S.M.S(Save My Soul)

Chapter 4: A little kindness can take you a long way

The weekend came sooner than I wanted it to and it was time to see dear ole grandmama.

"Do we have to go see her this specific weekend?" I asked my dad like a sulking kid.

"Yes, now get ready I'm sure she'll have a few things to say about that outfit," he answered, packing the boot for the weekend.

"I thought we were just going for a day?" I asked in shock watching him pack our cooler bag that seemed full.

"We are but we're also going for a little bit of camping," he happily grunted as he shoved more things into the boot.

"For how long?" I asked

"Just three days is all," he answered with a sigh noticing my confused stare, "Don't look at me like that, I thought you liked camping," he said.

"I do during the holiday, not while school is on," I said with a duh tone.

"Calm down it's not like you'll miss a lot for a day, plus this is what Brian suggested, take you out for a change of scenery before you have to face reality," he said.

"Brian?" I asked confused.

"Your therapist," he said obviously.

"Right," I said, narrowing my eyes at him before sighing and heading in to change, once I looked remotely decent I packed a bag for the trip and went to the car.

"Let's go then," my dad excitedly said, locking the house and getting into the driver's seat like he just won the lottery. At the back seat was a new case for a flat-screen smart tv which I'm guessing was for grandma.

"You know you could've just gotten her a small normal working tv," I stated obviously.

"Ya but I'm sure Lila must want to watch other things too. This isn't only for Alice,'' he said, keeping his eyes on the busy highway.

"Ya but I'm sure grandma will have some things to say about the size," I mumbled, the tv was about twice her old size that she will not enjoy. Another hour on the road and we arrived in the countryside to the little cottage grandma lived in.

"Brace for impact," dad said with a sigh.

"Shouldn't I be telling you that," I said with a chuckle watching his face twist into an unpleasant scowl as he looked at the house.

"Ya we both need that warning," he sighed, together we knocked at her door and waited for Lila to open the door for us.

"Oh what a pleasant surprise, come in," she greeted us with a wide smile.

"Thanks, Lila, it's good to see you," my dad said.

"Same to you Nikolai," Lila said.

"Look who's here Alice,'' Lila let grandma know as we entered the lounge where she was nibbling on a piece of bread while staring at the blank screen.

"Get the hell out of my house you murderer," she angrily said dropping her plate on the floor, I watched it shatter the sound resonating in my brain making me flinch.

"Good to see you too Alice," my dad sighed in exhaustion even though we just got her.

"Get out!" Alice shouted getting her cane to swing it at my dad who ducked and took a couple of steps back.

"Alice please calm down," Lila begged, trying to get the cane away from her.

"And you, why did you bring him here?" She angrily said hitting me on the side, it was a soft hit but since I had a wound there that was still healing it hurt more than it was supposed to. I hunched over clenching my side with a grunt.

"Belle," my dad cried running to my side to hold me steady,

"Oh don't be so melodramatic I didn't even hit you so hard," Alice rolled her eyes.

"Watch yourself Alice I'm warning you," my dad icily spoke, his voice low and dangerous.

"Get out of my house and leave the child. I enjoy her company, not yours," grandma shouted angrily pointing her cane at dad.

"I'm not leaving her alone here you crazy old cow," my dad said.

"Watch your tongue this is my house don't you forget that," grandma spoke waving her cabin.

"And who bought this house?" My dad questioned angrily, Alice grumbled at that.

"Let me help you there dear," Lila gently said, helping me to the bedroom to lay down. I sighed as I lay on my back and closed my eyes.

"Let me see there," Lila gently said, lifting my shirt only to gasp at the bruises that littered my stomach. I gritted my teeth and quickly pulled my shirt down.

"What on earth happened to you?" She sadly asked pity showing in her irises.

"Nothing," I quickly shut her questions down.

"Are you feeling any better?" My dad popped his head into the room.

"Ya," I smoothly lied even though my wound was burning like hell.

"Take these just in case," he said, handing me two painkillers and a glass of water. Poor Lila looked like a fish out of the water as she tried to figure out what was going on.

"I swear that crazy old lady is going to be the death of me," dad grumbled under his breath.

"Welcome to the club," Lila joked, lightening the mood a bit.

"Let me set up that stupid tv so we can get out of here," dad said leaving the room.

"Tv?" Lila asked excitedly.

"Ya dad got you guys a smart tv," I happily said.

"Thank the Lord." She praised doing a little happy dance on the spot.

"Well I'm glad you're happy about it," I chuckled, her playful mood lightening my mood.

"Like it? I've been praying and begging for a working tv for months now," she said with glee

"So if you aren't busy looking after Alice and can't watch tv what do you do?" I asked curiously.

