I was sitting in the church at Terry's funeral, staring at the coffin and the photo of him resting on top of it. Lisa was sitting next to me. We had been friends for a long time. Her Mum, Nellie, was our maid and occasionally she stayed over in Nellie's flat at our house. We had gone to different schools βshe to a Zulu rural school near Nellie's home and me to boarding school, but now we were at College together. We were both studying courses in the hospitality industry. (She is now a successful Wedding Co-ordinator having done many celebrity weddings for Kwaito stars; I, as I have said previously, have my own franchised Coffee Shop in a large Mall.) Around us were other students from the College.
I stared at the photograph of Terry, remembering the brief encounters we had shared, and suddenly I had no regrets. We had shared something very intimate and personal in just two short weeks. He had died in a motorcycle accident just after our last meeting when I had showed him the videos on my brothers' computer. I had showed him the one of Lisa in her mother's room masturbating, and of my folks fucking in their bedroom and me masturbating on the toilet. He had come over my face and then I had masturbated for him and him for me. It had been the most erotic moment of my life so far. (See "The Story of Joanne D'Arc β My first 'boyfriend'.)
As the minister brought the service to a close Lisa leaned over and asked if we were going to the burial. I didn't think so, so I suggested that we go for coffee instead. After the service we gave our condolences to his parents and went across the road to a Coffee Shop. They were not licensed to sell liquor but they did sell Irish Coffees so we ordered one each, feeling the need for some inner warmth.
After they arrived I said to Lisa, "Terry and I almost made love before he died."
"Almost?" She asked.
I explained that I was not ready to fuck and so we had just indulged in some mutual masturbation.
"But that is just like our Zulu culture," she said, "I thought you white people just fucked when you felt like it."
We discussed the different approaches in our two cultures. I said that we had two schools of thought βthose who saved themselves for marriage and those who just did it. She told me about ukuHlobonga.
"In Zulu culture," she said, "a maiden must always be ready for a man. We have a custom that when a man stops you on the road to talk, you must be ready to lie down with him."
"Any man," I asked incredulously.
"Well, not every man will stop you," she responded, "but when a man does he is admiring you and you must be ready to repay the compliment."