Life is a mystery; some instances you feel like you have gone through some process before yet they say only a cat has nine lives…
It was on a Saturday morning and the weather was not very friendly. It was cold and windy outside, inside the house the atmosphere was dark and dingy all thanks to load shedding exercise which had become a para normal phenomena. Tina decided to spice up her weekend, she braced herself and went out of the house to look for some sunshine in a somewhat dampday. She made her way through the narrow dirty aisle taking a short cut into the city centre as she did not have a dime to spare for transport. She also knew her friends would want to have some cheap ice-cream so she made sure she had some pennies reserved to buy some for herself.
As she was meandering her way thought the corridor, she felt as if someone was watching her. She stopped several times to check but there was no one in sight. Just as she was about to get into a street, a slight figure appeared before her and asked for some money for busfare. It was a man with a hoody jacket, his face was barely visible and although he looked like a decent person; Tina thought he could do well with a bath, food and some rest. She hesitated a bit but for fear of what the man before her could possibly do, she surrendered her meagre savings and quickly walked away as the man was beginning to thank her.
With no ice-cream money left she started walking aimlessly kicking pebbles and engrossed deep in thought as she imagined what life could have been like had her parents been alive. Her parents had passed on when she was barely nine years of age. At sixteen, she would always imagine having a decent life, a job, a husband and children of her own. Of course uncle and aunt were taking good care of her but they also had children of their own to fend for and they worked tirelessly doing a lot of piece jobs to maintain the sanity of the household.
As Tina was lost deep in thought, making her way to the usual rendezvous place to meet her friends, a sudden darkness befell her. All she could remember was seeing herself lying down on her back surrounded by many inquisitive faces looking into her face. She could not move.
Moments later, she opened her eyes to very bright lights and there were people dressed in white who seemed to have a certain joy when they realized she had awakened.
She could also see her aunt and uncle rushing in and asking how she was. She was confused, she tried dismally to connect the dots of the events that landed her in the hospital. Her head was aching. She heard her uncle and aunt thanking “her friend” profusely for being there just in time to save their niece. She raised her head to have a look at the face of the said friend but she could not even recognize it. She was sinking into an abyss of confusion. What happened, how and why… she could not find answers and she just sighed and looked blankly into space as the voices of the people.
“Hie, my name is Ellard, we met earlier on in the alley that connects the high density suburbs to the downtown part of the city…” Tina stared at the guy blankly. You assisted me with some money when I was still recovering from the attack I suffered from some rowdy guys while on my way home from my night shift…” Ellard elaborated.
“Ohhh …” Tina started processing the information, retracing her steps into the not so distant past events of the day. She got to understand that this guy had helped her when she was hit by a truck which was avoiding a stray dog. Details of the events were slowly coming back to her. She did not make it to the meeting place to see her friends…Just then her aunt quizzed her “So Tina how long have you known your friend, we have never seen him before…?
“Oh aunt” she replied. “This guy is… this guy is just a stranger I met on the way…”