I am turning twenty one this year and so are my hundreds of other friends. This means there’ll be a lot of partying and drinking but it also means there’ll be a lot of gift shopping to be done. So yesterday morning I woke up to meet my friends at the mall, we had decided to put our money together and buy our friend an extravagant gift. After almost having a fight with my mother my brother drove me to the mall, on the way I suddenly discovered I had car sickness. I felt so sick that I could not even tell my brother to stop the car. I could feel the vomit lodged in my throat but I kept quiet, kept my composure and when we got to the mall I got out of the car and puked right there. I felt like someone was stirring my insides. I convinced my brother I’d be okay and he left. I walked into the mall and the floor felt skew (darn I was really sick) and walked straight into the bathroom where I puked some more. I breathed, walked out of the bathroom and into Game where I bought a bottle of coke (yes that toxic stuff that helps with a stomach ache) and gulped it down.
After what seemed like eons my friends finally arrived and informed me they were at the other end of the mall. Did I mention this mall is huge? They might as well build an air strip and turn it into an airport. Anyway I walked fast and like the apostle Paul kept my eye on the prize and looked to finish the race or rather get to my friends.
There’s something about seeing the ones you love that lightens a heavy heart and settles a restless stomach. After getting hugs from them I felt much better and we started our shopping. We had decided we would get her jewellery, she did wear a lot of it and jewellery is like money, one can never have enough of it. This would be easy or so I thought. At our first shop my boy friend and I fell in love with a dragonfly piece, it was beautiful and it had a lot of detail on the wings but my girl friend did not like it so we went to another shop where we found more dragonflies and my boy friend and I fell even more in love with the flying insect much to the dismay of our girl friend.
So we stopped looking at the necklaces and decided we would get her a charm bracelet but we could not agree on what to put on it. We went to another shop and thought we would get her her birthstone until we found out her birthstone was diamond so that was the end of that idea. We went to another store and designed our own charm bracelet for her but then they told us they could not smelt the pieces on the bracelet themselves; we’d have to find another jeweller to do that so that was the end of that. Our girlfriend had to go and my boyfriend and I decided we’d get the first dragonfly we had seen. We asked the young lady to take it out for us and I tried it on and fell in love with it; I now wanted it for myself. As the young lady was wrapping it she came and informed us that the price was actually four times more than what we thought. “Okay put it back” we told her. My boyfriend wanted to buy a gift for a friend of his and he wanted a necklace from a display box, the young lady took it out and gave us a tangled mess of necklaces. “It’s not in my job description to untangle necklaces” she said as she slowly untangled the necklaces. I laughed. My boyfriend helped her untangle the mess and after admiring it he found out it was too expensive. We were at a dead end, where would we find a gift for our friends? We ran, literally ran through the mall to another jewellery store where we bought our friends a necklace and a bracelet.
Thank God we were done with the shopping now I could focus on being sick again. After hugging my friend goodbye I went to a shop to buy food but ended up getting junk food for my baby sister. I tried calling a friend of mine who lived closed by but she did not answer. I decided to catch a taxi but I got lost in the parking lot and had to ask a security guard. I found a taxi, a beautiful clean taxi, I sighed, I would be home soon I thought but as soon as the taxi took off I felt sick again, this taxi driver would not like it if I puked in his car so I closed my eyes and shut my mouth. I opened my eyes to find I was surrounded by tall buildings, I was in Joburg, this taxi went north and I was supposed to go west. I was scared, I like people to think I know Joburg but actually I know zilch. I closed my throat and looked out, I saw the Nelson Mandela Bridge and was relieved, the taxi should stop here but it didn’t, it sped on and my heart beat fast. The taxi stopped at the robots and I got off without saying a word surprising the driver and the passengers. I walked and saw a huge building where taxis were going in and out. I went in and asked some guys about finding a taxi home, some didn’t know and some directed me into the wilderness. An old man tried hitting on me, I asked him about the taxi and he escorted me to one. I slumped into my seat and fell asleep. Some guy poked me, I gave him some money and fell back to sleep. I was woken up by some rowdiness: the passengers and drivers were fighting over the change. The guy who had poked me poked me again “how much did you pay?” he asked me, I told him and he told me I had paid too much and the passengers demanded from the driver that I get my one rand change back. I didn’t care. I wanted to puke. I wanted to die. I fell asleep again, my face squished against the window, the sun frying my right side; my ear would be as crispy as deep fried bacon. I didn’t care. I wanted to go home. “Anyone going to destination X?” the driver asked. He asked again except this time he was shouting. “I am” I slurred.
