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I know I said that part 2 was the last one or the end or whatever. I just had too much fun writing it so I had to continue. So here's another bit that's not meant to make much sense, strictly speaking. But there doesn't have to be an end and it doesn't have to be incomplete either. I think that I'm writing this for myself and I like that the South African context actually works with the subject matter.

Concerning the road in this bit; there are roads like this in my town. Literally you have the poverty stricken tin shack squatters right across the street from fancy houses.

Part 3

Tired and spent in the afterglow of sorrow we take a nap, not caring for the apparent inappropriateness that our physically youthful characters might portray should my mother walk in. We care not.

Despite the heat outside, my room is cool and we each drift in and out of slumber for an hour or more. The things that my mind shows me in half-dreams should be distressing, yet I look upon the images as far off spectres not attached to me. Yet, each time I drift back into the embrace of my mind's realm, the spectres come closer and a fear comes over me that they might close the distance and touch upon me. Death and decay suddenly rushes at me and I recoil in horror... to feel Vanessa's paw settle over my eyes, blacking out the images; her arm tightly circles my waist and a sense of vertigo befalls me. Clutching me like an angel she flies pulling me up from black depths to awaken to the world of my physical eyes.

I am greeted to wakefulness by Miki's white mask framed by the halo of the red fur around her eyes. My head had slipped off her chest.

Vanessa is standing beside the bed looking down on us, she smiles a greeting to me "You were having bad dreams." she says simply, by way of explanation.

My waking seems to be like an alarm to Miki as her black button eyes open moments later. She says "I feel peckish."

"Want me to make you a sandwich?" I ask trying to sit up but her grip tightens holding me down.

Her eyes smile at me "I think we should take a walk to shake off your dreams."

"My dreams,' I start 'what about them?"

Her paw, resting on my chest taps a claw over my heart "Your heart tells me that you were having bad ones."

"How?"

"It beats hard and irregular; nothing mystical." Her mouth takes cue from her eyes pulling into a smile. "We don't need to see your mother wallowing in that book."

"Where do you want to walk to?" I ask brushing my muzzle familiarly over her shoulder.

"You westerners,' she mocks 'always somewhere. Why must there always be a goal to any activity?"

"Where do you want to walk to?" I ask, sardonically pursing my lips at her. Vanessa giggles silently.

"To the café on Luthuli Drive of course. I did say I am peckish."

This does not sit well with me "You do realize that we'd literally be walking alongside the township don't you?"

"I do."

Ten minutes later we're on Luthuli Drive, brick houses with cars in the driveways on our right, and eight meters to our left are shacks made from tin sheets held together by variations of scavenged wood.

Holding Miki tightly, protectively to me on the brick side of the road I cast nervous glances at the daily life unfolding within the township where furs of various African geneses are carrying bundles and plastic buckets.

"Do you know what drove Buddha?" she asks of me out of the blue.

"What drove Buddha?" I ask while making me menacingly big as we approach two scraggly furs descended from some kind of African mutt. They carry white plastic bags from the shop situated next to the café.

"Buddha was born rich and sheltered, and when he saw the suffering of the poor for the first time, his empathy compelled him to seek a means by which everyone could attain happiness."

I nod, "Oh yes, I know that part."

"But you do not realize it." She waves pleasantly at the oncoming furs greeting them in Japanese. The one on the left raises his free hand to her, apparently surprised that a rich kid would willingly greet those from the township. His eyes travel to me and immediately they drop to the ground again. He nudges his partner speaking in their own language whose head rises; he takes a look at me and both of them hurry to the opposite side of the street casting my own nervous glances back at me.

Miki speaks again pinching my stomach "They are superstitious; their sight speaks of a wolf with horns, a black wolf, and they see the sign of the Tokoloshi on you Sander."

I look over my shoulder at the departing furs and feel like the perpetrator of the crime that I'd feared from them. "They should know better than that." I tell her.

Her black eyes turn to me sadly "They might know better. But they are like you."

She falls silent then and we continue walking on the hot tarmac. How are they like me? Half a discarded plastic bag is blown across the street and not for the first time I see a field of Sowetan roses; plastic blooms of every colour supplied by Super-Markets fluttering in the wind on the thorn bushes that had caught them up. My thoughts are distracted as I once again notice Miki's scent and how with each breath she takes; her bosom expands against my ribcage.

Vanessa's sweet voice intrudes before I am completely carried away "Do you want to know what she means?" she asks in complete innocence.

"Yes" I say aloud. Miki's head turns up to me but remains silent.

"She means that you and they are alike because you see each other as representative of your backgrounds."

"How so?" I ask of Vanessa, aware of Miki's scrutiny.

"You see them as poor and statistically more probable to rob you than those from the rich side of the road."

"Yes?"

Vanessa continues "They see you as a physically strange rich kid. Because you are so much different, then you must be from the devil."

Miki abruptly pulls away from me spinning and bobbing, her dress swirls, elegantly blurring like a half glimpsed spectre into the heat-waves rising up from the tarmac. Her dance is mesmerizing but I fear the attention that she might attract to us. Each time I try to close the divide she coyly speeds away from me like a child's top fresh from its string. My eyes instinctually survey our surroundings, but I see no danger. Shoulders slumped I give in, leaving her alone and she falls into step a little ways away from me. She doesn't look at me saying "Listen to your sister."

"You punish me with beauty." I intone sadly.

Helplessly I motion for Vanessa to continue. "They see you as strange and you see them as poor. But neither of you realize that what you fear from each other is a myth in this case. Neither you nor them realize what you know about each other."

We continue in silence.

"What did Vanessa say?" Miki asks finally.

"She made me realize..." I reply and find that for me both sides of the road are the same now. My fear vanishes even though I remain vigilant.

Eagerly she steps into me. I look down to find my pitchy paw wrapped tightly in both her snowy paws. Glee fills me and Miki allows me to plant a grateful kiss on the border where white and red fur meet on her mask.