to her anyway, so I tried to control my anger, at her talking...

"Berg, who's going to die today?" I sounded way too nonchalant for someone who was talking about people dying. But so do emergency doctors I guess. At least, I assume, I have never asked a emergency doctor that. I'll add it to my bucket list.

"Stop joking around, this is a serious matter"

Scarlett went silent for a minute, then just said;

"Jean-louis Carti,"

"French?"

"Yeah."
"Where am I meeting you?"

"Welcome to Thornbury, I managed to get him to meet us there," I didn't even bother to ask how. But it wasn't like she would answer. Once I made the mistake to ask her, which resulted in 'You need to be going '. Not to brag, but my comebacks are one of my best talents( as I'm sre you wouldn't like to know, my other talents include(but aren't limited to), fighting(with or without weapons), not showing any emotions, intelligence ). Ok, that was just bragging, but who doesn't brag?

I hung up.

I wondered about Jean-Louis as I put on my green uniform. Was he born in France? How did the Gollywoggles get to him? How long had he had them? What was his life like? What is his life like? My uniform was a moss-green blazer, and some shorts that matched. I thought it was hideous, but I had to wear it, so I did.

Just like how I had to stay with Scarlett until I had a few years under my belt. So I did.

Tying up my hijab(that was dark red),I fumbled for the keys. As usual they were in the mug that said:Malawi.

I found it on the side of the road, and I took it. I was so stupid when I was 19. Now, I was 20 and had high intelligence levels. So now I had a reminder of my terrible name. I know I shouldn't hate my name, but how could I not? I mean, who names their child the name of a place so close to their own country? Apparently mine. At least I wasn't named South Africa, where I lived. Where...

I shook the memory from my mind, and focused on my crap name. Ranting always helped me, but just in case I counted to ten, in Zulu , my native language:

esisodwa, ezimbili, ezintathu, ezine, ezinhlanu, eziyisithupha, eziyisikhombisa, nesishiyagalombili, eziyisishiyagalolunye, eziyishumi
It calmed me down.

But only slightly.

But enough to get moving.

Until Nikita texted me, telling me about her latest date with Kevin, her boyfriend, who I thought was an asshole.

If my day was an animal, it would be a black cat.

A post I read, that once again describes my life perfectly. A least today. My tram was late, I was seating next to a lady rattling about feminism was once good and was now bad, about how there was only 2 genders, that islam was oppressing me(I noticed a christian cross necklace), before I yelled at her, then left. That only started her again, only this time about how I was gullible.

"If I'm so gullible why am I disagreeing with these made-up facts of yours?" She stopped long enough to realise that her ranting made me miss my stop, so I had to walk the long way, as it started raining.

Talk about cliché.

I was in such a bad mood, that I didn't notice Scarlett until she waved at me, from a booth, as I hurried out of the rain, and sat down in the dry seat, I noticed that Jean-Louis wasn't with her. I hoped he had just gone to grab some food.