The restlessness, could just be the reality of sleeping in an unfamiliar place. Naledi was two weeks into the school holidays and she spent all that time with her Nkoko (i.e. grandmother) in the hot dusty North West. Naledi had nothing against her grandmother, in fact the woman is beyond kind-hearted and warm. She just felt her time would be more happily spent in Joburg. This visit felt like her parents unreasonably sentenced her to the rural parts of Gapamadi. What is a city girl to do on a farm in Gapamadi, which is literally Setswana for ‘the place where the blood flows’? The name alone is jarring but the moment Naledi set foot on Nkoko’s farm she knew something wasn’t quite right.
It wasn’t just the memories of a place she hadn’t seen since childhood flooding back that brought on uneasiness. This place always made her feel like an outsider. Finding her cultural footing with this side of the family was a challenge. At seventeen Naledi still felt as insecure about how far departed she was from here as she did as a child. Nkoko made it a point to harmlessly ‘de-coconutise’ this city girl from her western ways.
The first few days in this place were pretty quiet. Things changed one night when Naledi heard a knock coming from her bedroom window. It was jarring enough to wake her. She got up and pulled back the curtains, but found nothing there. Just as she was about to go back to bed, another knock sounded. Naledi got up, and once again found nothing. Knock, Knock, Knock…. The Knocking just carried on in rapid successions from somewhere in the room. It went on like this for most of the night. The knocking just suddenly stopped and went completely silent. Naledi didn’t know what to make of all of this, she managed to somehow fall back to sleep.
Apparently the events of last night were not a unique experience. In fact Nkoko had an explanation that had Naledi almost choking on a spoonful of her maize porridge once she heard it. Nkoko believed that Naledi was graciously welcomed by Gapamadi’s resident Tokoloshe. Nkoko never saw the thing for herself, but she had heard stories of the creature tormenting locals from different people in the past. The whole conversation took a direction that left Naledi floored. She could not believe that her grandmother’s first reaction was to blame a mythical creature.
Nkoko went on to tell Naledi that her neighbor’s niece talked of hearing that same knocking sound on her visit just a month ago. Apparently the girl, around Naledi's age, came to visit her aunt but came across more than just knocking noises. One night, the neighbor’s niece was sleeping when something attacked her. It strangled her on and off for quite some time before she broke loose. Her aunt heard all the commotion and went in the room to find her niece in a state. The girl’s body was inexplicably covered in blood and scratches made by what seemed like claws. The girl told her aunt that she had been waking up in the middle of the night to find something sitting next to her for some time. She did not say anything because she thought no one would believe her. On the night of the attack she remembered waking up to find something pinning her to the bed and pressing heavily on her chest. She screamed out for help but when her aunt arrived, there was no trace of the beast anywhere. Naledi did not want to believe the accounts related to her by Nkoko and carried on eating her breakfast.
Tonight Naledi’s mind was plagued with thoughts about the neighbor’s niece in Nkoko’s story. The story fed the fear she was feeling as the knocking started up again. She wished that she could pack up all her bags and drive back to Joburg. It was night time and Naledi laid down in bed preoccupied with her phone, which was her bedtime routine. However, she found herself suddenly paralysed by something.Without warning the Tokoloshe emerged from thin air. Naledi felt helpless as the creature made its way towards her. It jumped on the bed and then proceeded to hold her down on the bed. It stared into her eyes and strangled her until she lost consciousness...
Naledi opened her eyes and stared anxiously into the darkness. In a panic she desperately searches for something. She is so sure that it must be somewhere, in the shadows perhaps. She just knows it is there. It was right there beside her, at least that is what she felt. She laid her head back onto the pillow, fully alert and eyes open wide. She turned over in her bed so that her face was buried in her damp pillow. She must have been sweating or crying in her sleep. The clock on her cellphone shows that it is only three o’clock in the morning. It is still way too early get up, Nkoko will know that something is wrong if she does. Naledi takes refuge under the safety of her duvet covers and waits for the noises in the dark to subside.
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