“Hey, stranger”, Bokang greeted flirtatiously as he stood against the side of the door. Lwa smiled and handed the blackish brown bottle over. Bokang took it. Lwa’s eyes couldn’t help but explore his skinny shaven legs.
“Please, do come in”, Bokang offered courteously and made way. Lwa did exactly that.
“What’s this?”, asked the host, inspecting the wine curiously.
“I have no idea. Took it from my dad’s stuff”
Bokang laughed.
“You mean stole it?”
“Depends how you choose to look at it”, Lwa said as he laughed and took a seat in the lounge.
“Come with me to the kitchen. Not done cooking”
“It’s just eight steps away from here”
Bokang released a light laughter.
“Are you undermining my place?”, he asked and Lwa stood up.
“I have a huge problem with how you interpret things” – Lwa. He spoke as he walked behind him and fixed the back of his t-shirt.
Bokang laughed and proceeded the kitchen.
“How come you never speak vernac?”, Lwa questioned before hiking up the chair.
“My pronunciation sucks. I always sound like a stuttering parrot”, he stated stirring the samp in the pot.
Lwa exploded in a fit of laughter.
“But you can hear Pedi perfectly right?”, he asked, in between laughing breaks. Bokang was laughing as he attended to his pots. He nodded.
“Ere leina laka ke nna Bokang ke dula Fischer Estate and ke rata makhelwane waka?”(Say ‘My name is Bokang and I reside at Fischer Estate and I love my neighbour?), Lwa teased. He was still laughing. Bokang laughter harder, with his back on Lwa.
“Mciim stop it please”
“Just say it and die once?”
“Lina laka ki Bokang ke dola Fischer Estate akimrati makhwelwan wak kagori ke stlatla. There. I’ve said it!”(… I don’t like my neighbor because he is an idiot), he shot out and punctuated with a laugh. At this point, Lwa was dying.
“Wait. What?”, Lwa asked in ridicule, wiping the tears in his eyes.
“You asked for it”
“But how can you not speak your home language? Were you raised by white people? Hope I’m not striking any nerve here”
“Not at all. I went to multiracial schools. All my life. Even at home, my parents spoke to me in English. There was no opportunity for me to learn”
“That’s not cute at all”
Bokang shrugged.
“What about other family members?”
“Yhuu. I used to feel like an outcast at family gatherings as a kid. I didn’t understand why they never wanted to play with me. I thought they didn’t like me as a person, only to grow and realize that it was because of the language barriers”
“Do they like you now?”
They shared a two second look before exploding in laughter.
“As kids, it was purely the language barrier. Now, I’m labelled a snob. As if they know the meaning of the word”, he explained as he poured Lwa some cold orange juice from a glass jug he took out from the fridge.
“Ice?” – Bokang
Lwa said no and took the tall glass he was being offered.
“And you?”
“What about me?”, Lwa asked as he took and slow patient sip.
“What’s your story?”
“What do you wanna know? I’m 16, I have a twin—“
“Wait. You’re what?”
“Sixteen”, he repeated shamelessly.
“No way”, Bokang said and a laugh of disbelief left his lips.
“How young do I know?”
“I don’t know… 19? Your body structure, the things you say”
“I get that a lot”
“You’re a rich kid ne?”, Bokang asked with his glass angled towards and pointed at Lwa as he stood against the cupboard. Lwandile laughed.
“What makes you say that?”
“It’s all the vitamins your parents bombard you with”, Bokang said and Lwandile let out an even louder laughter.
“That’s utter bullshxt. Where do you even get that theory?”
“It’s a hypothesis I happened to put—“, he cut off his sentence when he realized that the steam from one of his pots was lifting the lid and making that burning sound when water comes into contact with hot surfaces. “It is just a theory I happened to put together. It makes sense”, he completed his statement when he was done giving his pots the attention they required.
“Rubbish…” – Lwa.
“Anywaay, you said you have a twin?”
Lwa nodded and swallowed the juice.
“Identical?”
“Yup”
“A boy?”, Bokang asked and Lwandile shot out a laugh.
“Identical twins are ALWAYS the same, in everything. It’s only in fraternal cases where you find differences”
Bokang laughed at himself.
“THAT, that actually makes sense. Now I feel dumb”
“Yeah that was a very blonde moment for you”, Lwandile said, doing absolutely nothing to console his bruised intelligence quota.
“What’s the difference anyway?”, he asked, genuinely curious.
“Identical twins form when one egg is fertilized by the same sperm and the it divides—the egg. Fraternal twins according to me are just your usual siblings who just happened to share a womb—different eggs fertilized by different sperm cells”, Lwa elaborated.
“Interesting. So you look alike? Everything and all?”
“No one can tell us apart at first and second sight. Except when he’s wearing a short sleeved t-shirt”, he laughed as he spoke.
“Why is that?”
“He has a tattoo now”
“Personality wise?”
“TOTALLY different people. Everything that I am, he’s the polar opposite”
“Do you have a life outside of your relationship with him?”
“Yeah actually. We started growing apart when were 12 or 13 I think”
“Apart?”
“Not that kind of APART. We’re still close but we can’t be at the same places at the same anymore. It used to hurt me till he made it make sense”, he stated before taking out his vibrating phone. Mxo was calling.
“I am fine and still alive thanks for checking up on me bye”, he began rambling after answering the call. The twin laughed.
“So you still good?” – Mxo.
“Yeah”, he answered and smiled.
“Cool. You have me on speed dial if you need anything”, he said before cutting the call.
“Was that him?”, Bokang asked.
“Yup”
“Sounds like a level-headed individual. I’m getting those vibes from—“
Lwandile exploded before he could finish his sentence, laughing.
“Level what now?”
