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African American Black Coming of Age

By Dumisani khumalo

The rain pitter-patter panning out asphalt bare long trenches ,drenched wet , and dug out craters in the road .The rubber tyres floated up and,down and sideways ,the power of air in them pulling heavy weights of cars ,like demons come up in them ,and brought them out of the road,sending them up high and afloat ,up and down and sideways, with the full water lifting up the air,and pulling them out of the road .

The drownings in river s brought victims out naked , water half way to the torso of man as to the diameter of the radial tyres ,increasing the size and width of potholes , muddy water splashing out of them in it's natural strength.

The potholes were like pot pans made of silver ,mud out of them splashed in ,a red and rusty mud pool of clay clamming ,impassible ,opening up here and there and everywhere, like sores of the napalm bomb ,that pulled and stretched the skin of the faces of refugees during the war of liberation, and at the roadside , stretched the cost on travellers in their search for food ,the ruthles truthless happening , wondering and laughing at themselves.

He looked left and some looked right,on the side ,as the black ,dark bituminous emulsions lost contact and adhesion with the grinding diety of corruption that was following the tracks,.The dry dust bowl on a windy day taking its sediments out of the road.

Strips of dust dunes , craddling stones ,burst tyres and blasting tones raised heads ,raised confusion from motorists ,travellers bobbing heads ,and stuck to the road side for hours on end ,and on busy days ,for days on end ,before luggage and baggage would be carried to their destination,.

The market on the tarmac got a mind of its own ,and made many of them friends ,deals struck, for a dime or a dollar ,in the local dead currency ,or the green back ,as the broken up and cracking boulders made favour turn heads ,a rushing out of the .rubble creating more troubles with the law when soil was sold as land to construction companies.

They carried sand with handy men in providence ,, placed it inside the holes , pebbles at the edge of the road too ,as gabbage , the turning of wheels ,  ,racing on the muddy puddle , messing the side of cars ,their wheels,and on a very dry day ,dust came as high as the wind could carry it ,into the coughing covered faces , in the car that could barely see where they were going. opening up to the vagaries of corona , sounding scary with the continuous coughs ,as one with a chock,TB, slurry pneumonia ,made , the stats real of where people were going to town for

,if not for their needs .

The scattering of stones to the windshield , breaking them for repair was a cost.

 Luis felt the pain in his heart. The innocent do when answers are not coming.

Some of the cars turned around when on traffic accidents started happening , some cars stopped right in the middle of the road when a pile up ensued , stopping more cars ,slow at a snail's pace drives .demanding cash and  wanting many more favors paid for the ride.

To get to town took two hours .One and half more than sitting in the dark abyss of the early birds cry taking pursuit of work a day earlier,and staying out on the town until Friday evenings .Some drivers devised a way of making people sleep over in their cars ,to the office ,to the market ,where poor government was discussed in mid sleep,,at emptying pockets that Luis had.

Where was the money going .What stopped the works on the road.

 Answers were a new ministry ,new contract ,open tenders ,to small minds to talk in their friendly parliament, of ,who was wrong ,why were people quiet with red mouths..They looked at each other ,big heads turning and searching around in fear of who was asking and talking too much .

Heaps of sand with outgrown weeds by the roadside looked like the backbone of the city .The skeletal formation of the mounds were on the left hand side ,tumbling up and down ,and pushing to the right ,on on coming traffic.The heaps were coarse , compact ,no one attempted to put big boulders out of the road ,or trees ,grass ,weeds that grew out wild ,stones starting to create hiding areas for carjacking initiators , with youth hiding behind the mounds , making a touting ,with absconders from home , victims of aids , of corona , of a better living to be made in Town from their living in rural areas .

It was unnecessary to make stops ,as the police came ,motor inspectors to hound them .The youth to rob them.

The stops ,road blocks , breakdowns ,peeked at rush hour in the Town..The police wanted to get their bribes .They could not afford to survive , the economy, bending rules ,their shoes ,torn uniforms ,testimony of old ways mankind made and had in him in the time things were worn out.This took from them their pay packs .

