The Book of the Dead. Kgebetli Moele

about Bongani and what could have been. Then she began to think about all the other men that she had got naked with, wondering if one of them could help her. She fought the thought, but it wouldn’t go away. Just ask, this once, something inside of her said. They are the ones that came to you. They got what they wanted. Ask and get what you want too.

      She had never been inclined that way; men were always the ones to come to her with offers, but she had to ask this time. She made a list of all the men that she had got naked with, then separated them into three categories: Grade A, Grade B and Grade C.

      Grade A men were those who were family men with financial power. Herbert was the first on the list. She called him at his bottlestore and caught him first time. After they had greeted each other she put forward the purpose of her call: “Well, I am sorry to call you, Herbert, but I have some difficulties with my studies, financial difficulties, and I don’t have anywhere else to go. I just thought that maybe you could help me somehow.”

      “I will call you back,” he said, after she had given him the residence phone number, but then he cut the call without even saying goodbye.

      Immediately, Pretty felt worse than she had ever felt before in her life and she took to her bed.

      Herbert called her the next morning. “How much do you want?” he asked.

      She wasn’t sure how to respond to the question, so she stayed quiet, calculating.

      “Pretty, I said how much do you want?”

      Then she told him how much she owed the institution and he gave her all of it, plus fifty per cent.

      After Herbert, Pretty tried the next man on the list and then the next. Almost all the men put something towards her education, and that was how she put herself through the University of the North. They had used her, and she was using them in turn.