Kores and Evelyn’s tale is as old as time itself…it begins years ago, on the 17th of January, 15 years ago…
“Mrs Pattison, can I go to the bathroom, please?” 8 year old Kores Klerk Kennedy asks his teacher as he stands beside her desk. His uniform is ironed perfectly and his perfect bed of dark hair rests in a faux Mohawk that he wanted because of some superhero character he liked on a cartoon show.
Mrs Pattison, a then 29 year old young woman smiles down at the always mischievous but just as funny and loving boy, Kores. Mrs Pattison had a soft spot for Kores, maybe it was because of the dimpled smile he’d flash at her whenever she caught him being naughty, or it was the way that he’d tell her how beautiful she looked, but she and Kores were as tight as two pickles in a jar. She gave a soft laugh and raised an eyebrow, “that’s the third time this period,” she leaned in a bit closer to get to eye level with the boy who now flashed her a dimpled smile, “this wouldn’t happen to be about the Capri sun that I told you not to have five minutes before break ended, would it?” Kores had a weak bladder, just as a lot of kids did at that age.
He gave a sheepish smile, and she nodded, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Okay, be quick though. We’re learning how to write cursive today,” she encouraged him and he nodded his head and turned on his heels and walked out of the classroom. He closed the door behind him and was met with the hallways of the prestigious school. The halls were silent and all you could hear was the distant voices of teachers teaching.
Kores continued the trek to where he was headed; the bathrooms. He had his hands in his pockets and he whistled under his breath as he did so, keeping his eyes all over the place. He decided to cut through the grass instead of walking along the hallways since the grass was quicker. As he walked through the grass in the middle of the large school, he noticed that the Grade R students, dressed in their casual clothes were having their break time.
He felt like such a big boy when he looked at all of those students. They looked so small compared to him. He watched the way they played, running around, while some sat and ate their lunch. As he approached the boy’s bathrooms, he heard the sound of crying. His head turned to find who it was, and his eyes landed on a tiny girl, who sat crying, an uncovered lollipop lay on the floor in front of her and her lunchbox was open, revealing the remainder of a simple sandwich and open yoghurt.
Her face had practically turned a bright red, which was concerning, considering she had amber toned skin. Kores was right at the door of the boy’s bathroom but he found himself sighing and walking towards the girl. “What’s wrong?” he asked her, crouching in front of her.
5 year old Evelyn Duma’s eyes opened, and toasty topaz eyes peered into sable eyes for the first time. Evelyn’s chubby face peered into the face of the grown boy in front of her.
He seemed so big, and he wore a uniform! He was one of the big kids.
She lifted her finger to show him the cause of her tears. She couldn’t explain it! She just knew that it was very sore. All she could recount was that she was eating her lollipop, dipping it in yoghurt and then licking it, and then something kept flying around her. She went to hit it, but then her finger began stinging and she was in so much pain, she just cried.
As Kores set his eyes on the finger, he realised that she’d been stung by a bee. “Okay…” he breathed out and took her tiny, chubby hand into his. He brought her finger closer to his face, and easily, he reached for the sting and pulled it out. Kores had dealt with much scarier things than a bee sting, but he knew not to tell anyone that. As he pulled it out, he brought her finger to her face, “you got stung by a bee. It’s out now, you should be okay. There’s no need to cry.”
Evelyn’s braids that were in a short bob dangled with beads as her crying stopped and she looked at her finger that didn’t hurt as much anymore. Her eyes widened and she marvelled at how he had made her feel all better. Kores released her hand and then her eyes peered into his again, her wide round eyes, and then she smiled, “you’re my hero.” She let out in a breathless whisper.
“Okay, kids don’t wander off too far!” Mr Jones scolded the children as they had finally reached the end of their zoo tour and the kids could now play around. “– and no, Penelope, you can’t eat dirt!” he sighed exasperated as he shook his head at Penelope and how she began to cry because she couldn’t eat dirt. This was the norm; Penelope cried when she couldn’t eat dirt, or couldn’t eat paper, or couldn’t eat Pritt, or couldn’t eat her own hand.
The school had decided on a joint trip for the Grade 2 and Grade 5 students to the Pretoria Zoo. In the short distance, Kores sat with his two friends, Liam and Michael, and to add to the trio, the fourth was Evelyn who, ever since Kores had taken the bee sting out of her finger, hadn’t left his side.
The grade 5 teachers didn’t even try to get her away from Kores anymore or tell her to sit with her own class. Evelyn was attached to Kores and everybody knew this. Some called her his shadow, others his tail, but Evelyn called him her hero and Kores simply saw it as the norm, especially after so many years.
“Hey, let’s go check out the elephants again!” Michael spoke up, his long hair moving to and fro as he bounded to his feet, looking to Liam and Kores for their Amen so that they could get a head on and be as young boys were; naughty. They were already done with their lunch and they wanted to get a move on and cause chaos before they left.
“Yeah!” Liam agreed excitedly, throwing his lunch box into his bag and rushing to his feet.
Kores looked to Evelyn and found that she hadn’t gotten done with her lunch yet. Evelyn was a slow eater, she took forever to eat, and this annoyed everyone except Kores, who always waited for her. “You guys go ahead, I’ll catch up to you.” Liam and Michael rolled their eyes but said ‘alright’ and went on.