I got off the taxi, the ground felt skew; I tried my best not to keel over and walked with purpose to get home. The gate was open, the door left ajar, I went in and threw myself on the bed. I got in a foetal position and wallowed in self pity. Why me? Why me? I asked myself, a vision appeared: the finger of my doctor pointing in my face, his lips moved: “remember never to take this medication without ever eating because it might irritate the lining of your stomach”. That morning I was in such a hurry that I took my pills without there being food in my stomach. I immediately jumped off my bed and went downstairs to eat a block cheese.
So we stopped looking at the necklaces and decided we would get her a charm bracelet but we could not agree on what to put on it. We went to another shop and thought we would get her her birthstone until we found out her birthstone was diamond so that was the end of that idea. We went to another store and designed our own charm bracelet for her but then they told us they could not smelt the pieces on the bracelet themselves; we’d have to find another jeweller to do that so that was the end of that. Our girlfriend had to go and my boyfriend and I decided we’d get the first dragonfly we had seen. We asked the young lady to take it out for us and I tried it on and fell in love with it; I now wanted it for myself. As the young lady was wrapping it she came and informed us that the price was actually four times more than what we thought. “Okay put it back” we told her. My boyfriend wanted to buy a gift for a friend of his and he wanted a necklace from a display box, the young lady took it out and gave us a tangled mess of necklaces. “It’s not in my job description to untangle necklaces” she said as she slowly untangled the necklaces. I laughed. My boyfriend helped her untangle the mess and after admiring it he found out it was too expensive. We were at a dead end, where would we find a gift for our friends? We ran, literally ran through the mall to another jewellery store where we bought our friends a necklace and a bracelet.
Thank God we were done with the shopping now I could focus on being sick again. After hugging my friend goodbye I went to a shop to buy food but ended up getting junk food for my baby sister. I tried calling a friend of mine who lived closed by but she did not answer. I decided to catch a taxi but I got lost in the parking lot and had to ask a security guard. I found a taxi, a beautiful clean taxi, I sighed, I would be home soon I thought but as soon as the taxi took off I felt sick again, this taxi driver would not like it if I puked in his car so I closed my eyes and shut my mouth. I opened my eyes to find I was surrounded by tall buildings, I was in Joburg, this taxi went north and I was supposed to go west. I was scared, I like people to think I know Joburg but actually I know zilch. I closed my throat and looked out, I saw the Nelson Mandela Bridge and was relieved, the taxi should stop here but it didn’t, it sped on and my heart beat fast. The taxi stopped at the robots and I got off without saying a word surprising the driver and the passengers. I walked and saw a huge building where taxis were going in and out. I went in and asked some guys about finding a taxi home, some didn’t know and some directed me into the wilderness. An old man tried hitting on me, I asked him about the taxi and he escorted me to one. I slumped into my seat and fell asleep. Some guy poked me, I gave him some money and fell back to sleep. I was woken up by some rowdiness: the passengers and drivers were fighting over the change. The guy who had poked me poked me again “how much did you pay?” he asked me, I told him and he told me I had paid too much and the passengers demanded from the driver that I get my one rand change back. I didn’t care. I wanted to puke. I wanted to die. I fell asleep again, my face squished against the window, the sun frying my right side; my ear would be as crispy as deep fried bacon. I didn’t care. I wanted to go home. “Anyone going to destination X?” the driver asked. He asked again except this time he was shouting. “I am” I slurred.
I got off the taxi, the ground felt skew; I tried my best not to keel over and walked with purpose to get home. The gate was open, the door left ajar, I went in and threw myself on the bed. I got in a foetal position and wallowed in self pity. Why me? Why me? I asked myself, a vision appeared: the finger of my doctor pointing in my face, his lips moved: “remember never to take this medication without ever eating because it might irritate the lining of your stomach”. That morning I was in such a hurry that I took my pills without there being food in my stomach. I immediately jumped off my bed and went downstairs to eat a block cheese.
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