CHAPTER I

I had lived so peacefully for the last twenty years of my life, peaceful, but also in a complete lie. I watched the body of the mother i had known all my life, get covered in soil in her coffin. The rest of the family seemed to be wailing and grieving at the top of their lungs, as where I did not shed a single tear for the woman. I loved her with all my heart I will never deny that, and yet, I was indeed in deep sadness.

"Nia, come along. There is someone I would like you to meet." My father said and I smiled and nodded. On the way I greeted a group of relatives I had rarely met. Despite the occasion, the sky was bright and clear blue, of course, that should have been a weird sign. In the movies, the sky was always gloomy, or did that mean, that something good was going to happen soon.

Dad led me to a woman about my height and wore a black dress like most of the women. She had dark brown skin that glowed ever so softly in the sun. Her eyes were a deep oak colour and she hair was in a style I had never seen among the people I lived with. Overall, she was beautiful.

"Nia, this is someone important sent to you by your mother before she died. This is Sandile, please say hello." He said and the woman smiled at me, and i found myself do the same thing.

"Nia, I will be contacting you in a few days, and in the meantime, be packing your bags there is a place your mom wished me to take you." I flinched at her words, where could she possibly want to take me? I mean we just met. She saw the hesitation in my eyes and extended a card to me and I reluctantly took it. With that she left the burial site. Confused I turned to my father and grandmother, as they conversed with each other.

"Izwe Lakubo?" It sounded African. I turned to my father again.

"There is so much we gotta talk about kiddo, how about we not talk about it by your mother's grave?" He said and grandmother nodded, and i suddenly felt embarrassed, mom had just left me.