Ghetto Love 

A Short Story

By Tau Kelvin

Stompy was thinking about Zanele again. Zanele was a sweet beautiful girl with a cheerful personality. She had shiny, halo-white teeth and the most amazing rapture-blue eyes he had never seen before.

She was the nicest girl in the neighborhood. She went to a Roman Catholic Church and she was part of the Praise and Worship team. Every kid now loved Sunday school now that she was their new teacher.

Stompy walked over to the gate and reflected on his bustling surroundings. He had always loved the ghetto with its noisy, crowded streets. It was a place that inspired him to write songs that really expressed who he really was.

He had his pen and notepad in his hands, but his mind was not giving him anything to write about.

Then from a distance, he saw Zanele’s sculpted figure walking down the street.

Stompy gulped. He glanced at his own reflection. He was a Kwaito star wannabe, a regular drinker with red eyes and a dreadlock. His friends saw him as a cheeseboy, they called him lover boy. Once, he had even dated Miss Bulawayo Teen and dumped her for being too “serious”, whatever that meant.

He had blown things up with Zanele. There was no hope anymore, not even for a handsome teenager who had once appeared in a magazine for dating Miss Bulawayo Teen.

The sun was easy on the skin, warmth and a light breeze blew through the flowers of the ghetto gardens. She didn’t take the last turn, she was coming to his house. His heart started beating like Black Motion drums on a live set, making him nervous.

A flashback of how he had blown things up with her struck him fast like a lightning. Stompy dropped the pen when he was pushing his gate open.

As Stompy stepped outside and Zanele came closer, he could see the hurt, anger, or was there also disappointment on her face?

But then, Zanele gazed with affection. She was as affectionate as a child working to tell their mother what they broke. She said, in hushed tone, "Why did you do it?"

Stompy looked back, even more nervous. "Zanele, I'm in love with you," he replied.

They looked at each other with a strong mutual feeling that neither could resist. They jumped at each other’s arms and started kissing, in the middle of the street which had kwaito music playing in the background and two gangsters drinking to the beat.

Zanele looked into Stompy's eyes and rubbed his hair playfully and said, "I love you too". Stompy responded with a delightful grin.

Zanele looked anxious, her face blushing like a bride who tripped on her dress half-way up the aisle. Her eyes getting as teeny as an itsy bitsy yellow polka dot bikini.

Then Zanele came inside for a morning love song from her new pansula boyfriend.

THE END