She looked up to the stars twinkling in the pitch black night. She was here but her thoughts were far away, miles and miles away. In her mind all she could see was him, his handsome face and his eye catching smile. Nana knew that she loved him and nothing was going to change. Heart beating under her chest, she deeply thought of the future, a future she didn’t want to come, she was afraid of it.

Why had it happened like that? Why me? Why us? Why at this time? Her mind bombarded her with these questions, questions that had no answers.  She was clueless. What did the future hold? What if she was killed? What if he got killed instead? Who was going to accept this proposition? It was an idea far-fetched.

“Why me?” She whispered.

“Why at this time?” Nana repeated exactly what her mind was saying to her audibly. She was a girl with a mind in turmoil, brains burning, heart marred and scarred, she didn’t know what to do next. For her it wasn’t a choice, it had just happened and she didn’t know why.

“Love,” She whispered again, “Confusing.”  

All this while she wasn’t feeling the soil on the walls of the hut that had started falling through the hole in her blouse right down into her skirt. Deep in thought she was and she had lost contact with her surroundings. Her back leaning against the hut and her buttocks resting firmly on the rock below, her face looked downwards and tears started streaming slowly, second after second, down her cheeks and dripped to the brown soil where her bare feet rested.

“I love him,” she sobbed silently, unconsciously careful not to attract the attention of her sleeping mother.

Like the swing of a pendulum, her mind was brought back to the present when she felt the sting of a termite on her back.

“Ouch!” she shouted. She jumped up and realised that she had been sitting outside for an hour now. She also realised that she had shouted in the middle of the night, thank goodness no one had heard her and woken up. Nana walked back into the hut slowly, tired of thinking and tired of sitting. She shook the soil off from her back and jumped a little bit to get the soil out of her skirt.

“Poverty,” She whispered, suddenly finding someone to blame for the hole in her blouse. Many holes in fact. Slowly, she walked towards her hut and lifted the wooden door up so that no one would hear that she had been outside as she swung it open and entered in.

On her left was the straw mat and the old blanket, which had been passed on from her great grandmother. “Good luck, they say, rests in this blanket,” She whispered again. Her mind was not functioning properly at this time so she was whispering about everything.

She sat down. She rose up quickly. Her heart beating fast ,she looked down. What had she sat upon? Who had sneaked into her house?

“Don’t worry,” she heard his voice whispering from the mat below, “It’s me.”

“Why did you come now?” She whispered back, “now it makes sense, you are the one that closed my door. How come I didn’t hear anything? Why do you risk your life like that?”

“Because I love you,” he whispered back his reply.

“Taylor you must be crazy. What if we get caught? You know your father is an animal and he could shoot both of us down at any moment,” Said Nana in a hushed voice. He stood up and moved his hand in the dark until he touched her.

“I’m here; let’s make the most of it.” Taylor suggested calmly.

Soon they were lying on the straw mat together, the old blanket over them. Nana’s heart was pounding. Taylor put his arms around her and brought her face close to his. Their foreheads came into contact.

“Don’t fear, our love will carry us on its wings,” he said. Taylor kissed her on the forehead. He rose up, “I’m going back,” he said, “good night.” She stood up with him and as he tiptoed out of the hut towards the farmhouse she followed behind him and stood on the door. Nana looked at the dark figure walking away from her.

I love him, she thought to herself as she went back inside to lie down. She slept on the mat and with a smile on her face, sleep robbed her away.

Nana woke up to the light filtering through the gaps between the poles of the hut. She sat up on the mat, both palms resting on the ground below. She yawned and stretched her hands, it really seemed like a long night and she felt like she had slept for long.

“Nana!”

“Mom!” She shouted back.

“Get out of those blankets we have to go to the field, the foreman is waiting!”

“Alright mother!” I  hate this, she thought.

“Nana!” Her mother screamed again, be quick!”

“Ahh,” she murmured.

“Didn’t miss Pillay say we should come to the farmhouse this morning?” Asked Nana.

“Do as I say, you wretched girl,” she felt a hard hand hitting her back with a great force

“Ouch!” She shrieked as she jumped. Nana wondered how her mother had entered into the hut without her noticing.

“Get up, get up, be quick or else I will get a stick and hit you,” Ma Nana said.

“Mom, don’t be mean,” Nana said softly.

“Come on young girl.”

Her mother already had her hoe on her shoulder, Nana took hers and off they went. The farm was really a big farm, spanning over a thousand hectares. They took the gravel road heading towards the borehole; they were needed at the tomato field.

As they walked on the meandering road they went past many other workers, each heading to their post of duty. They would just say a hello and continue moving forward. Everyone knew what would happen if they didn’t get there on time. The foremen wielded sham bocks and they would gladly inflict wounds on those that arrived late.

People are wicked, Nana thought. How can one man treat another like their own slave? How can a man act as if they own the whole world? How can one black man gladly hit another with a sham bock simply because of money? People are wicked, people are wicked, Nana concluded.

“Nana!”

“Huh?” She was brought back to reality by the voice of her mother.

“We are late, let us run or else….” Nana knew what she meant by that. Running had now become a reflex action, when situations called for running then you simply had to run. Her mother was faster. She followed behind her.

“Girls of today, run fast!” Her mother complained, “You have to run faster than that, you are still young,” she continued. MaNana was now panting. She started walking.

The foreman’s voice was now audible.

“You are late, run! You are late, run!”

When they arrived, everyone was looking at them