"I usually hang out at the park not far from here," she said.

"Oh ok mind showing me where it is, cause dad is going to take a while with the tv and I don't want to be here for the bickering," I shivered just imagining it.

"Me neither," she cringed, "Come on then let's take a little walk," she said.

"That's not where it goes you f*****g i***t and who said you could change my tv?" Grandma angrily shouted as we walked past the lounge seeing her hit my dad on the head with her cane to which he fumed inwardly removing the old tv with gritted teeth.

"We're going out for a bit," I called to my dad who got a very distressed look at my words

"Don't worry I'll keep an eye on her," Lila tried to treasure him but he still looked worried.

"No offence Lila but I trust you with my daughter as far as I can throw you," he said.

"Calm down you i***t Lila is a very responsible person. Let them be and if they encounter trouble then good might teach little miss spoiled brat how the real world works," grandma grumbled giving me the stink eye.

"Thanks for the love grandma," I muttered rolling my eyes.

"Come on, I think we both need some air," Lila said, getting out of the house. The fresh air calmed my raging mind as I took a deep breath of fresh air listening to the chirping birds and cars go by.

"This way," Lila said, leading me at the back of the house through a makeshift path that passed through a small forest that didn't have many trees.

"Peaceful isn't it?" She asked me with a bright smile across her face.

"Very," Except for the occasional bird or some other animal poop after every couple of steps, it was enough to make me nauseous.

After five minutes of me trying to hold down the contents of my stomach, we reached the other side. Across the road was a little rural village with a petrol station a couple of yards along the road. The houses were a mixture of zinc huts or brick houses, children could be seen running around playing with each other while the mothers and older daughters did the laundry not far from the road as they washed their clothes in small buckets.

There was a little park after the station with a small court that had broken basketball hoops and a cracked floor with moss and other plants growing from the cracks. It practically looked abandoned. As we walked closer to the court we saw a kid dribbling a very old basketball that could barely bounce and seemed to have seen better days.

He was about four feet eight with barely any meat on him, golden smooth skin with dark brown eyes that seemed almost black, short black dirty hair and wore tattered clothes.

The more I watched him run around the court the worse I felt for having a wonderful life. I felt terrible to the very core of my being because I knew there was nothing I could do to help people like him. To know that there are thousands to millions of people struggling through life because they didn't have the resources or money to make a life for themselves.

"I know what you're thinking and to make those feelings go away you just have to remember that there are people out there working tirelessly looking for a solution to help those struggling to find a roof over their heads. So if you want to help change the world consider being one of those helpful people once you finish school," Lila advised sitting down on a worn-out bench looking at the boy playing on the court.

As I watched him I realized why I had to wait to help. Surely if I wanted to help I should start now, right? With that in mind, I stood up and slowly approached the boy.

"Hi," I greeted him looking down because of our height difference.

"Sup," he greeted me, his voice rough. As I got closer to him I noticed he had multiple old scars on his face and arms. He was a reasonably average looking kid with a sharp jawline and a narrow face, he was far too skinny for my liking it made me hate myself and the more I looked at him the more I felt like hugging him and telling him that everything was going to be alright.

"What?" He asked defensively, watching me eye him.

"What's your name?" I asked him, his big doe eyes watching me intently.

"That depends on who's asking?" He asked, narrowing his eyes at me.

"That would be me Bellenthu Khole at your service," I lightly said, doing a little curtsey because I was weird like that.

"Devontaé Lethu," he answered, rolling the ball in his small hands anxiously.

"That's a nice name," I complimented.

"Thanks," he awkwardly said.

"You like basketball?" I asked to which his eyes lit up.

"Damn right I do," he excitedly said.

"Cool, I would suggest we play but I don't know how to play, netball is more up my alley," I said, pushing back memories that tried to resurface as I said the word 'alley'.

"That's chill I'll teach you," he said, making me smile at how excited he was with his little dimples.

Basketball was a lot more tricky than I'd expected, every time he passed the ball I felt like freezing on the spot because I was used to netball rules no that's not it, I lived by netball rules. As I eventually got the rules of running around and bouncing the ball I was beaten within minutes, this was far more running around than netball and I was not used to it or was that just my wounds talking?

"Tired already, I thought you played netball," Devontaé laughed. His laugh was quite contagious and adorable.

"Shut up, "I grumbled, flopping on the floor from exhaustion.

"Get up you ain't giving birth on my court," he chuckled at my state, I suppose with my knees bent and arms outstretched behind me I did look like I was about to give birth.

"Leave me be," I whined hearing Lila laugh from the bench as she videoed us.

"For real, you wouldn't last thirty seconds in a real match," he laughed.

