We woke up early in the morning, I didn’t have much sleep. I don’t think anyone did. Everyone was looking at their reflection in the mirror, busy doing make-up. There was silence, I was thinking about the argument I had with Sihle and the interview. Vanessa asked Puleng if she doesn’t mind that I switch beds with her, she kindly no. She moved her stuff to Sihle’s bedroom. I told her that I will take her out for lunch one of these days.
My phone rang, it was Walter.
“Hello”, I smiled like a fool.
“Good morning my sweetheart. Did you sleep well?” He asked.
“Yes, and you?” I only slept for a few hours, totally not good.
“I slept like a baby. Are you free later today?”
“Uhm … I really don’t know”
“You don’t know? Please call me when you have an idea. Would you like transport for work?”
“I would love it”
“I will alert my driver. What time?”
“We have to be at work at 7am. Maybe 6:45. It’s me and my friends”
“Okay, I’ll tell my driver. Have a nice day, sweetheart”
“You too”
“Walter’s driver will drive us to work girls”, I said cheerfully.
“But we take my car to work”, said Vanessa.
“I know but it’s not every day that we have a chauffeur”, I said.
“Yoliswa is right”, Vixen backed me up.
“I guess so”, Vanessa shrugged and carried on applying make-up.
“I want the girls to see us when we pull up in a very expensive looking car”, I said. I caught Vanessa wrinkling her eyebrows. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I just feel like you’re overreacting. I have a beautiful, expensive car too and the reaction we’ll get won’t be any different from the one we always get when I pull up”, she said. Sihle giggled.
“Can I help you?” I asked Sihle.
“Yeah, how about you calm down? Have you never travelled in a car before?” She shook her head.
“I have, better cars than you’ll ever be in”, I said.
“When will you be in your own car?” She asked.
“Soon”, I went to the kitchen.
“Oh, so he promised you a car in return to getting his old dick sucked by a young beautiful girl?” She asked.
“What part of your body hurts? Why are you being mean to me?”
“You’re not the victim, Yoliswa! You also said some mean things to me”
“All because I didn’t listen to your advice? Grow up!”
“It’s more than that, you’re turning into someone I don’t like”
“If you have a problem with who I am now, chances are you always had a problem with me but you’re just a good actress”
“Stop trying to be someone you’re not”
“It’s funny how you know me more than I know myself. It’s really funny!”
“You’re such a mini Vanessa!”
“Oh shut up, Michelle Williams!”
“You can call me Michelle all you want, Yoliswa. You’re not even the Beyonce of your friends”
“Shut up, Michelle!”
“Is that supposed to hurt my feelings? Okay, I’m really hurt that you called me Michelle. Are you happy now?”
“I’ll be happy when you leave this apartment for good”
“I lived here before you. I think you should leave this apartment, go live with your sugar daddy”
“Give me your father’s number instead”
“All this time you’ve been hiding your thirst for older men and you think I’m crazy when I say you’re trying hard to be someone you’re not”
“Okay you two, we’ve heard enough”, Vanessa said angrily. “How old are we? Really, how old are we? I have a headache, I’m not in a good mood, I slept for 3 hours and it’s early in the morning. Are you, friends and roommates seriously fighting because of a man? Sihle, it’s not you to run your mouth like that. You’re for women, you always preach togetherness. Yoliswa, you need to seriously calm down. Don’t act like he’s your first boyfriend”, Vanessa gave us a mouthful.
There was silence, we heard a car horn. We got out, me, Vanessa and Vixen. I had a feeling my day wasn’t going to go well. The ride to the club was really silent. I caught glimpse of Madala looking at me.
“I see you girls are not morning people”, said Madala.
“Horrible morning”, I muttered.
“We do have horrible mornings and days but at least we’re alive to tell the story. Many didn’t make it to a new day, be grateful you’re alive”, he said. I smiled.
“Thanks for sharing that”, I said.
“Pass it to the next person, hopefully they pass it to another. Then it becomes a never ending cycle. Just to remind people they’re alive, life is precious and we take it for granted”, he said. He reminded me so much of my grandmother.
“Wow. Thank you”, I smiled.
“That’s what I wanted to see. You’re welcome”, he said.
We finally got to the club, he gave me a card and said Walter said I should call whenever I wanted to be picked up. I checked the time, we arrived a minute before 7am. Just on time. The girls were dressed very professional, I was surprised, they took it serious. I know everyone is probably hoping to be admin.
We waited for 7:30am, I listened to the girls go on about what they did the previous night and the interview. Then out of the blue, 6 guys appeared. They said they were there for the interview, we were all surprised. Hakeem was really taking this changing-things-around-here seriously. We didn’t have any male workers, I guess it was good for the business. We were a total of 12 girls.
It was finally time for the interviews, Hakeem called one girl that was close to his office. The girls changed their sitting arrangements, some weren’t ready to be interviewed. I just sat in my seat, I was sitting next to Vanessa, she wasn’t herself, I was worried.
“You know, what Madala said in the car – “, Vanessa interrupted me.
“I’m not interested. And life isn’t that simple”, she said.
“You’ve been acting weird since last night. Does this have anything to do with Mr Sithole?” I asked.
“No”, she muttered. She looked around then came closer and whispered, “Richard said the body is in the boat”
“What? I thought he got rid of it”, I whispered.
“Apparently the guy he paid to get rid of the body has been blackmailing him. He’s coming back to ‘deal’ with the man”, she said.
“I don’t like this one bit”, I said.
“He wants us to get to know the guy, he says it’s the only way we can get to the body. I also don’t like this”, she said.
“Where does this guy live?” I asked.
“Around Jozi. He gave me his address. This is stressing me but if we have to do this to clean our tracks, why not? We just have to be, you know, strong and here for one another”, she said.
“Yes”, I held her hand, she smiled.
I took a deep breathe, I needed to be strong not only for myself but Vanessa as well. I waited for my turn anxiously.
Confessions Of A Xhosa Girl 