“Ronnie, when I was your age, I wanted so much. South Africa was being born again. People like us had a chance to do anything we wanted. I studied hard. I worked hard. I dreamed of a family, a nice house, a nice car, holidays once a year. But it’s gotten harder and harder to make that happen. You were so young when I lost my desk job. I never thought it would be so difficult to find another one. But it was. Your ma and I have struggled so much. But no matter how much we do, it seems like we’re always losing.”
“Every day, I lose a little more hope,” Bradley continued. “I know I get angry. But I’m not kwaai18 with you kids or with ma. It’s just I don’t know any more how to give you the things you deserve. It’s not you I’m angry with. It’s this bloody country. Every time those puppets in Pretoria do something dom,19 it’s people like us that suffer. The loadshedding makes everything duur.20 We’re not better off than we were in apartheid. Sometimes I think things were better in apartheid. At least then, we weren’t stupid enough to dream that we could have different lives. We just got on with the business of surviving.”
Again, Bradley reached for his daughter’s hand. This time she let him take it. “Do you remember when you used to go to that school with the nice uniform? I thought that if you could go to that fancy school, you’d have everything at your feet. I failed you as a father when I had to send you to Manenberg Primary. You used to have a sparkle in your eye. Now you don’t care. I’m so scared you’re going to end up hanging out with those skollies and become like them.”
“Pa, I don’t hang with daai mense.”21
“What about your brother when he gets bigger? I’ve seen how young they start getting the little boys into the gangs. I don’t want to go away. I want to watch you become a young woman. I want to teach Dev the things a young man should learn from his pa. But I feel that if I don’t do this, then we’ll all be lost. I promise I will come home. I have to make this right.”
On the other side of him, Devon stirred and said again softly: “Pa, I don’t want you to go.” Ronese also drew closer and put her arms around Bradley’s neck. He held them both tightly, never wanting to let go. Behind him he heard footsteps. Lynette. She drew closer but did not join them by the fire, which had now dwindled into glowing red embers, with the heat slowly leaving the wooden logs.
“Dis tyd om bed toe gaan,” Bradley told the children. “Go get ready for bed and I’ll come in soon. I just want to talk to your ma for a bit.”
Reluctantly, Ronese and Devon detached themselves from him and walked forlornly towards the tent.
Bradley got up and turned to his wife, drew her into his arms and held her, finally allowing the tears to flow freely. Lynette held him, the two of them locked in an embrace that sought to eliminate the space of impending separation. After holding each other for a long while, they realized they were both cold and headed toward the fire to catch the last of its warmth.
Sitting hand in hand, Lynette asked; “Is there really no other way?”
Bradley sighed deeply. “If there is, asseblief22 tell me what it is. I’d do anything to keep us together, but I cannot think of anything else.”
“Why Saudi Arabia? Why not some place where we can come too?”
Bradley responded: “Because we have no money to emigrate. You know Michael, he’s working as a chef at this hotel in Riyadh and he says the Saudis don’t want to do this kind of service work but they’ll hire foreigners to do it. He told me about the chauffeur’s position. I applied and got the job. Michael says he works vrek23 long hours, but, in two years, he paid off what was owed on his house and now he’s talking about maybe transferring to another hotel in the chain, only in Europe this time. Then he can start thinking about bringing his family over.”
Lynette digested this information. “You think you will get lucky too?”
“Ek weet nie,”24 Bradley answered. “I’ve got to try. The way things are here in South Africa, we don’t stand a chance. It was never meant to be like this. But this blêrrie25 government has screwed us worse than those racist bastards. They don’t care about us. They just care about their pockets; their cronies and they are bleeding this country dry. If you want to survive, you must have connections, or you go someplace else.”
Bradley looked out into the pitch darkness. “You know how much I love this country. But at the end of the day, family comes first. If this is the sacrifice we must make to give our kids a future, then I must go. And perhaps one day, we can all leave together.”
Bradley and Lynette sat in silence now, each absorbed in their own thoughts. In the sky above them, the Southern Cross shone brightly. Bradley looked up and traced the formation of it with his finger. These stars had once helped the navigators who discovered this southernmost tip of Africa.
Bradley sent up a silent prayer that these stars would one day lead him back home. But for now, he had to follow a different star.
Footnotes
18. Angry.
19. Stupid.
20. Expensive.
21. Those people.
22. Please.
23. Deathly.
24. I don’t know.
25. Bloody.
Transadaptation Volume 5 – Of Flowing Vicissitudes
January: The Night the Stars Stopped Shining – Sarah-Leah Pimentel (South Africa)
February: Three Sides to Every Story – Krisztina Janosi (Hungary)
March: Rain Trap – Adriana Uribe (Columbia)
April: Priorities – Narantsogt Baatarkhuu (Mongolia)
May: The Night in Heaven – Armine Asryan (Armenia)
June: Witches Don’t Burn – Alejandra Baccino (Uruguay)
July: At One and The End of Misery – Angelika Friedrich (America)
August: Many Happy Returns – Svetlana Molchanova (Russia)
September: And Now, It Will All Go Downhill – Jonay Quintero Hernandez (Spain)
October: (To be announced) – Gennady Bondarenko (Ukraine)
November: You Are Her, Aren’t You? – Seyit Ali Dastan (Turkey)
December: To be announced
Background – Context
Transadaptation Volume 4: Material Dissent – Adulthood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2023)
Transadaptation Volume 3: Evanescent – Young Adulthood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2022)
Transadaptation Volume 2: Conceived – Childhood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2021)
Transadaptation Volume 1: In the Middle – Prelude to a Contemporary Transadaptation, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2020)
Peripatetic Alterity: A Philosophical Treatise on the Spectrum of Being – Romantics and Pragmatists by Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2019)
La Syncrétion of Polarization and Extremes Transposée, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2019)
The Codex of Uncertainty Transposed, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2018)
L’anthologie of Global Instability Transpuesta, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2017)
From Wahnsinnig to the Loony Bin: German and Russian Stories Transposed to Modern-day America, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2013)
Emblems and stories on the international community
Perception by country – Transposing emblems, articles, short stories and reports from around the world
Credits
1. Top row (left to right): South Africa – The End of the World – Lina Loos (Unsplash); Mpumalanga, South Africa – The Mountains – Nadine Venter (Unsplash); Bottom row (left to right): Johannesburg, South Africa – Goodhope Supermarket – Rich T Photo (Shutterstock); Johannesburg, South Africa – Emerging – Clodagh Da Paixao (Unsplash); South Africa – Reflecting – Leo Moko (Unsplash)
Source: The Codex of Uncertainty Transposed