Page 56 - The Mending Season

to climb the lemon trees in Eersterus and Laudium to watch how people lived there.Black girls missed school on a few occasions because of strikes and stay-aways in the townships. The school asked us not to wear uniforms on those days, so that no one would know we were going to school in town. In the township, I watched TV or sat outside reading a book on those days, happy to have the day to myself. The more uncomfortable I felt at Ascension, the more I wished for stay-aways.I began to know bits and pieces about a few girls’ lives. The “Indian Standard Nines” were a group of girls who moved together in one big group and left a trail ofdisapproving stares wherever they went. They were the most misbehaving group ofgirls in the school, wearing badges that proclaimed things like, “Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere.”They would sometimes disappear for an entire afternoon, and Sister Cecilia would have to get into her car and drive around town looking for them. I watched them from a distance, envying their hair, their style (they wore bigger earrings and bracelets and somehow got away with it) and their carefree behaviour. I once heard a nun whisper to a teacher, “They’re not Catholic, that’s why they’re so much trouble.” But I thought they added so much life to the school. They were the type of girls who would make Mma Motsei feel hopeless. She would probably preach to them breathlessly and then go into isola­ tion - but leave her music blasting on the stoep, ofcourse.One day in swimming class, I was in the shallow end ofthe pool attempting the backstroke when I hit someone with my hand. She had been swimming lengths while I had been going across, doing widths. I stood up straight, wiped the water from my face, pretending I didn’t feel the pain ofwater in my nostrils, and said, “Sorry! Sorry!”When she stood up I was terrified - it was KB. I thought she would yell or look at me like I was emitting a bad smell, but instead she seemed calm.56