Breaking the news
HOW do you shrink time and crystallise into atomic pieces of ice shards? By telling your mom you’re gay.
Although I’ve long thought about it, there was no way to really prepare for it, so I simply blurt out. “Mamakhe, I’m gay!’’
Sade’s mother turns away from the basin, holding a plate mid-wash and dripping soapy water on the floor as she stares at her daughter.
“This is not a joke.” Sade looks at her mother earnestly. “I’m coming out to you.”
The plate Mamakhe has been holding slips from her fingers, hitting the ground after what seems like eternity with a loud clang!
Sade looks at it break into what seems like a hundred little pieces, and imagines each shard representing every dream her mother has ever had for her break right before her very eyes. Finding Mr Right, marriage, two-and-a-half children, the house with a picket fence . . .
The silence after the crash
