BACKGROUND

“Maya: Initiate 39” is an adult work-piece that explores the ordeals of Maya Isaacs. An over-protected single child, a victim of a broken home, Maya was raised singlehandedly by a man whom she knew as her ‘father,’ Samuel. He had divorced his wife, Cynthia, years ago on grounds of infidelity, before Maya turned three years old. Growing up in Durban was a heady mixture of good, bad and ugly for Maya.

Through the influence of wrong peers, Maya went into the underworld endeavors of stealing, drug trafficking and prostitution, under the cover of a very perverse juvenile assembly, called the Alternative lifestyle Club (The ALC).  She joined the club in the pursuit of what she called her “destiny” and became popular among many top-notch Southern Africans.

After several disappointments, Maya thought she could use her “connections” to bite the fingers that fed her, by carrying out the assignments given her own way—a way of letting the organization know that she was no push-over. But that was not the case! Consequently, Craig and Ms. Diana, the active players of the club, led this juvenile to her doom. They set her up and the police did the rest. The long arm of the law landed her in prison in Johannesburg. It was while she was in the prison that she realized that changing for the better would be the only way to save herself.

Through a favor from Van Brussels, a rich gold merchant, school owner and chairman of the Louisville Shipping Company, against whom she had committed a crime in the past, Maya was released from prison before the stipulated sentence was up. She was sent to the United States for Secretarial studies, worked for Van Brussels’ company for a couple of years, and then returned to her native Durban home in South Africa with her husband, Daniel Young, to find her father, who she had left years before.

Maya became a woman of substance.  Her fame and enterprise rose up the corporate ladder. But before then, something happened….

Chapter One

“Hey! What are you doing outside at this time?! It’s after six and you are still here playing with those N-D-W kids! My goodness! Maya, I told you to stay indoors before I left for work! Here you are playing with them! I instructed you never to come near them, but you refused to listen! They are bad eggs! For goodness sake, when will you learn, Maya? Do you want to be like your mother? Now, at the count of three, go inside the house and wait for me! One…two… and…” These were the words of Samuel, Maya’s father, after he saw her in the company of the so called ‘Ne’er-Do-Well Kids’.  

Maya swiftly charged towards home, five houses away from the Kimberly Children’s Play Ground, with every Tom, Dick and Harry taking a stern look at her as she ran home.

Ten minutes later, Samuel decided to mete out the punishment he felt Maya deserved. She sat nervously on the sofa in the living room and Samuel stood opposite to her. Maya knew she was in for trouble.

“Maya, hmm…you failed to listen to my instruction for the third time! I left for work at 7.00am and told you how I expected you to behave. In June, you’ll be eleven years of age. You’re no longer a baby! You’ve reached an age where you should be able to take and follow instructions!  You were told not to step an inch from this house. You’re on holidays. For Christ’s sake, I expected you to read your books and watch TV programs. But you chose to play with those useless children! Oh my goodness! Maya, why did you not follow my instructions?”

 Maya stuttered, “I wanted….to….stay indoors but I was…”

“So, you want to start telling lies! Who taught you how to tell lies? The N-D-W kids? Those useless kids you play with, right? You’ve suddenly lost your voice. Haven’t you?” Samuel asked angrily.

“No!” Maya replied.

“Then tell me the truth!”

“I’m sorry, Dad, for what I did. I promise it won’t happen again! I promise to always follow your instructions!” Maya assured him.

“I’m tired of your ‘I am sorry’ attitude, Maya!” Samuel said, his words cold and angry. He took a stern look at his daughter. “By what the wall clock says, 8.00p.m. is the time. Your punishment is that you’ll have to write in this twenty-page notebook the sentence ‘I am sorry, daddy’ a thousand times. I swear that if you disobey me a third time, I’ll punish you. Take this and go to bed. Before I go to work tomorrow, I want to see that you’ve completed what I commanded you. Get out!”

Maya tearfully went to her room, glancing at her dad, who ignored her departure. He was already busy watching ‘The News at Nine’ on his LCD TV set.

Hours later, knowing that his daughter was probably asleep, Samuel couldn’t help but ask himself, “Am I actually playing the role of a father to her? How will she feel when I eventually have to tell her that I’m not her biological father? How do I tell the story that led to her birth if she asks me some day? In this life, anything can happen! Left to me, I don’t intend disclosing anything about that infidel! But how would she feel if I decide to tell the story of her mother’s lifestyle? How would she feel if I told her that her mother was a jump-around? Am I really disciplining my precious pearl the right way? One day, she’ll ask me where her mother is. How do I explain to her that her mother and I have been divorced since she was three years old?  Oh, how I wish Cynthia and I weren’t divorced! If we were still together, would raising Maya be such a mental challenge? God help me overcome this life’s hurdles in future, I pray.”

He went to bed after taking a sip of vodka.

Seven a.m., and it was time to leave for work. Fully dressed and prepared to go, but having forgotten what he had told Maya to do the previous night, Samuel reminded her: “Remember, this is the time you ought to be awake! I have trained you to always be awake at this time when you are on holidays. But when you’re going to school, you should be out of bed by 6.00a.m. I have to go to work now! Make sure you stay indoors and never ignore my orders again!”

“Yes, I will dad.” She smiled up at him.

Maya had served her punishment, almost filling her notebook with ‘I Am Sorry, Dad’. But Samuel had forgotten as he was getting ready for work.

“Last night, you told me to write ‘I Am Sorry Dad’ on my notebook. I did,” Maya reminded him. “I have it with me…you can have it.”

“Oh…I forgot! Okay…let me have it,” he requested.

Samuel glanced through the pages of the notebook handed over to him.

“That’s my girl! I want you to behave well and be the Maya I’ve always thought you to be,” Samuel said, patting her on the back. “From now on, are you assuring me that I’m going to be proud of you?”

“I’m the good girl you‘ve known me to be!  Daddy, I am happy having you as a father!” Maya said gladly, with smiles written all over her face.

In a haste to leave the house, Samuel quickly hugged her, saying, “I believe in you, Maya!”

She saw her dad to the front yard, where his Cadillac was parked. As soon as the engine roared to life, Samuel waved ‘bye’ at her. A corresponding wave of ‘bye-bye’ came from Maya as she saw him drive off to work.

The holidays were over, and for Maya, it was time to resume school…

To her, it meant spending time with her fellow pupils. Maya couldn’t wait to see her friends Elizabeth, Tara, and Maria, especially during school break time and after classes got out.  In the next three days, Samuel had to make plans to ensure that the beginning of Maya’s school year went smoothly… It was successful, and went as planned--a new Adidas designer child-sized bag, a pair of shoes, stockings, and the payment of her term’s school fees were put together by Samuel two weeks before resumption.