LIVING IN A DREAM

 

BY Halieo Motanyane

Maseru is the busiest town in the country. The largest population relates there. People coming from all districts for jobs in the big city. Places like taxi and bus ranks and fabric factories are the biggest fish that swallow lots of people. Hooters and machines in the factories maintain the loudest noises even. Still, the workers chatted away even in the noise. It’s more like the noise was their background music. It didn’t distract them anymore. Which is why Moliehi felt abandoned. She was right in the middle of all the chaos: the small dark room within the factory. But not one person reacted to her cries and shrieks. The world was too purple for her. Instead, she focused on the faded image of her seven years old daughter in the back of her mind. She winced a little as a hard pain kicked her body. But she came back with a smile, allowing herself to evaporate in a dream she had last night.

“I’m proud of you for being a good mother to our daughter. My mother thought you wouldn’t be able to do it.” Moliehi blushed at her smiling husband.

“Thank you Darling. I know they are waiting for me to fail. They think you spoiled me too much.”

“I might have.” He kissed her lightly on the cheek. “Promise me that you’ll get a job for our daughter.”

“I promise.”

And the alarm rang.
In her dreams, her husband was still alive. They chatted about things they never talked about in his life. He kissed her more than he did in his life. And Moliehi was happier with him more than in his living being.

“Mamma is going to get a job for you my love. I will make you proud of me.” These were the words she kept whispering to herself, as if her daughter could hear her back home in the highlands.

Back in the morning, Moliehi thought she would wait the whole day like her mates on their first day at work. When she got to the factory gate, she took out her passport and carried it in hand. Just as her neighbor had told her to do.

“Arrive early so that you’d be the first. Even so, don’t hide yourself among others if you want to get hired. Keep the line but make sure the supervisors see you when they come outside. And bring M700.00 for bribery.”

But Moliehi never got a chance to show herself. She should have known. Even from childhood, she always had a certain power over her friends. Her mother said she had a good luck aura. But then she grew to know that it was because of the good figure and beautiful face.

The security guy called her as soon as she arrived. She was quite late. A crowd of women already formed a long queue. When she approached him, he looked her up and down and smiled. Moliehi knew that smile. It was the smile that half the men she met used towards her.
“Have you come for the job?” His eyes only scanned her eyes as it continued to search her body.

“Yes, I have.” Could her neighbor forgotten to tell her the importance of the Security man?

“Give me your numbers. I’ll help you get in.” He extended his cell phone Moliehi.

Moliehi looked back at the people behind them. They were watching with curiosity. Moliehi scoffed at the security guy and left back to her line. She refused to give them something to talk about.

In the dark room, she was tangled with ropes. She wished she had given the security guy her numbers. Maybe he would have helped her in a better way. Or he would have referred her to the better person than who she got. She remembered his pitied look when she walked in with the big boss. Moliehi thought he was jealous of her. She had felt lucky when the Chinese man approached her and told her to follow him with all her things. Even at the time, she looked around her and saw her allies marveling at her. She knew then that she had gotten the job.

“Are you willing to do anything to get this job? I can give you a supervision job. With your tertiary qualifications, you do actually qualify.”

Moliehi knew what those words meant. She’d heard them before. But before, she had options as she had working husband at the time. She had spat at those words and their owners.

But today, Moliehi fidgeted on the long sofa she sat on when she followed the man in. She kept throwing glances of the picture of two girls hanged on the wall. The man did not bother to follow her gaze, he must have already knew what she was thinking. Instead, he continued to sit on his table and looked down at her.

The court in her head was not even close to trial. She knew she wanted to get a job for her daughter’s good welfare. She owed to her husband to prove their parents wrong about her. She needed that to make a decision.

“I will do anything you want.” She sat up straight and faked a smile.

The man came from his seat and sat beside her. She felt the sofa was too small for the two of them. She hurled on the sofa for the rest of the morning, paying for the job she was yet to get for her daughter. During that time, all she saw was her daughter’s happy face on her mirror back home. All she felt was the pain of getting something worthy- In life, what you really want will never come easy-

At night, Moliehi looked herself in the mirror. She looked the same as in the morning. Nothing had changed. Nothing but the nails scratched all around her breasts. Her light skin looked dirtied up by the red wrists spots and bites. They were not things she could remove by bathing, but with time. They were the reminders of how she got her job as an independent woman.

“You are my girlfriend now.”

The words kept ringing in her mind. The man had said when he handed her load of cash notes. Then she knew her journey had just began with a Chinese boss. She looked up at her daughter’s photo.

“Mamma got a job my Darling. You will be like other children too.”

She shed a few tears before getting in bed. She washed her face one last time and got in bed. In her dream, she was with her husband. They were a boy and a girl again, creating the best memory of their dreamland.