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Babiki has three older sisters, and Lerato is her younger sister. Babiki’s gone to the store to
buy groceries. She’ll be back in a moment.”
We waited, chatted with the older sister. Ten minutes later the door opened and the most
beautiful girl I have ever seen in my life walked in. She was…good Lord. Beautiful eyes,
beautiful golden yellow-brown skin. It was like she glowed. No girl at my high school looked
anything like her.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hi,” I replied.
I was dumbfounded. I had no idea how to talk to a girl that beautiful. She was shy and
didn’t speak much, either. There was a bit of an awkward pause. Luckily Tom’s a guy who just
talks and talks. He jumped right in and smoothed everything over. “Trevor, this is Babiki.
Babiki, Trevor.” He went on and on about how great I was, how much she was looking
forward to the dance, when I would pick her up for the dance, all the details. We hung out for
a few, and then Tom needed to get going so we headed out the door. Babiki turned and smiled
at me and waved as we left.
“Bye.”
“Bye.”
We walked out of that building and I was the happiest man on earth. I couldn’t believe it.
I was the guy at school who couldn’t get a date. I’d resigned myself to never getting a date,
didn’t consider myself worthy of having a date. But now I was going to the matric dance with
the most beautiful girl in the world.
Over the following weeks we went down to Hillbrow a few more times to hang out with
Babiki and her sisters and her friends. Babiki’s family was Pedi, one of South Africa’s smaller
tribes. I liked getting to know people of different backgrounds, so that was fun. Babiki and
her friends were what we call amabhujua. They’re as poor as most other black people, but
they try to act like they’re not. They dress fashionably and act rich. Amabhujua will put a
shirt on layaway, one shirt, and spend seven months paying it off. They’ll live in shacks
wearing Italian leather shoes that cost thousands. An interesting crowd.
Babiki and I never went on a date alone. It was always the two of us in a group. She was
shy, and I was a nervous wreck most of the time, but we had fun. Tom kept everyone loose
and having a good time. Whenever we’d say goodbye, Babiki would give me a hug, and once
she even gave me a little kiss. I was in heaven. I was like, Yeah, I’ve got a girlfriend. Cool.
—
As the dance approached, I started getting nervous. I didn’t have a car. I didn’t have any
decent clothes. This was my first time taking out a beautiful girl, and I wanted it to be perfect.
We’d moved to Highlands North when my stepfather’s garage went out of business, and
he moved his workshop to the house. We had a big yard and a garage in the back, and that
became his new workshop, essentially. At any given time, we had at least ten or fifteen cars in
the driveway, in the yard, and out on the street, clients’ cars being worked on and old junkers
Abel kept around to tinker with. One afternoon Tom and I were at the house. Tom was telling
Abel about my date, and Abel decided to be generous. He said I could take a car for the dance.