“I’m bored.” Kenneth kicked an aluminum can across the yard. “I wish we could have an adventure.” His big brother Thapelo looked up from the book he was reading. “Why not?” he said.
“Adventures never happen here,” Kenneth complained. School had been out for two weeks. Kenneth was tired of hunting birds by the reservoir. It was too hot to play soccer with his friends. He didn’t have a fancy computer with games on it like Dumi had.
“Come on,” Thaphelo said. He put his book away in the house. “I’ll take you to a magic place where adventures happen all the time.” “Really?” Kenneth asked. “Sure.” Thapelo grabbed Kenneth’s hand and pulled him toward the tarmac. “It’s a place where African kings rule in great stone cities, and gold and diamonds are just waiting to be discovered.”
“Wow! We’ll be rich.” Kenneth trotted beside him. They passed the salon where their mother was busy braiding a neighbor’s hair. “We’ll be back!” Thapelo called. Ma smiled and waved.
“We can meet Shaka Zulu in the magic place,” Thapelo said.
. “And the Queen of Sheba and Louis Armstrong .” Kenneth stopped and put a hand on each hip. “Aren’t they dead?” Thapelo kept walking. “I told you--it’s a magic place.”
Kenneth had to run to catch up. “How will we get there?” he asked. “By magic taxi, of course,“ Thapelo replied. When the taxi came they squeezed in between a woman with a basket of chickens and a man who smelled like garlic. Kenneth cross his arms and looked doubtfully at his brother. “It looks like an ordinary taxi to me.”
“Okay,” Thapelo admitted. “The taxi is ordinary, but the place is magic. You’ll see. Why, in the magic place some of the animals can even talk.” Kenneth eyed the woman’s chickens, but they didn’t say anything he could understand.
The taxi sped by a soccer field and along a wide green valley lined with willow trees. It passed the HIV clinic where Kenneth got his medicine once a month and the new shopping center across from the open-air market.
At last the taxi stopped at a robot where a candy seller sat under a bright red umbrella. “This is where we get out,” Thapelo said.
Kenneth wasn’t convinced. He looked at Thapelo, and he looked at the yellow brick building. He looked at the people coming and going. They seemed ordinary to him. “Is Shaka Zulu really inside?” Kenneth asked. Thapelo nodded. “Can the animals really talk?” Kenneth wanted to know.
His brother pointed to the sign over the door. “Can you read that sign?” “Tembisa Library,” Kenneth read. Thapelo grinned. “If you can read, then for you this place is magic.” Together they entered the library.
