Entwined

Lebz gasps. “What? Why?”

“Because everyone likes you. She’s popular, but she also has enemies. You’re genuinely loved by pretty much everybody.” Well done, Connie! I’m almost certain it’s true, too.

Lebz smiles shyly. “Wow.” She’s pleased. She’s more than pleased, she’s humbled. Silly girl. I wish I could get her to stop comparing herself to Kelly long enough to notice her own strengths. She beams at us. “Whose turn is it to get the food?”

“Yours,” Wiki and I say in unison.

“You owe me for twenty-four hours of silent treatment,” I add.

“And you owe me for my excellent peacemaking skills,” says Wiki.

Lebz is too happy to argue. She holds out her hand for the money.

Five minutes later, I’m sitting alone; Wiki has gone to… yes, the library. I see a familiar figure entering the school grounds and my heart does a little jump. It’s Thuli, back from buying cigarettes at Mother Hubbard’s, a tuck-shop near the school owned by a woman without scruples.

Thuli. I realise with a pang of guilt that I haven’t thought about him in almost two days! I’ll have to spend a full hour daydreaming about him to make up for my disloyalty. His eyes are already red from whatever he’s been smoking, his shoulders are hunched, and he’s walking with the air of someone too good for the world… which of course he is. He’s a genius, maligned and misunderstood, as Wiki likes to say when he’s mocking him.

I follow him with my eyes until somebody else catches my attention. Black Lizard, leaning against a wall, staring at me. I jump, startled by the intensity of his gaze, and drop the water bottle I’m holding. I bend to pick it up and when I get up again he’s heading for his usual spot behind the lab. Above the faint chatter in my head I hear Ntatemogolo’s warning, but my feet are already moving to follow him.

“Hi.” I walked so quickly that I’m a little breathless by the time I reach him.

Lizard looks at me. “Are you following me, Conyza?”

“Connie. No. I mean… I just…” I take a deep breath and start over. “You didn’t tell me you knew my grandfather.”

He shrugs. “Everyone knows your grandfather. He’s written all those books.”

“That’s not what I mean.” I’m nervous. I think my hands are shaking. But if you were this close to a guy with a lizard tattoo and a freaky scar your hands would be shaking, too. “He says you know stuff. About… Look, he knows you, and he doesn’t pay attention to kids. So you must be… different.”

He doesn’t reply. He just looks at me with those piercing black eyes. “It’s getting easier, isn’t it? I can tell; you seem calmer. You’re getting used to the noise.”

I shrug. “I guess so. My grandfather’s going to teach me how to use it.”

“Your grandfather is very wise. You should listen to him.”

I lean against the wall beside him. “He says I should stay away from you.”

He grins. “Of course he does.”

“Why? Are you… you know… like me? Can you do things?”

His eyes narrow. “Like I said, you should listen to your grandfather.” He begins to walk away, and I feel a strange urge not to let him.

“Please wait…” I almost call him Lizard. “Rakwena.”

He hesitates. “Your friends will wonder where you are.”

“My friends don’t get it.” I love my friends, but like my father they can never really be part of my world. I start babbling, trying to say everything at once, and this time the jumble of thoughts in my head are all my own. “I mean, they’re great. They treat me like a person, not a freak. But they don’t get it. I think maybe you do. And if I’m right, then you’re the only person besides my grandfather who understands what it’s like. Please, just tell me the truth. Are you like me?”

He seems sad, as if he doesn’t want to let me down. “No. I’m not like you at all.”

I watch him walk away with a hole in my stomach. I knew I’d be disappointed if I was wrong about him, but not like this. This feels like someone stuck their hand in my torso and pulled everything out. I guess I never really thought about how much I wanted to find someone like me until now.

I start walking to the bench, where Wiki’s waiting. I have to stop for a second and take a few deep breaths to keep myself from crying. This is stupid! Have I lost my mind? Am I really so crushed that the weird Black Lizard is not the same kind of weird as me? So he’s not a freak – so what? I sniff back tears and put my game face on before sitting beside Wiki.

“Where were you?” he asks.

“Toilet,” I mutter.

And then I remember something that makes me sit up straight. The hole inside me starts to fill up as my disappointment is replaced by hope. I just realised that I have never once heard Black Lizard’s thoughts, and that can only mean one thing. He’s lying about being like me. Sneaky little devil.

Chapter Three

My phone rings while Lebz, Wiki and I are at the mall. I hand my caramel cone to Wiki while I fish the phone out of the pocket of my trousers. “Hi, Dad.”

“Connie, are you home yet?” He sounds frazzled.

“No; I’m at Riverwalk with Wiki and Lebz. I’ll be home before dark, though, don’t worry.”

“Oh, OK. It looks like I’ll be stuck at work until late. Maybe you should pick up something to eat while you’re there. I want you home by seven, Connie.”

I roll my eyes. “Yes, Dad.”

Lebz giggles as I hang up. “How old are you again, Connie? Sixteen or six? Is your dad afraid you’ll be murdered for muti or something?”

“Of course not.” I take my cone from Wiki and salvage the trail of ice cream sliding down its side. “That would mean he actually believes that people get murdered for traditional medicine, and you know how he feels about things he can’t understand.”

“I guess that means you haven’t told him about your new… um… talent,” says Wiki, sipping his milkshake.

I raise my eyebrows at him. “He still hasn’t come to terms with the old one, remember? But hey – he’s a scientist.”

“A British one,” adds Lebz, as if that explains everything.

It’s great to be talking to her again. Even though there are lots of people around, thinking frantically and invading my personal space, I’m almost content. We’re sitting at a table, people-watching. Lebz likes to come up with complex, soap-opera style stories about the people we see.

“Look at that one!” she hisses. “I would kill for those shoes.”

I follow her gaze. The woman in question is wearing the kind of shoes that no normal person should be able to walk in. They have heels like knitting needles. “Mmm. Yes, definitely worth the trouble,” I say doubtfully.

“She’s an advertising executive,” Lebz muses. “And she’s engaged to a boring finance guy, but she’s having an affair with his alcoholic brother. Every week she buys a new pair of shoes to make her feel better.”

“But shoes can never fill the void,” I chip in. “So she resorts to popping pills…”

“Painkillers,” Lebz goes on, nodding with authority. “Her fiancé doesn’t know.”

“And her lover doesn’t care,” I add.

“Why are your characters always so miserable?” asks Wiki, looking up from his book. “Can’t she be a contented, successful career woman, in love with the man of her dreams and on the path to spiritual enlightenment?”