“Sorry,” Evelyn apologised with cheeks full of food. Kores gave a short shrug and then reached into his bag, pulling out a tiny gift that was perfectly wrapped.
“Happy Birthday, Evelyn,” Kores said with a smile and Evelyn grinned, eyes wide and face shining so bright, it was a wonder how Kores hadn’t gone blind yet.
Evelyn was a bit of a loner, she didn’t do well with other people. She was an introvert and loved keeping to herself. Except when it came to Kores, she’d attached herself to him like a leech and didn’t dare look back. Nobody knew that it was her birthday today, and she didn’t want people to know. She didn’t remember mentioning her birthday to Kores but if he knew, then she’d definitely told him before.
“Kores!” she sang excitedly, accepting the gift from him and then unwrapping it. After she unwrapped it, she was met with the newest Barbie doll and a necklace with the words ‘Barbie’ in diamonds, it was perfect and small and would fit perfectly around her neck.
Her eyes widened, “this Barbie isn’t even out yet!” she squealed at the perfect toy and then set the toy down, looking into Kores eyes again. Before she could overthink it, she leaned in and closed the distance between them and pressed her lips to his in the quickest kiss.
Kores eyes widened in shock at the action and so did Evelyn’s. She didn’t think she’d do that…
There was a pregnant pause between the two before Evelyn spoke up softly, eyes colliding, “does this mean we’re married now?” she asked lowly, uncorrupted and pure eyes peering into dark ones.
Kores almost frowned, “I don’t think that’s how it works,” his lips were tingling and he felt a bit weird. He was at that stage where girls were gross but…that didn’t feel gross.
Evelyn frowned, she’d seen her mummy and daddy do that, and they were married. When she watched her Disney movies, they kissed and then were married. That was just how it worked. “It does.” She liked the idea of being married to Kores, he was nice to her and he understood her. “Or do you not want to be married?” she asked lowly, almost feeling sad at the fact that he might not want to be.
Kores remained silent, noticing the sad look in her eyes. He sighed, and Evelyn smiled at the victory. She picked up the Barbie doll and began to play with it, forgetting all about her food.
“You know, my mum says we’re going to go to Paris for Paris Fashion Week, and then she’s going to take me to Disneyworld,” Evelyn spoke excitedly as the bell for the last day of school rang. “After that, she says we’re going to meet my dad in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is really fun. They have a lot of cool rides and buildings!” she walked side by side with Kores as they were walking through the packed hallways of excited students, who were glad that Term 4 had come to an end and they could get started on their expensive holidays across the globe.
“What about you? What are you doing for the holidays?” Evelyn asked as they walked through the doors of the school and were now outside in the parking lot. Various expensive vehicles were parked in the queue, and fancy helicopters were parked along the vast grounds. Students rushed all about Evelyn and Kores as Kores tugged on Evelyn’s hand that she’d slid into his as they were walking through the fury of students.
She stopped in her excited steps and then faced him, “what’s up Kores?” she asked him but then he was silent and he didn’t smile back. She felt her smile fall. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
Kores didn’t know how to say this, “Evelyn…I’m done with grade 7.” He told her and she nodded her head.
“I know. And I’m done with grade 4. We’re getting really big now!”
Kores sighed, feeling a weight on his shoulders at the younger girl in front of him. “No, Evelyn. This is a primary school. I’m done with Primary school now, I have to go to high school.” Evelyn’s excited grin at being big slowly fell off her face as she slowly realised what he was getting at.
“…High school?” she spoke lowly, repeating the words as though they were so foreign.
He nodded, pursing his lips a bit, “yeah. High school,” he solidified. “I’m going to be going to an all boy’s boarding school in Jo’burg. My dad died, and well…it’s safer for me to be in Jo’burg. My brother’s sending me there.” He briefly explained, but all Evelyn could hear was her breaking heart. Kores could see it in her eyes and he took her other hand in his and held them both. “I’m really sorry, Evelyn…” that seemed to make so much sense. He’d been so nice to her these past couple of days, spoiled her rotten and did everything that she wanted.
She realised now that he was saying goodbye.
She couldn’t stop the pouting of her lips as she began to cry, “oh, Evelyn,” he said lowly and pulled her into his chest. Her pulled her tiny body into his for a hug and held her as she cried in his chest.
While all the other students around them bustled with the excitement of the school year ending, the two of them stood in the centre of that chaos, a broken heart from a little girl, and a consoling hand from a young boy.
And that had been the end of Evelyn and Kores.
Until…
“Class of…” I could hear my best friend reading to me in the background as I used the grinder, “invite…ten year…reunion.” I stopped it and then looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
“Huh? What the hell are you saying?”
“A Mr Kensington said that he was the grade 7 English teacher and–”
“Oh my God, Mr Kensington messaged me!” I said excitedly at the memory of the eccentric English teacher that I had in grade 7. My best friend, Amahle held my phone in her hands.
“Yeah, he said they’re hosting a grade 7 ten year reunion thing, and that you’re invited even though you weren’t a part of that class. He said that they considered you a part of that class because of–”
“Kores…” I finished off, saying a name that I hadn’t said in a long time. I stared off into the distance, thinking back to the boy that I met in primary school.
That was so many years ago.
“Ko- oh, yeah, him.”
I nodded my head, “tell him I’ll come. Anyways, let’s make this avocado juice, hoe!”