The Clerk,The Guitar, The Devil
Mapipa was a clerk of infinite clerical precision at Nala Primary School. He loved Rirenda with a love as vast as the Highveld sky. Their neighbour was old Bafoza, a seismic force of guitar and noise. Bafoza's Kofifi tunes ratled the very foundations of the universe all night long. The neighborhood knew no peace; their nerves were shreaded to dust. Bafoza was a loud, happy man-mountain of chaos and joy. Mapipa branded Bafoza a guitar strumming devil from the bowels of hell, a literal demon of sound. Mapipa's memory was a black hole of forgetfulness. He forgot Bafoza was his father's blood-brother, even in their youth when they pulled happy pranks together, a sacred bond of the ancients. He forgot Bafoza gave them oceans of money during Their Great Family Crisis. Mapipa even assaulted Bafoza, a punch that rattled the foundations of the Northern Hemisphere. A hook to the body and uppercut to the jaw, a blow heard all over the world. Mapipa called his assault of an old man ''divine discipline'' at the judgemental neighborhood meeting.The meeting was to end ''The Eternal Bafoza Problem'' forevermore.Tinki watched from the shadows, a viper with a plan.Tinki wanted to pounce on Rirenda's soul and make her his eternal wife.
Bafoza planned his revenge with the cunning of a thousand foxes. He invited every single soul in the universe to his yard that Saturday night. He promised music that would shake the heavens themselves. The whole neighborhood came, anticipating the final apocalypse of noise. Mapipa came too, a volcano of pure, unadulterated anger.
Bafoza began to play his guitar under the moonlight of a million stars. The music was sweeter than all the honey mother Africa could nourish her children on, a sound of pure silk. It was the anthem Mapipa's father had worshipped like a god. Bafoza stopped playing after one, perfect, world-stopping song. He cleared his throat for the speech of the century.
''Mapipa forgets galaxies of memories,'' Bafoza boomed to the crowd. '' He forgets kindness deeper than the ocean. He forgets vast savanahs of history itself. But he love for Rirenda, a love as high as Holy Mount Moorosi.'' Bafoza then called Tinki to the front, a man of infinite virtue.Tinki walks up, modesty personified. ''Tinki is the best man on earth.'' Bafoza declares. '' He remembers everything. an elephant of memory.''
And now, under heaven Bafoza performs his final, catastrophic act. He pulls a small official universe-shattering document from his pocket..''Mapipa works in the records office, a temple of truth, Bafoza says. ''He is a perfect clerk for perfect records.But he forgets to look at his own universe of paperwork!'' Bafoza reads the paper for all the world to hear. It is Rirenda's official ID document. a cosmic truth. It stated her age with unassailable accuracy: 45 years old. Mapipa, the emperor of clerks, is only 27, a mere child. He is infatuated with a woman a million years older than him. The neighborhood gasps, a sound that sucks all the air from the atmosphere. The scandal is a supernova in the quiet night.
Mapipa turns red with the fury of a thousand suns and the humiliation of a billion ages. He is The Archangel Of Records, yet he misses the basic, universe-sized fact. He wants to assault Bafoza, but the truth is a shield of pure light. Tinki takes Rirenda's hand, a bond of steel. Rirenda smiles, a free woman as the wind, liberated from a foolish boy. Tinki's wish becomes a reality forged in the stars. Bafoza begins to play his guitar again, a symphony of triumph. Loud and proud, he belts out the hit song of the 50s. a thunderous anthem. '' He is a literal musical god!'' the neighborhood screams. Bafoza left them all there, laughing under the cosmos, a problem solved by the truth of the universe.
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