It was a prerequisite that ,a uniform worn , got you hired ,so you bought it ,or you got fired, because you did not have one .

The parade was losing colour in fading uniforms, inspection visits, brought all forces of arms to reason , compromise, no officer did not take money back for the inspector , and stayed by the cash cow on the roadside.

 Luis saw big ,eyelashes ,long nails , at the parade ,after paying his fine .The  good woman prospects that came , in broad daylight,,gave his soul to the pulpit of corruption , in the church ,many women afforded the trip abroad.

Women had the power not the racism or tribalism . Pushing cars out of holes ,the one mending tyres ,the tree brunch fetcher ,to help them out of their burdensome hole on a rainy day or his way out to pay touts who hollered for a penny less or a penny more ,and stopped any carriage,rules of law and good governance  demanding at undisignated places ,and carrying bags ,came with a charge .and a price.

Cash and carry was the labor force, .

Squatters settled by the road side,first ,.on fires ,for smokes , food ,,and made noise and started interests to people who preyed on others on the side of the road .First as security to travellers ,then as pirates who did,to them things that ,took their valuables and the sheer needs of the stomach ,goods ,money.

Children came into the road in the morning to play ,and pretended to fill the holes and brought out the begging bowl..

Some children were born by the roadside in time as distance became compromising .The brave children you met , became more vivid when you met them in town at the wind screen side to beg and ask questions.

The girl child was compromised ,on the destiny of the travellers .Some asked for food ,some asked for money ,until milk packs with fuel in them put them to sleep,and they survived in it .

The stones ,sand ,drifted away and piled stone ,no one had the ability to change the course of things.

 Corruption was eating like a rat at the fabric of society , the reason wealth, not war , brought the countrys independence, no one would claim to enjoy it ,in the wicked whispers .The youth , grew up ,without a hope.

On the other side of the road,a lash green grass had grown trees ,bringing them to height held up in the soil that ,got dry ,as cars took the short way from the rough and tumble , bushes bringing trees ,and growing them to cover land..

Land needed access and that access was closing clogged up activities made by man and his interests , the weather pointing a condemning four fingers at him ,while he pointed one at his enemy who allowed poverty ,hunger ,and image of his arch enemy to fight him blind. Luis had his enemy,lat him ,his lack of cash.

Honesty was rare and when one came by it ,honor was, rare it was worth to keep the feeling of peace and tranquility,, with it and the government claimed destitution to donors to get the their backs green in foreign lands .

When they were left alone ,without their honest friends by the roadside and their home A place where they could erk out a living than to relay on handouts ,they were chased when donor visits happened.

They were out i making frame and vendor stalls ,and made them to attract truckers who started draining big haulage trucks by the road side for resale..They were desperate as they walked out of their heavy trucks .Their mouths betrayed them ,and they were looking for a way out of the mess ,,thinking of their children's honor, not in themselves as the corruption was.

 The children to fend for and their relationships ,t their future, building ,was happening at the road side., desired.

Broken down cars were not collected and became habitat , accident damaged cars , scrap heap, metal foundry, became the roofing,ttenting ,yawning ,from trucks ,on dug out trenches .

Plastic empty containers moved out, there was no filling station anywhere close ,,and plastic containers were hidden in the bush ,,brought out, priced with their sunken bottoms, the pump price remaining the same .The sunken depression the normal profit made at the same capital rate of the green back.

Day break ,desperate motorists looked ahead ,brow beaten and calculative , arguments starting over and r over on speeding ,bumps,humps , overcrowding,corona ,masks ,and there was the woman always sitting at the front ,as a woman can,,do her thing to the police officers .

Every driver loves a woman and every woman loves her man for his car ,as he loves his car like her,  

However she  rots from the head ,like a fish and a man's from the heart ,like a dish .

Luis lost his cardinal looking points ,he drove out in a rush, , threaded a way out in the bush ,dirty traction gaining speed, and plunder increased the wonder , the size ,the width of cars ,when the water splashed out of them,or when dust came into them ,all was not well in the dirty plunder 

July 23, 2021 12:02

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