Page 90 - The Mending Season

“Tumisang, this is a very, very complicated situation,” she said firmly. “If Beth actually said the word then both parties were in the wrong.”“If} I f Miss? She did say it, you heard Tshidiso!” Tamzs voice trembled as she spoke.“Tumisang,” Mrs Tanner said softly but firmly, and then took a deep breath. The class fell silent. “Tumisang,” she repeated. “Calm down. This is not your battle.”“The word should be banned,”Trish spoke up but instead oflooking at the teacher she looked around her, at the Black girls. Tamzs eyes looked watery. Veronica sat with her elbow on the desk, her head resting on her hand and turned away from the front ofthe class.“Tamz, leave it. A ba nyake go utlwa,”Veronica said. “They don’t want to hear it.”Everyone was quiet after Tamz spoke. The teacher looked in our direction, the students looked at Tamz. We had never seen her cry before. She was always so strong and determined. Her trembling voice rattled us. Mrs Tanner was silent for a moment. Veronica had been crying, Tamz was close to tears. The netball court felt like a place we would now approach with caution. Everything was, as they say in Afrikaans, deurmekaar. It was a mess. We were losing hold of the familiar things. Except for KB. She looked engrossed in a teen novel.“Ifyou heard her, you go back tomorrow and tell the prin­ cipal exactly what you heard,” Mmamane Mabatho said to me. The aunts were sitting around me in the meeting room.As always they had gone in first, spoken in hushed tones and then called me in. They left me staring at the TV screen, trying to watch the English news and listen in on their con­ versation at the same time. At one point, I heard Mmamane Malesedi’s voice rise as she said, “She will not!” Voices always stayed as low as possible in the meeting room. I knew that this was serious.90