Thenjiwe Pov

I had been running for a while and I was feeling breathless I couldn’t continue, my feet couldn’t carry me any longer. A very large snake was after me, I didn’t want it to catch up with me. But I was so tired and I fell down. The snake finally caught up with me when I was about to scream the snake changed to a very old man and he said.

“ Will you stop running I need to talk to you” and I woke up it’s a dream again. I had been having the same scary dream of lately.

Everytime I tell myself that I will not run next time I needed to talk to him but why is he appearing in a snake form for heavens sake can’t he just walk up to me and talk. I told myself next time I will not run that was the last time. There was no running away from the dream so why not be strong. I didn’t know what was going. If I knew my family background maybe I could have had an idea of what was happening with me them.

I was already eighteen years then and still was no way near finding my relatives. My mother moved to the village where I grew up when I was two months old and then she passed on when I was eight I grew up in the Village with almost everyone taking care of me. I was a good child not that I’m not good anymore. There was an old lady who stayed next to our home when my mother passed she took me in. She was old but I was old enough and could take care of her and myself. Though the village helped with food and clothes. I never lacked anything and I grew up well.

Lucky followed me everywhere as I grew up. I was never bullied. Other kids loved me despite that my mother and I were poor. We were happy, my mother never told me where we came from I always thought I was born in the village until she passed on and no one from my mother’s family came and the village told me my mother woke up one day sitting by the borehole with a baby and they took her in. They only knew she came from a far away land called Mabika and they used to say no one can walk that far but my mother said she walked.

As I had grown up in Sigola Village now and then I will visit no one in particular but almost the whole village for the old lady who raised me had passed on. But they were my only relatives and also had friends there.

When I started having these dreams I had no one to talk to. I told myself the following weekend I will have to visit the Village and seek advise from the elders . I was staying alone since I was sixteen I got a job in the big city cleaning an office and my small room was in the same building where I worked so I was not facing an challenges going to work. Every girl in the village dreamt of coming to Bulawayo the City of Kings.

I woke up took my shower and went down. My body was getting weak because of the consistency of the dream. Everyday I woke up tired and I couldn’t take it anymore. I needed help or else I was going to be useless even at work.

Weekend came I packed my backpack and took the bus home. I went to the Headman’s homestead since my grandma passed on now I go to his home when I visited the village. I used to call him Uncle because he was not older than my mother, and my mother always called him her young brother.

“ My daughter you are here” my Uncle welcomed me to his home.

“ Uncle Moyo how are you it has been long how are you and the family” I greeted him as I sat under the mango tree.

“ We all well my daughter why are you looking so haggard you are not taking care of yourself are you. “ my Uncle always managed to notice if something was wrong with me. Everyone in the village noticed something about me because they all paid too much attention to me voluntarily.

“ Uncle I don’t know what’s wrong with me I haven’t been sleeping well lately thus why I came home” I told my Uncle.

“ What is wrong my child I’m glad you came home tell me what is wrong my child” my Uncle cared too much about me. As if he was my blood.

“ Where is Auntie and Cynthia Uncle” I asked after others before answering his question.

“ They went to the farm my child now out with it what is it” he pushed because he was never the patient one.

“ I have been having a strange dream everyday Uncle. A snake comes after me. A big black snake I run away all the time and it comes after me and when it catches up with me it changes into an old man and he says stop running I want to talk to you. But I always wake up before he speaks. And everytime I go to sleep I tell myself I will not run but I still run” I tell my Uncle.

“ ooooh my child which means your ancestors are looking for you. Wherever you were born things are not well. It’s either we have to find your own people or we will have to perform a ritual to remove them from your way but the later is dangerous” my uncle says with a far away look.

“ what could they possible want uncle. I’m just a child I turned eighteen recently. Why didn’t they come after me long back and these are dead people right” I asked my uncle, tradition is part of our village.

“ yes they are dead people thus why they are able to get to you wherever you are they can reach you , I will talk to the elders in the evening because you are going back to the city on Sunday right?” I had only Saturday and Sunday morning and I will be going back.

“ yes Uncle I will have to go back to work on Sunday”

“ okay I will send the word around to call the elders so that we try to help you. You grew up in our hands we will have to find a solution to your problem” my Uncle advised. They were my family for real no one could have helped me because I knew no one else except of course just few people I work with in the city and they were not even my friends. The village was my everything and I was wondering why are my ancestors looking for me. Isn’t they only look for someone who is useful to them, could I be useful to them in a way, maybe.