"Haha hardy ha laugh all you want but you wouldn't last a second in a netball match," I said challengingly.

"Bet," he said.

"You're on," I smirked, "Lila!" I shouted for her.

"Yes?" She questioned once she got on the court.

"Still remember how to play netball?" I asked her.

"How could I forget that," she said with a smile," But I might be a little rusty," she chuckled lightly.

"All you gotta do is defend against me and stop moving once you catch the ball keep one leg rooted to the ground once you catch the ball," I went over the rules once more and Lila and I did a bit of passing before we began.

"Ready," Devontae enthusiastically said, he stood in front of me with his arms outstretched like I showed him and I just wanted to hug him to death.

I fake stepped him and ran to the left and not right as he expected and caught the ball Lila threw at me sharply, together we outmanoeuvred him and he was left eating our dust. I kinda felt bad for going all out on a kid but he seemed to enjoy trying to block me with that big adorable smile on his face that hasn't dropped since we began playing, I'm sure he was just happy to have someone to play with.

"Who's laughing now," I said after my body was aching and my wounds were on fire but my excitement dampened the pain a bit.

"Shut up," he laughed, hunching over to place his arms on his knees as he tried to catch his breath.

"Well I've done my exercise for the day, anyone want anything specific to drink cause I'm heading to the station," Lila asked us.

"Fanta please, what about you?" I asked Devontaé who looked a bit awkward now.

"Coke is fine if you don't mind," he awkwardly said, fiddling with the ball like an anxious child.

"Alright I'll be right back," Lila said and left us.

"She's a nice lady," he said watching Lila walk away with a faraway look in his eyes.

"She is," I said, leading us to the bench to sit down as my muscles were aching.

"She kinda reminds me of my mom," he randomly said with sorrow.

"What happened to her if you don't mind me asking?" I asked.

"She committed suicide, said she couldn't handle this life anymore," he bluntly said, I gritted my teeth as what he said echoed in my brain.

"How old were you then?" I asked.

"I was six, it was just me and her, but since then I stayed with my gran for two years before she died and one thing led to another and I ended up in the homeless shelter not far from here," he nonchalantly said.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that," I sympathetically said, my heart aching for him.

"It's alright that's life how about you, you seem like you've seen your fair share of trauma?" He asked me.

"Nah my life's good," I tried to laugh it off because my life was good except for the occasional bad days but I didn't have a childhood such as his, I had everything I could want all I had to do was ask so if one mega bad thing happened to me I couldn't dwell on it for the rest of my life because there were other people who were going through worse things than me.

"Come on we all have our bad days," he nudged me, making me roll my eyes playfully.

"I suppose I've had a couple of bad days this month," I sighed flashes of memories from that night resurfacing one by one.

"Care to share, I've been told I'm a pretty good listener," he offered with a kind smile but I couldn't tell a child what was bothering me. It would be too much for anyone to take in, let alone a child, it was too much to ask for.

"Just some school stuff," I lied smoothly.

" For real, that's it? I'd kill to only have to worry about that," he sighed starting up at the grey sky. Poor kid didn't know that no matter how rich or comfortable your life is, there will always be trouble around the corner whether you like it or not.

"Does anyone teach you guys anything at the shelter?" I asked.

"Sometimes it depends on whether they feel like it," he shrugged.

"That sucks," I said, not sure what else to say.

"Ya it does," he sighed, turning his attention to the ball in his hands rolling it with his fingers, he looked tired not just physically but mentally as well.

"It's going to be alright," I said, not sure who I was trying to convince.

"That's what they all say until you find my dismantled body under some bridge because of some gang s**t," he said through gritted teeth.

I wasn't sure what happened at that moment but as I stared at him something in me clicked, whether that was because of my racing heartbeat or because of the pain I felt for him but I knew at that moment what I could do to finally contribute to this world to finally make a mark in it.

"Devontaé Lethu you just gave me the greatest idea I have ever come up with," I beamed, smiling brightly.

"And what idea is that?" He asked with a raised brow.

"You'll just have to wait and see," I smiled.

Lila came back with a full plastic bag before we knew it.

"Oh wow thank you," I said as she handed me my Fanta and a pie.

"Thank you," Devontae said gratefully, his stomach grumbling in hunger.

"You're very welcome dear," Lila smiled.

As we sat there enjoying our food I couldn't help but repeat the conversation I had with Lila earlier over in my mind. I truly did want to help people, heck I wanted to go down in history for solving a huge problem of our time but of course. That was wishful thinking considering how I have to solve my problems before I take on someone else's problems.

Turning to watch Devontae practically inhale his pie gave me an idea of how I could start small by changing one life. After all, you have gotta start small, baby steps right.