Golden Gate Highlands National Park, South Africa (Photo: redcharlie on Unsplash)
“Is that where we’re going?” the boy pointed at the road snaking below. He squinted, hoping to see a car. They’ve walked long. He was tired.
“There,” his father’s finger angled higher, at the cliff. Beyond.
The boy scrunched his lips but kept quiet. Time with his ntate oa was precious. Also, at eight, he did not want to be seen as a baby who should’ve been left home with the women.
The father nodded approval. His son was growing to be obedient and mindful. It was good.
“What’s there?” the boy adjusted the Basotho blanket over his shoulder. He hadn’t been happy to be told to bring it earlier, but was now that the sun hid.
“Rocks. Earth. Bones. Your ancestors’ homes.”
Khotso nodded. His father was a man of few words, and Khotso knew he was being trusted to understand the power of what could not be untold.
For What Pegman Saw: Free State, South Africa
Na'ama Yehuda 
Splendid story. I love how the language matches the photograph. Well done indeed.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you! There is so much history in these environs. Perhaps in every place. And, perhaps because I’m a curious human (and a writer …) am often more intrigued by the untold. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Me too!
LikeLiked by 2 people
🙂
LikeLike
A good slow reveal. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂 Thanks Crispina! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
A fine story, Na’ama. You make the characters and their history (and prehistory) very real. They are very solid in your landscape. It’s a wonderful depiction of how the boy is learning to become a man as that is understood in his culture.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Penny! I’m glad you ‘felt’ them, and the landscape. 🙂
LikeLike
You have both the future (the boy learning from his father) and the past (the bones, ancestor’s homes, rocks) in this story. They weave together beautifully.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Alicia! So glad you liked it! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wonderful hints at the relationship between son and father, and at the cultural practices that have meaning to them. I especially like the concept of the power of what cannot be untold. I have seen more often the idea of the power of what cannot be told, but to imagine the next step — where once told there is no going back — takes it to another level.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Joy! I am glad that the concept of the power residing in the untold, was communicated. Words, once said, cannot be undone. Often times this is a reason to say them. Sometimes it is a reason to not. When it comes to history, the balance is often difficult to find, harder still to hold. Also, and perhaps especially for us writers, the power of the experience, sometimes sans words, can lead to stories that would otherwise be forced, in some way, into a different meaning that one might have if they let their own senses create theirs. And so it goes …
🙂
Na’ama
LikeLiked by 1 person
What an excellent point, that the fact that something cannot be unsaid or unheard is sometimes more reason to say it and sometimes more reason not to. Knowing the difference is a type of wisdom I don’t think I can claim yet.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nor can I, but I’m thinking, knowing there’s the distinction may be a first step …? 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I certainly hope that realizing all the ways that I am not wise is some kind of step forward, yes!
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂 Yeah, I think knowing our limits is a kind of wisdom, too. I mean, we have the comparison in those who are bombastic and seem to need everyone to believe that they are ‘tremendously’ perfect, when anyone with ears and even sort-of-working moral compass can hear the emptiness echoing in these persons’ heart and mind …
Me? I’m a work in progress, and I still say a lot more than I should, and withhold some of what I shouldn’t. I hope that awareness will help balance out things better … 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
You had me nodding at “bombastic”. Yes, we are all works in progress. Except that some don’t realize it, and they aren’t likely to progress very far that way. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
My Buddhist friends would nod and say that those who don’t progress very far in this life time, may have a bit longer to go the next …
LikeLiked by 1 person
The importance of family heritage and the father and son bond. Nicely told.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Iain! I’m glad you liked it! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person