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Cousin Tuk in Durban 7
by Albert Russo

When my uncle and I finally left Bollywood Planet, all sweating and full of rage - me, not him, he didn’t know whether he was coming, going or dreaming his worst nightmare, coz in cases like this, he tries to make himself as unobtrusive as possible, and if he could, he would as soon disappear inside Aladdin’s enchanted lamp -, I turned my back to those two smooching lovey-dovey bozos, without so much as a goodbye, they deserved worse, like a mega punch on their heads with the heaviest pan you could get out of the kitchen of that delicious restaurant.

When I woke up the following morning, a beautiful tin box with an assortment of toffees and pecan fudge awaited us downstairs at the reception. A note came with it, saying: “Will you forgive us? A thousand and one hugs from Tuk and Panty.”

Of course, I couldn’t resist all that candy and got a tummy ache on account that I ate so many of them without taking a single breath. What do you do when the fudge just melts in your mouth, spit it out? Hey I ain’t no maze-o-kiss.

After having swallowed a dozen digedrills - it’s a French medicine that helps you settle your insides, and outs too! coz I was running non stop to the loo and back; yeah and wipe out that stupid grin off your face if you don’t want me to put you on a roasting skewer! - Tuk and Panty came to fetch us and we all went to the beach.

Jeezette was it good to swim in that warm Indian Ocean, frolicking like a friggin’ cork, then jumping as the waves came crushing against you. I was so intoxicated that, without realizing it, I soon found myself all alone in the sea. Suddenly a guy grabbed my arm so hard that I began to scream : “Help, help, there’s a nut trying to kidnap me!”

“Shut your clap, you stupid girl’” the big brawny jock hollered back, hurting me even more, “I’m a lifeguard!”

It’s only ten minutes later, with a sprained arm, my mouth all twisted, with new tics that made me look like some retard, for having bellowed like a cow on the verge of being slaughtered, that I understood what the fuss was all about. I had gone over the safety line, beyond which the sharks were swimming, ie., just across the huge net that separated us, innocent lil folks, from those dangerous man-eaters.

My uncle was trembling so violently you could hear his teeth and knuckles chatter something awful, and he soon looked like an unplucked turkey ready to be cooked for Thanksgiving, but which was still trying to escape from the executioner’s knife.


From the GOSH ZAPINETTE! series (15 episodes in all)
Excerpted from Zulu Zapy wins the Rainbow Nation, by Albert Russo.