Monday, March 12, 2012

Introducing Asanda


Danny always attended the school play. In fact, he always attended every school event worth mentioning. He made it his business to be present whenever a large group of students gathered together.

“You have to be there, and you have to be seen,” he’d explained to Lilah, soon after she’d joined his crew. “Otherwise you’re out of touch; or they think you’re out of touch. Either is fatal in our line of business.”

Since official events were vastly outnumbered by unofficial house parties, after parties and braais, Danny had an unusually busy social life, mostly arranged by Asanda January.

Asanda was extremely tall and exceedingly beautiful. She already had a lucrative modeling career, and was confidently expected to make it big. Unsurprisingly, she was also popular, well informed and invited to every party going. It wasn’t really considered a party if Asanda wasn’t there; and since Asanda always took Danny as her unofficial, unannounced and if necessary uninvited plus-one, Danny’s presence had also become necessary to the party culture.

As every celebrity knows, keeping up this kind of social presence doesn’t just happen. Some evenings, Danny and Asanda would have no fewer than five scheduled stops on their route. This was only possible by careful planning, precise timing and ruthless efficiency. Happily, these were Asanda’s speciality. Each day, Danny would get an email at around 4pm, giving him the outline of that evening’s activities, complete with dress code, gift requirements and timeframes.

However, today’s email simply read: we need to talk.

Whatever Danny may have been expecting, this wasn’t it. It was unheard of for Asanda to take a raincheck on social events. Even exam season had been known to come and go without seeing an abatement in her relentless programme.

So his response was simple: when and where?

No comments:

Post a Comment