She sat on a bench watching the birds making their last of practice runs before their decent North to Europe. The landscape was changing as fast as her country, her belief, her existence. Last year looked so different from this year, it had so many prospects. This year there is turmoil, lots of violence and more hatred. She wondered how it came to this.
She closed her eyes and moved back in time. She moved to a time where she was safe, wandering through her grandparents home. She remembered walking to school, it was still safe then. They used to play outside, there were no fences. She remembered Willem taking her to the shops to buy her a sucker with his own money. She felt so bad for him using his money that she dug into her Piggy bank and dropped money in the garden where he was working. Lost in yesterday, she could smell the aroma coming from the kitchen where he was busy preparing lunch. Only he could make a proper gravy, like grandma. She taught him to cook. He was so much apart of the family. He started working there when he was eighteen and saw her mother grow up.
Willem was a character of his own. He scolded when it was necessary. He once went to buy a bed pan for her great grandma at the shop. He thought the price were to high and told the shopkeeper that he could chuff the pan into his.......... . His bed was on top of bricks. To her the bed was very high since she was so small. She could never understand what a tokeloshe is. He tried explaining but eventually gave up. On a Saturday evening he always came back home very drunk. He made a big noise as he went to his room. He had his own little flat with his own bathroom. Being human he made his mistakes but he was proud and he had dignity.
Her grandparents got older and her mother re-married. They moved and Willem retired. Her grandparents ensured that Willem had a pension. That was the last she ever saw or heard of him.
What happened to us? The thought was like an alarm. There is no passes anymore the system was scrapped. People are free to buy and do and vote and to be. They are climbing corporate ladders but yet that is not enough. Greed and their urge for power got the better of them. They are oppressing the poor and enriching the rich to become super rich. They opened borders and gave houses to foreigners instead of their fellow citizen's. Strikes became more violent and so did police brutality. They became the very system they opposed. They were never set free but were captured in a web of lies and deception.
Morality became immoral. Human rights stole the homes where humanity once lived.
She looked up and saw the birds flying south. She jumped up trying to run after them. "You are going the wrong way" she yelled, "it will be suicide". Europe is north, the Arctic is south. She wanted to grab the leader and flung him to the ground. How can he lead his flock on a path of destruction? Just before she lost all hope one turned around and slowly one by one the others followed. It was only then that she realised that her country will also change direction, they only need one to change direction. Only one must turn away from the south.
Willem
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