Page 91 - The Mending Season

Then Mmamane Mabatho said, “You wont!”, but that was all I heard.“You’re sure you heard her, so we re in the middle now,” Mmamane Mabatho said. I hated that she said “we”. I did not want them involved. I did not want to be involved myself, espe­ cially after we had gone back to class and I had seen how upset everyone was. I wanted it to go away. I wanted everyone to for­ get about it. People had heard that word so many times. White people had even said it to me or about me a few times before in my life. I knew it was upsetting, but I didnt want to speak up. I wanted Veronica to forget it. Couldn’t we just label Beth “racist”- like we already had done with halfthe teachers any­ way - and leave it at that? I wished and hoped and willed it to turn into nothing.“That child’s family will not forget that she was smacked by a Black girl,”Mmamane Malesedi said to me that night. “And I think someone should tell them what their child did.”“You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to,” my mother said, holding my hand.“Malebone!” Mmamane Mabatho cried. “She heard the girl, she has to say something. Hao! Waitse wena, you know, sometimes you act like you don’t know how things work.”“I know how things work, and I don’t want Tshidi alienat­ ing teachers and potential friends. It’s her first year, tlheng\ Let her be. Legona, she wasn’t the one who hit the White girl. Shejust heard. If they didn’t believe the other girl, the one who has been in that school for much longer, how will they believe her, who has only been there for a few months? He ? ”“OK,” Mmamane Malebone said, still holding my hand, “but wait until they ask you to say something. Don’t go straight to the principal’s office.”91