The melting man

Another Place, Another Time

Mihle was on a mission, that night. He was sick of having this weird feeling he would get whenever Karin was around. It gave him a lot of questions, questions he was done worrying about. There was one he knew. If here was an answer, he'd find it there. He was getting anxious. The ancestors demanded him. He needed to find the answers as quickly as he could. It was expected of him to please both this family and the ancestors. He would go there and set them straight. They would just have to do something to help this situation.

He needed them to  stop being so cryptic it doesn't suit them. The ancestors have always been straight forward. Maybe he just thought that way because his elders always made it look so easy. He had gone that night and tried to get through to them, they simply refused to give him anything useful. They had just pushed him and his questions to the side telling that, there is a time and a place for everything. The ancestors and their hold over the boy. Everything has to happen their way or he had to bare the wrath of their consequences.

Accept the ancestors they say. It is such a great honour they say. It is a great gift they say. You will be the pride of your family they say. They never said anything about the cruelty of the ancestors, of course not. Disobedience towards the ancestors never goes without serve punishment. It can lead to the most unfortunate "accidents", things that are kept under tight lips. The ancestors will find a way to unmask the greatest mysteries. He was at risk of disappointing everyone, everyone and then some. He did not look forward to disappointing the and then some.

They were planning something and he was the key part in the unmasking of whatever they have plan with him and Karin Abrahams. He just had to be a good boy and do as he was told, if he knew what is good for him. He did not want to be on their bad side in fact he would do absolutely anything to avoid it. The ancestors had a mean way of punishment and he still and his whole life ahead of him. Eastern Cape is not so far down his future no more, he could almost taste his dream.

When he had been in there they had known what they were doing or at least they seemed too. A sangoma is supposed to have full faith in the ancestors. He still had trouble believing that they had put so much faith in him. Why they chose him will be a question he would never even want the answer to. He would just be the good boy that he has always been. The problem with being a good boy is that they all expect the job to be done, and to be done well, he would find the answer there.

Mihle was certain that all the pressure he was under would make him look like the sand on the beaches of Camps Bay and he would rather be bald. He had been spending to much of his time thinking about his latest talk with his ancestors. How he could have been so stupid thinking he could just walk up to them and ask. What did he think, that the answers would be handed to him on a silver platter. Mihle laughed at the thought of things ever being that easy. He knows that he was way in over his head.

That day when he had started that ritual, calling and praying for his ancestors. When he had worked himself into that state, readying himself to travel the realms. It had been the same whenever he visited them in their home. He would sail the railway above the river carried by the south-easter wind and although the wind was strong the air around was always a think grey cloth over as far as his sight would carry his mind. There was always a guide with him. A guide that had to be paid to allow him to step onto Ancestralland.

The boat ride went as it always went calmly. Mihle was shocked to see the ancestors already waiting for him. He had been a little intimidated by there prepared and knowing faces. They spoke with such power in their voices that there was no room to disagree with them. He was a sangoma, he could move between the living and the dead. He was very little compared to them. He had not come to them for a nice warm cup of tea and they knew it. They did not give him what he had come for instead they demand him.