REDEEMED PIONEER

  DISCLAIMER : Although characters and situations in this story are based on actual people, institutions and events, the story was created as a work of fiction, intended to NOT misrepresent any actual individual and/or situation.    Generic names have been used with the sole purpose of avoiding any racial stereotyping and promoting the notion that ALL people have the need to find belonging in a group where it is safe to share their lives with others, free of judgment and discrimination. The atmosphere is festive and the mood is happy.    A group of people representing multiple ethnic orientations of South Africa’s beautiful Rainbow Nation and varying in age from teenage to eighty-something are seated around a square-ish table listening to a speaker who promises to keep the speech very short.    The speaker succeeds in keeping it short while informing the audience about the origin of the event they are about to celebrate and then ends off with instruction of a practical, light-hearted a

  “First, you douse it with Doom to incapacitate it and then you stomp on it or smite the last life out of it with a fly swatter.    Point is, after you’re done, it is as dead as a door nail!”    Valerie appears somewhat traumatised by Jaime’s words.    She was going to suggest that Jaime catch the rain spider onto a piece of paper or something and then set it free outside, which is exactly what she would have done.    Valerie decides against voicing her suggestion to Jaime, and instead, she smiles at her friend on the computer screen before they resume the official part of their scheduled Zoom meeting.    Valerie knows that behind Jaime’s harsh serial-bug-killer exterior, she hides a vulnerable tender heart. Despite Jaime’s dominant temperament which renders her fearless of confronting injustice, it only extends to confrontation with members of the human species and not necessarily beyond that.    Truth be told, confrontation with most bug types and crawling/slithering creatures, can