1 The Coffin

CHAPTER ONE

It was a sunny Saturday morning in September 1998. The sun was not shining so bright though because it was still the earliest hours of the morning. One of my aunt's woke me up, carried me and took me right next to this huge brown box. The box was open and I looked inside. Tears were running down her cheeks. I felt abit saddened because my aunt was shedding tears. I looked at her, looked inside the box and in confusion I repeated. When I looked at her for the second time,she slowly put me down, closed her eyes and wept even harder.I had never seen so many people in my life. Most of them were in a tent singing hymns. Each time they stopped, the priest would preach and the interpreter was interpreting so that everyone could hear the message loud and clear. Some of the people were outside in the fire cooking food in very large black pots- with very big wooden spoons. Well... those who were in the bedroom were no strangers, some of the strangest things about them though was that they were sitting on a mattress, covered in blankets as if it was winter and all wearing doeks. Some of them were weeping...while some were comforting them. Another strange thing was that the bedroom was so empty, so silent and so depressing. I kept looking around but all this just didn't make sense. It was so strange and confusing. Finally, the priest was done preaching,the crowd stood up and sang one more sad hymn and we all slowly started to stand up and go outside.