Fighting Futures
“It was a six! Stop cheating! It didn’t bounce before hitting the fence!”, Jono protested.
“Bra, I’m standing right here. I could see it bounce!”, Mohau responded. “You’re just trying to get another chance because you know it’s the last over!”
“Whatever. Just bowl again.” Jono dismissed with his hand in the air as he walked back to the makeshift crease. “I can beat you easy like I always do”.
Mohau took a few paces back. His eyes locked at the base of the wickets. His two fingers gripped the tennis ball. Jono stood ready. Mohau didn’t take his eyes off the base of the wicket. He started his run up. He sprinted, and bowled with all the pace he could muster up. His landing step slipped on the loose soil. The ball landed short and bounced high. Jono swung a pull shot around his chest. The bat face was tilted upwards. The ball made perfect contact. The ball flew off the bat, with both Jono and Mohau staring at the sky, first in astonished excitement, then astonished shock. The ball landed in the neighbour’s yard.
“Bra, I said you must be careful! We can’t go back in there!” Mohau shouted.
“Whatchu so scared of? Let’s just jump over the fence and get the ball” Jono said.
“Have you seen that old lady!?” Mohau exclaimed. “Everyone on the street says she’s a witch. We just moved into the neighbourhood, and my parents said we shouldn’t cause problems.”
Jono laughed. “There are no witches in Fourways, except maybe in the WhatsApp groups”.
“Then you go get it”, Mohau said pointing at the fence.
“Why, you scared?” Jono dared.
“Yes, I’m scared. That nonsense won’t work on me. You go get the ball”.
Jono started walking towards the fence. He looked over the wall and saw a generally unkept garden. Weeds communed with roses. The strands of grass were reaching for the sky. There were odd bits scattered around, and the house looked like it hadn’t been painted in over 20 years. Jono turned and looked at Mohau, but couldn’t back out now.
“You wanna go together?” he asked Mohau.
“Nah bra, it’s your tennis ball. I’m not risking my life for that”, Mohau replied.
Jono slowly looked over the wall again. He could see the ball near the veranda. Adrenaline took over, and he lifted himself over the wall and jumped.
He started creeping through the grass crouching as low as possible. Left foot forward, carefully on the ground. Then right foot forward carefully on the ground. Slowly until he was a step away from the ball.
“And who might you be young man?”, the old lady asked walking out of the door.
“M-m-m-m-y n-n-name is J-j-ono”, he stuttered. “Jonathan Venter ma’am”.
He turned back to look at the wall and caught a glimpse of Mohau running away.
“And what do you suppose you’re doing in my garden?” she asked.
“We were playing cricket, and I hit the ball over the wall by mistake ma’am.”
“Oh, but the ball is mine now. It’s in my lawn, so now belongs to me” she said with a smirk on her face, as she walked and picked it up.
“Please ma’am, I don’t mean to cause any trouble”
She threw the ball up in the air, and caught it with one hand. Threw it up again, and caught it again. Up and down. And up and down. Jono’s eyes were following the ball, up and down. The ball started glowing as it went up and down. A hazy cloud engulfed his mind as the ball went up and down. His vision started blurring. He tried to lift up his hands to rub his eyes, but the dizziness weakened him. His head started rocking. Up and down. His body followed. Up and down. And then it was all clear.
“Where are we?” Jono asked.
“Across the road from where we were”, the old lady replied.
“But I’ve never seen this place before. Take me back home! I’ll run to the police station!”
“Remember Kingfisher Park?” she asked. “Well the municipality needed the money, so sold most of it off to property developers. That was in 2030.”
“What? But it’s only 2026!”
“Umm… more 2076. And also, the police station isn’t there anymore”.
Now Jono was both scared and confused. “So, you are a witch”
The old lady burst out laughing. “Not quite sure what that word means these days”
“At least they kept the skatepark.” Jono started looking around for anything he could recognise. He saw an old man, seated on the bench, staring at them. Something about him seemed familiar. He lifted his hand to give a respectful wave.
“Let’s go and greet”, the old woman said.
They walked up to him. The old woman sat on the bench next to him, while Jono remained standing.
“Good afternoon sir”, Jono started.
“Ha!” the old man said. “From a time when they taught you manners. How old are you now?”
“I’m twelve”, Jono said. “Well, twelve turning thirteen. Sorry have we met before?”
“In many was we have”, he said laughing. “My name is Jonathan Venter”, the old man said.
Jono was now confused. “But…. That’s my name”.
“You don’t have a monopoly on the name”, the old man said cheekily. But yes, I am you.
While still trying to figure out what was going on, a cloud engulfed his mind again, and dizziness weakened his body. A few moments, and it was clear again. Still at the bench with the old man and lady, he was now standing next to a middle-aged man in chinos and a sports blazer.
“What the hell is going on”, the middle-aged man said abruptly. “I’m late for my 3 o’clock. Where the hell am I”?
“Good afternoon, sir”, Jono said to the middle-aged man. “I’m Jono. Jonathan Venter”.
The middle-aged man now looked confused. “What the hell is going on here! I don’t have time for whatever games are being played! There isn’t enough time in the day for this!”
“But can you at least introduce yourself”, the old man said to the middle-aged man.
“Ummm… I’m Jonathan Venter also. Who the hell brought me here!?”
“How lovely”, the old woman said with her glowing face to the sky. “I wish I could make a pot of tea. This is a time for great conversation”.
Jono started making sense of what was happening. “Tell me”, he said looking at the middle-aged man. “Did you ever end up playing for the Proteas? Or become a world-famous streamer? Or at least get a girlfriend?”
“There were many of those”, the old man said laughing.
“Listen here kid”, the middle-aged man started. “If what is happening is what I think is happening, my advice to you is to let go of this cricket thing. It will just end in unnecessary disappointment. You’ll play and try and play and then…”
“Nah, you’re fine playing cricket”, the old man interrupted. “Keep going at it. This guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
The middle-aged man turned to the old man. “Is this what it all ends up as?”, he asked him. “Sitting on a bench in a run-down skatepark?”
“Where were you hoping chasing quarterly corporate targets would end up?” the old man asked.
“What do you even do for fun?”, Jono asked the middle-aged man. “You still running around with Mohau?”
“Mohau!? Haven’t seen him since he left for high school in the midlands. There’s no time for fun kiddo. Between work and school pickups and alternate weekends with the kids, where must I now have fun?”
“Wow, is that where it all ends up?”, Jono asked.
“Don’t listen to him” the old man said. “There is fun in between all those things. He just doesn’t have enough time to see it”.
“Nah, y’all are boring”, Jono said, turning his back on them. “This is just motivation for me to push harder on cricket or the streaming. I’m going for the big time!”
The middle-aged man grabbed Jono’s arm firmly. “Listen here kid. All that dreaming stuff is not worth it. What you need to focus on is…”
“Nah bro, I don’t wanna focus on whatever it is you’re focusing on. Do you even like the life you’re living?” Jono said, forcing the middle-aged man’s hand off him.
“First, learn some respect. Secondly, let me tell you exactly what happened with your dreams. First it started with…”
The cloud started hazing again. Both Jono and the middle-aged man started staggering as the dizziness engulfed them.
“I’m not done!” the middle-aged man tried. “I need to tell this kid the truth of the way things really are!”.
Moments later, they had disappeared from the skatepark. It was just the old lady and the old man remaining on the bench.
“Well that was lovely”, the old lady said to the old man, as they both laughed. “Do they normally torment you?” she asked him.
“I think they torment each other a lot more.”