However, Aron felt the pressure and his father totally forgot about the goats as his new lover Miss Susan was keeping him as busy as the bees in the honeycomb making lovey-dovey while Aron had to take over the full care of the goats before and after school regardless he had to put less work in the goats and focus more in his school work. And the pressure was killing his school work even the teachers promised to take away the scholarship hoping that he will be motivated to stop whatever that was destructing his school work. His father received many letters from the school board and other teachers were dealing with Aron’s scholarship urging him to take a serious focus on his son’s performance regarding his school activities but the father never returned the letter at all. So Aron chose his future more than his father’s goats because he noticed that his father was kind of blinded by love more than the more important things in his life. Well... I am not saying that love is not important but he knew before he met Susan he had a life and I guess meeting Susan made him forget all of that anyway for as matter of fact Susan did nothing besides falling in love with a man who will eventually forget his life and be brainwashed by the two minutes’ moments of love with Susan. Simon as he wasn’t noticing that his actins were affecting his only child and only son but he cared about his happiness and his son gave him the gratitude hoping that he won’t turn against him but... he did exactly what he was worried about. So for couple months of Aron’s endorsement hoping that his father will change his actions even the other people in the village were starting to realise that Aron’s father was like Susan gave him a pinch of love portion because he didn’t care about nobody but Susan and Aron was the only person who was suffering in the process as I mentioned his school work was in trouble and everything was like January to Aron. One morning as he was going to school as usual he met one of his friends Samuel who is he schooling in the same class and he was teasing him about his father’s actions suddenly and honestly it wasn’t Samuel’s place to say that just like that but... since Aron was down on Earth he just laughed about it even though he knew that it wasn’t something to laugh about. So they went to school as usual and Aron was thinking about the actions of his father and it was disturbing him in his wellbeing and there was no peace he found peace besides the veld where he was herding the goats. Slowly and surely he was losing his mind and the worse thing his father wasn’t noticing nothing that was bothering his son at all because love was like fire between him and his new lover after Aron’s mother also after so many years of being single. However, Aron had no choice but not to mind everything even if it was killing his spiritually that his father totally forgets about him and in some case he was telling himself that he wasn’t giving his father the time he needed but then he realised that it was beyond his power to overthink about the actions of his action by himself so what he did for himself is that he stopped worrying about things he cannot solve or control I guess it is always the best thing to never mind things you can’t solve. One thing he knew is that he was going to make a mistake somewhere and by the time he realised that it was going to be so late for them to save the situation. Aron trusted Susan that she was going to do the right thing more than just destructing a man who has everything on the line to lose over just a two minutes’ moments of love. Well... as Aron was fighting by all means even himself he got tired of everything and became selfish for once in his life though he knew that it won’t result in the good way forward along the way. So one afternoon as he was pushing goats down the stream and he went back home to study his books as he was preparing for his final exams and even his father wasn’t noticing nothing because he was keeping himself too much busy to check on his boy and how he was doing with his school work even the letters he was getting from the school regarding his son’s school work. The boy went home and he didn’t found his father in the house when he was asking the neighbour about his father whereabouts, the neighbour told the truth that they drove away with the lady who was always visiting there and he knew that it was Susan so he went inside the house to study because he couldn’t stay at the veld it was lots of water pools but little hot as the rain poured a few days ago. And the maize field were so green and attractive for the animal to have the lust of eating there. Therefore, Simon’s goats were close to the maize field as the time Aron arrived at home so because goats are greedy so as one goat went inside the maize field by force others followed and the workers found them after third minutes of grazing in the maize field and as soon as they found them there was no way that the goats were going to run away because there was no way to run at. And Simon had to pay the fine in few days or else the goats were going to belong to Mr Roebuck when Aron came at the field as usual to collect them the goats were nowhere to be found and when he was asking around the veld to other herds they were telling that there is a group of goats that was caught at the maize field by Mr Van Roebuck and his workers so they suggested that he went there to check whether it is not the group of goats he was looking for. Aron as scared to death when he found out that the goats were capture by the old Dutch man for trespassing in the maize field and that caused a huge dent in Simon’s pocket and because he didn’t have to blame nobody but himself and his new lover for not overlooking things the way he used to even before he met Susan anyway he didn’t have to put it on Aron for living them at veld because the boy had so many things on his mind and he didn’t want to compromise his future for somebody who lost the principles of being a good father for just one lady he just met in his life. Well... Aron as he was afraid to tell his father about what happened at the veld and his father was still noticing nothing that the goats are missing because he was not always at home and he had the tendency of sleeping over Susan’s house as he was leaving the boy alone at home because he was always telling himself that Aron won’t mind being alone in the house as sometimes Susan was asking about his boy’s safety because I guess he was too young to be left alone in the house by his father for a lady he just met. Other than she came over their house so they won’t be making the boy’s life miserable it is.


© Makaziwe Gotyana