The Anniversary Shirt

Botswana's fiftieth independence anniversary arrived on 30 September 2016, just where he remembered it. Thabo had prepared maintenance work for his own private event and transport customers. The national celebration filled the city with colour; his own small contribution involved making sure a few vehicles could do the jobs their owners had actually promised.

Mpho found him at the end of a busy day wearing a blue-and-white shirt and looking as though he had been waiting to be judged by the whole country. She straightened his collar and said the shirt was doing very well, but the man inside might improve if he accepted supper. Thabo did, and discovered that an exhausting day could end with a kiss instead of another excuse.

Refi presented radio programmes and was twenty-nine. She met him through friends, asked why his funniest stories always concerned vehicles and invited him to a personal drink to test whether he could tell one about himself. Refi laughed at the story of his first badly painted sign, took his hand and kissed him before he could improve the punchline.

Tshego worked in telecommunications and was thirty-two. At a gathering she challenged him to leave his phone untouched while they talked. Their later dinner became a date when he admitted he had been hoping she would invite him. Tshego leaned closer, kissed him and said the admission had transmitted far more clearly than his earlier attempts to sound useful.

Palesa modelled and helped produce small fashion events. Twenty-six, direct and playful, she chose Thabo a jacket for an evening out and laughed when he examined whether it had a pocket for tools. Palesa touched the lapel, pulled him closer for a private kiss and asked whether he could please leave the emergency repairs outside the room.

Naledi was a lawyer and thirty-four. They met socially and chose a personal supper after he told her about a customer who had blamed the weather on a mechanic. Naledi listened, smiled and said she would enjoy hearing the version in which he had made a mistake. He had several. Their kiss afterward was considerably warmer than the impressive story he had intended to tell.

The repair business earned enough retained cash to begin its first carefully chosen transport work. In 2018 they bought a refrigerated vehicle for BWP 900000, funded by BWP 200000 accumulated business cash and a BWP 700000 loan. Neo inspected it more severely than anybody had ever inspected his hopeful plans, then made sure the team could maintain what they were now responsible for earning with.

Thabo's father came to look at it and spent a long time walking around the vehicle. He asked which company owned it. Thabo pointed to the name he and Neo had chosen. For a moment the older man said nothing. Then he put a hand on his son's shoulder and asked whether there was room for him to sit inside for a photograph.

Neo took the picture. Thabo wore the anniversary shirt because it was the clean one he had kept ready. His father laughed at how solemnly he sat, and the photograph captured a man trying to look as though buying a working vehicle had always belonged somewhere inside his possible life. That evening he sent copies to people who had actually helped them get there.

Lebo invited him to supper and listened while he described the photograph. She wore a green dress, took his hand and said she liked hearing him sound pleased without immediately preparing an argument proving he deserved it. Her kiss lingered. Thabo went home wondering how much of his first life had been spent answering people who had stopped asking.

Mpho and Neo became substantial romances too, through private evenings and arguments in which they refused to let his growing confidence answer every personal question. Mpho wanted him to listen before promising. Neo wanted an evening that did not become a workshop meeting. He liked both women enough to find those requests much harder than any reassuring speech he could have made.

Once, Neo asked him to pass a glass while he explained a future route. He handed her a spoon. She put it beside the glass, waited and raised an eyebrow. Thabo stopped talking, saw what he had done and laughed. Their kiss later came after an entire supper in which he had somehow managed to discuss several things that would never require a truck.