The Miracle

Mokopane Jeffrey Mothiba

On Sunday morning when I woke up, there was a tree planted in the middle of our yard, my parents’ yard. Its origins were unknown to me. It was about two mitres tall, and its branches made a circumference of about two mitres. The tree looked strong with beautifully manicured branches and grass green leaves. It was there in the middle of the yard for everyone to see. I did not plant the tree nor did my parents. All I know is that it germinated on its own, it planted itself and in a space of a few hours it was two mitres tall. I walked around it trying to observe it. I touched it, smelled it, hugged it and it did nothing in return. I made decision that the tree was indeed a tree.

My father said we should chop it down because we did not plant it, my mother said we should give it two days to see what the tree would do. My father that we should not water it as it was a foreign tree. My father hates foreigners, he says that they are the harbingers of all things evil. He said most of them, ‘foreigners’, they move from one place to another because they have been found out or figured out and have been given an ultimatum ‘to leave or be killed’ and all the time the have chosen the former. I would rather live in a foreign land than be killed, I think that was their thinking.

My father said there was something suspicious about the tree and he said he did not know what it was.

The passersby were admiring the tree. “What a beautiful tree you have”, they would say. I would say thank just to be polite. I am well-mannered at least think so. I have been taught to be respectful, considerate and to think before I speak, so I try to practice what I have been taught by saying ‘thank you’ every time people were complementing our ‘tree’.

So, Sunday we went to sleep with curiosity filling up our minds, what would tomorrow bring?

So, Monday morning I woke up around seven in the morning, I went straight to check in on the tree, upon my arrival, I saw something strange, the tree had had fruits, ripe fruits, they were yellow in color. They looked like bananas. I called my father to show him what the tree had just done. Both of my parents came out to come see the addition s to the tree. My mother laughed, she said, “now it has babies”. My father said,” It did not look like it was pregnant yesterday”. My mother said, “I told you we should give it time”.

My father said that now that the tree was pregnant, soon they would be more tree like it all over the place.

Around twelf in the afternoon I went to check in on the tree and all the fruits were on the ground, it was as if somebody had harvested them. I called my parents, and they were surprised, they said they did not pick the fruits. So, I went to my mother’s storeroom where she kept empty bags and sags. After a few moments ten sags were full of bananas. I did not eat any of them. I stored them where we stored our food supplies. So, on Monday we went to bed more curious than we were on Sunday. What would Tuesday bring?

Tuesday, I woke up around seven in the morning. I went to check in on the tree. The tree had fruits like on Monday, but instead of banana’s they had pawpaw’s same color, beautiful yellow skinned fruit. They looked juicy and inviting. My parents came a few moments later to admire the miracle tree. Around midday the fruits started falling of the tree and I collected them and put them in my mother’s kitchen. All the fruits were ripe, ripe bananas, ripe pawpaw’s(sic)

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