"Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread"
- Richard Wright
As soon as were were ten minutes away from the park. I regretted not taking Langa's hand because it was not sanatized.
He was walking very quickly and I was losing him in this crowd of people. I wanted to sit down and cry right here on the spot.
Every now and then he would turn back and check if I was still walking behind him.
"Oh take my hand will you" I said tugging on his sleeves as we came to a stop in the busy streets.
"Hold on tight" he said. I didn't even register what he said but before I knew it we were crossing the road. The robot was red which meant that all pedestrians could cross but I felt my head spin because of the busy street.
Cars were hooting and impatient and some were turning, there was a point where we had to stand at the middle of the road and wait for a car to turn into another street. Pretty hectic if you ask me.
"Are you still alive?" Langa asked me as we stood on the other side of the road.
My eyes were wide open and I couldn't get any words out of my mouth.
He laughed at my state and he let go of my hand.
"Come on, we don't have time to stand here and wait" I wanted him to hold my hand again but it was not even that busy.
I opened my phone and switched off Location because I knew my mom would track me.
We walked for quite a while. The street was very busy and it was only month end. The road went downhill and as we stood on top I got a clear view of the taxi rank.
There were people cooking and selling goods everywhere. Someone even came to me and tried to sell me earphones for R20. I kindly declined and he clicked his tongue and walked away.
"What are we doing here?" I asked him.
"To catch a ride of course, or do you want to walk to the next town?" He asked.
I quickly shook my head and he laughed at me again.
"Just as I thought. I'll pay for this trip, but you'll pay when we head back" he said explaining this to me slowly. I nodded as he kept talking and walked towards a taxi which looked pretty clean.
"Oh no sweets, this taxi is heading to Umzinto and that's not where we're going" he said
"How do you know?" I asked curiously.
"Each and every taxi is given a spot to rank and that's how you know. This spot is for taxis that are going to Umzinto and like I said, that's not where we're going"
I followed him still unable to process all that he has told me. We got inside a taxi and luckily, we were able to sit next to each other.
"Now we just have to wait for the taxi to fill up and then we will go" he said taking out money from his wallet.
I caught sight of a picture of some girl who had beautiful dark skin and straight hair inside his wallet. It must be his girlfriend, does she mind him being here with me? I'll have to ask him that later
The taxi was full in less than five minutes and the driver got inside and greeted all of his passangers.
I heard change and the sound of bags and wallets opening. A few minutes later I felt someone tap my shoulder and I turned back.
"Sibawu-4 e-backseat" (There's four of us at the backseat)
"Oh cha mama, I have money to pay" I said. She rolled her eyes and tapped Langa's shoulder instead. He took the money and combined it with ours as he passed it to the person in front of us.
The taxi kept on stopping at different bus stops to drop and pick up people until we reached town. Langa shouted out Freys and the driver dropped us off there.
"The taxi was so stuffy, I couldn't handle that" I said rubbing my nose. We walked to Shoprite and I was kind of getting used to crossing the streets now.
"My mother highly recommends that we buy food at Food Lovers or Woolworths Food. There's a lot of great shops, I even know there's a Pick 'n Pay around here somewhere."
"Sorry to say this but I am not your mom, and all those shops are expensive but they sell the same things. All you have to do is check the 'Best Before' date and then life goes on"
"Oh" was all I said. We entered the shop and grabbed a trolley, I volunteered to push it and he allowed me to.
When I looked to my right there was a long line under Money market.
"Look, I can't be explaining each and everything to you because we wouldn't finish even if I wanted to" he said.
He pulled out a grocery list which had a long list full of items. We don't really do our own grocery, Mrs Kane does it because she is our chef.
About 2 hours later I was unable to push the trolley and Langa took over and pushed it with ease. He bought us sports drinks to drink while we walked around the store. We stood on the queue for a good 37 minutes until it was our turn to offload our grocery at the till.
The cashier greeted us politely and scanned our items. As Langa was busy helping her pack them into plastic bags I took out my credit card and paid for everything. When he took out his cash the cashier looked at him and told him I paid for it.
"We are not done here" he said as he continued to pack the goods into the plastic bag.
We stood outside the shop and someone offered to take our goods to the rank.
"Si-right mfwethu" (We're all good)
Langa walked away from me as he was talking on the phone and Im sure it was his girlfriend. I didn't want it to seem like I was eavesdropping so I played Candy crush on my phone.
"Thanks" he said ending the call. He pulled me towards a red Toyota Tazz and we placed our groceries in the backseat.
"What about the rank?" I asked.
"Since we bought too many groceries, guess we'll take a meter taxi. You can call your dad in the mean time and tell him to meet you at the park in about 15 minutes" he instructed as he placed his thing in the backseat.
"Okay, I'll send him a text" I said.
"About what you did back there-"
"You're welcome" I said smiling at him.
"No Ada, it's not okay. You can't just pay for me like that. I'm not a charity case, don't ever do that again. You have to earn the money you recieve, you're not my blesser" he said frowning at me.
I didn't like this side of Langa. It was the same side I came across when I met him at the bakery.
"I'm sorry. You're my friend and I wanted to help" I said. I felt tears in the rim of my eyes. I'm such a cry baby. He pulled me closer to him and I felt asleep on his chest.
***
"Wake up Ada" I felt someone tapping my shoulder and I groaned loudly. It was Langa.
"We're a minute away from the park, wake up" he said again. I frowned and rubbed the sleep off my eyes.
"Thanks for today" I said as I exited the vehicle.
"You think I'm going to let you get away that easily" he said as he also exited the car.
He pulled me into a bone crushing hug and I laid on his chest as I felt his heartbeat. He pulled away awkwardly and I bid him farrwell.
"I'll text you later" he said. I blushed at the thought of that. I need to see Pete urgently.
As soon as the meter taxi took off dad pulled up.
"Father" I said entering the car.
"How was your day at the park sunshine?" He asked. I stared at him and my smile only grew wider.
"The best dad, and I feel like it's just the start of something new" I said staring out of the window.
"Who knew all it took to make you wiser was a day at the park" he laughed. His wrinkled hands pulled on my cheeks and I relaxed on the leather seats of this car.
For the very first time, I felt grateful