Page 117 - The Mending Season

what they do.” He repeated this at different points in his ser­ mon. As he had done the last time, he started with Jesus and the Bible, and then made obscure statements such as “in the papers these days, we see stories about events, incidents that happen and lead to crises, all because of anger and peoples inability to forgive”.But who was supposed to forgive who for what first? Was Beth to forgive me for my clumsiness, Veronica and I to for­ give Beth for her offensive word, or Beths parents and the teachers to forgive Veronica for her slap? I thought about the situation and played it back in my mind, asking what could have happened to stop the chain of reactions that followed. I went back to the sports teacher’s nervousness and how anxious it made everyone, but then I started going further, thinking that perhaps Beth shouldn’t love sport so much or imagining that if none of us knew the meaning of the word “kaffir” we would all be better off. Thats when I gave up.Neither Beth nor Veronica was back in class that Monday. When Mrs Tanner came in for Religious Studies, she was also solemn, but instead oftalking about the Sowetan story, she went straight to her lesson. I was so uneasy and afraid that day, and I could feel a chill from every teacher who walked in. They were all angry and nervous for different reasons. The teachers hated seeing the school’s name in the papers and hearing people say unfavourable things about their place of work. Some teachers, according to rumours, were already sending out their CVs, looking for different jobs. Now that Veronica and Beth were out ofthe school and the article in the Sowetan mentioned my name, I felt like the person on whom they were venting their frustrations. I could already see myselfbeing asked to leave the school at the end ofthat day, and going back to a township school.The Sowetan had mentioned that Veronica was “asked to leave until such time as the school called her back” and at the117