Of Mountains and Hills

It’s hard to pinpoint where the cocktail Phakamani’s love, and fear of high places came from. The love may have come from the views he found solace in during his years of sojourn in Cape Town. From the upper campus of UCT, he would take lunch walks to Rhodes Memorial to escape what he considered to be trivial social games. After graduating, he would escape the trivial social games of his Newlands office park to take lunchtime walks through the forest up to his favourite lookout point. And the fear may have come from being found out to be doing this. The shame of being unable to integrate. And the embarrassment of being called “Mountain Boy” in hushed tones.

Which is why the move to Joburg was a somewhat relief from his increasingly alienated life in the southern suburbs of Cape Town. Despite all his apprehensions from the stories of decay, danger and shallow materialism, his second week was proving to be not-so-bad. He had even managed to score a date this coming weekend.

He hadn’t yet built up the resilience to handle the Winnie Mandela traffic to Sandton, so he was taking the Gautrain bus from Monte Casino. On Tuesday morning’s trip, she came and sat next to him. He was first intrigued by her business suite matched with pink pumps. Her dreadlocks tied beautifully backwards into a professional bow with hints of a more colourful after-work life. Her perfume strong enough to be noticed, but subtle enough to notice her. As the bus turned into Sandton drive, he had to make conversation. And as they arrived at the station, they had exchanged details and agreed to meet at Lonehill Park on Saturday morning.

As to why he chose to climb the Lonehill koppies with her for their date, the average Fourways resident would never understand. But now here they were.

“Do you normally bring girls here on dates?”, Thato giggled asking Phakamani.

“No, this is the first time.” he replied, trying to forget the Cape Town sneers. “Should I have suggested something else?”

“I thought this was cute.” she said. He wasn’t sure whether that’s a good cute or a condescending cute. He looked at her wearing his confusion on his face. “Let’s just say I wouldn’t have come if you suggested going to Tiger’s Milk”, she assured him.

They started up the rocky hill, slow enough to enjoy each other’s company, yet fast enough to encourage words to come in between the awkward silences.

“How are you finding the move to Joburg?”, Thato asked.

“It’s different hey. People live in prisons here in these secure complexes. I’ve been here 14 days and 4 of those days have been without water. The traffic lights are being directed by hobos. Do y’all just get used to all of this?” he started to rant. He could see some irritation in her face.  “But I would’ve never met you if I hadn’t, so it was worth it I guess”, he threw in.

“But you give off playboy vibes” she said aided by the side of her eyes. They both kept quiet questioning how long this date will last.

He eventually broke the ice. “How long have you been in Joburg”?

“My whole life. Born here, in the East Rand. Grew up in the West Rand. And now I’m here in Fourways. I wouldn’t be in any other city in the world.”

Phakamani looked down. “Sorry for talking down on it then. Cape Town habit I guess.”

As they were nearing the top of the koppie, there was some water on one of the rocks which seemed to have been spilt by another hiker. Not seeing it, Phakamani stepped on it and slipped, falling to the ground. He managed to hold onto a rock to prevent himself from falling, but let out a scream because pain bolted from his ankle, through his leg, to the rest of his body.

“Oh my gosh. Are you ok? So sorry!” Thato stood frozen with her hands out, unsure what to do.

“I don’t think I can stand up. I’ll need someone to help me down. Wow, this is so embarrassing.” he said, holding back the tears to prevent even more embarrassment.

“I’m going to ask that guy over there to help us” Thato said, pointing to a middle-aged man further up the trail.

“Isn’t there anyone else? A white guy won’t want to help me” he said a bit too loud.

The man turned back to see who said that. When he noticed that Phakamani was injured, he called his son from ahead, and they both ran to him.

“Are you ok? I’m Francois. H-Hold onto my arm.”

Francois grabbed Phakamani’s arm, and put it over his shoulder. “Are you guys together?” he asked Thato.

“No, just a friend” she said quickly. “I mean, yes we were walking together” she said even more quickly, trying erase her blunder.

“We need to get him professional help as soon as possible. Here, take his water bottle and I’ll help him down the hill.”

Phakamani didn’t really know how to handle this situation, and kept his mouth shut besides the occasional “oooh”’s and “aaah”’s whenever the pain hit.

As they reached the parking, Francois asked Thato, “where’s your car? You can take him to Life Hospital down the road”.

“I’m sorry to do this to you, but I don’t know him that well, and won’t feel safe having him in my car. Could you please take him?” Thato asked shyly.

Francois stared at her for a moment in confusion. Phakamani was even more nervous to get into his car. “Ok, let’s go. I’ll just need to drop off my son at home first”, Francois said.

“You like hiking?”, Francois asked on the drive down Uranium Road trying to break the awkward silence.

“Ya, I used to do it a lot in Cape Town, so I guess I do”.

“The views from the top are amazing aren’t they”, Francois said.

“It’s why I do it every time. Worth every climb. The world just seems so much simpler from there.” Phakamani replied.

They finally arrived at the entrance boom of Life Hospital and parked.

“Ya, the views are beautiful from the top, but life is lived in the messiness of the ground. And somewhere in that messy ground a white guy can help you”, he laughed.