“That was a good visit. It was so good to see Flo and Mario. It’s been way too long,” Toni reflected as she pulled her rental car away from the house.
She paused to negotiate her way back up the narrow driveway before the motorised gate closed again. Toni was less worried about hitting the gate or the wall. She was watching the rearview mirror for skollies, those layabouts who loitered in the suburbs during the day. You never knew who might be an “undercover criminal” watching for a chance to hijack unsuspecting motorists or sneak onto a property through an open gate.
“Eish, I’ve forgotten what it’s like to live in Jozi1,” Toni thought, as she proceeded – incident-free – onto the road, and checked that the gate was now safely closed to protect the elderly couple she’d come to visit.
Twelve years of living in Cape Town had made her less aware of her surroundings, more complacent about personal security. But as soon as she landed in her hometown of Johannesburg, her sixth sense of hyperalertedness kicked in instantaneously.
Toni’s visits home had become less frequent as many of her friends moved abroad, and especially when her ageing parents also finally moved to Cape Town. Each time she came home, the degradation of the city’s infrastructure was more noticeable. This didn’t shock her. It was happening all over South Africa to varying degrees. What saddened her was that the ever-deepening morass of corruption, mismanagement and infrastructure collapse had left nothing untouched.
On the surface, this leafy suburban street in Kensington – just 20 minutes from the city centre – seemed little different from her childhood memories. Its residents continued to live as they always had behind their high walls that could hide anything from a tennis court to a luscious garden, or even a haunted house.
Behind those walls, however, families lived in fear. The walls, topped with a layer of spikes, got higher. If the spikes didn’t deter an opportune intruder, then the electric fence and burglar bars on every window and door might.
Yet none of this was on Toni’s mind as she drove down the leafy road. This is where she had grown up. She knew these streets like a palimpsest that would forever be etched into her soul. How many times had she walked from her house two blocks away to the Italian-run tennis club just up the road? The tennis club was gone now. During her visit, Flo told her that the council had converted the facility into basketball courts, more suited to today’s neighbourhood dynamics.
On these streets, she’d roller-skated and ridden her bike. Her playmates were long gone. Many had emigrated overseas. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d spoken with any of them. Louise’s house was just at the top of this road, and the rock band she’d played in had a makeshift music studio in a converted garage around the corner. That house was now the borderland between the idyllic world of suburbia and the encroaching ghetto. The makeshift music studio was now a shebeen2.
These changes hadn’t come suddenly. Toni had watched them slowly envelope her childhood memories even before she moved away. Each time she returned, the changes became more pronounced, but in her mind, Toni could still see beyond the surface to another time, blurring the boundary between dream and reality.
“Yes, that was a good visit,” Toni repeated to herself as her thoughts turned inward. I’m glad I came. It’s been years since I last saw Flo and Mario. I remember meeting them for the first time when I joined the tennis club. Flo was friendly and always keen to share a tip to improve my game. Mario was the cantankerous one, swearing (in Italian) “la porca miseria” every time I missed a shot!
Toni giggled at the memory but immediately felt sad.
I’m glad I came. Mario might not be here next time, the way he was struggling with his portable oxygen tank. How old is he now? He must be in his 80s, like my parents. I can’t believe he still meets up at the Italian restaurant every month with his old tennis buddies!
It wasn’t just age that made Flo and Mario seem so fragile. It was the weight of living in that beautiful house where they’d raised their children, but knowing that given its proximity to the slums of Malvern, it would never fetch enough to buy a small place in a retirement village. And so they lived, with their memories of a different time, behind their electric fences and burglar bars, hoping that they would never become another crime statistic.
“Still,” thought Toni, as she stopped at the bottom of the hill before turning down Pandora Road, “despite everything, this street looks good. And there were no potholes!”
Toni glanced at the clock on the dashboard. 1:58 pm. She’d promised her friend Hema, who she was staying with, that she’d pick the kids up from school. It made sense for her to do this, as she was just 15 minutes away, but home was nearly 45 minutes from the school. The kids would be let out at 2:30. She needed to make a move.
Toni decided to take the highway, it would be quicker to go past Eastgate Mall and pick up the R24 and head into town that way. She indicated left and turned on the radio, leaving behind her childhood memories.
(…to be continued…)
Footnotes
1. Jozi or Jozi-town is an informal and affectionate name for Johannesburg.
2. In South Africa, shebeens are unlicensed pubs that sell alcohol, often on the back of someone’s home.
Transadaptation Volume 7 – Via Ellipsis – Continuation of Uncertainty, Instability and Extremes Transadapted
January: An Unexpected Trip Down Memory Lane – Sarah-Leah Pimentel (South Africa)
February: Blow-up – Veronika Groke (Austria)
March: Futuros Murguistas – Alejandra Baccino (Uruguay)
April: The Nomenclature Man – Paulius Limantas (Lithuania)
May: Amanecerá y veremos – Adriana Uribe (Columbia)
June: Finding Light in Yerevan – Armine Asryan (Armenia)
July: The Last Judgement – Nadia Silva Castro (Brazil)
August: Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Worm? – Narantsogt (Natso) Baatarkhuu (Mongolia)
September: Second Steps – Jonay Quintero Hernandez (Spain)
October: New Normality – Svetlana Molchanova (Russia)
November: Pandemic Love – Li Xiakun (China)
December: Beyond Comprehension – Rahaf Konbaz (Syria)
Background – Context
Transadaptation Volume 6: Meaning? – Uncertainty, Instability and Extremes Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2025)
Transadaptation Volume 5: Of Flowing Vicissitudes – Life Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2024)
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
Left column (top to bottom): 1. South Africa – Shopping – van Blerk (Shutterstock); 2. Capetown, South Africa – Residential – Travelview (Shutterstock); 3. Johannesburg, South Africa – A family – Carlo Kaminski (Shutterstock)
Middle column (top to bottom): 1. Kakamas, South Africa – Die Pienk Padstal – Grobler du Preez (Shutterstock); 2. Karoo, South Africa – Roadside padstal – mehdi (Shutterstock)
Right column (top to bottom): 1. South Africa – Transport – rawf (Shutterstock); 2. Ruiterbos, South Africa – Boerqi Bistro Padstal – Roger de la Harpe (Shutterstock)