Theresa entered the Computer Lab with great trepidation. She wasn’t aware of it, but her eyes were large in her head, causing her to have a startled look on her face. She was a forty-three-year-old mother of two boys, and this was the very first time she was going to use a computer.

Theresa wasn’t easily intimidated, a trait which counted in her favour, as she lived in Hanover Park, a suburb infamous for gang violence and drug trafficking. She lived in a two-bedroom flat in one of the apartment blocks called “courts”, hers being Athall Court. Her husband had run off years ago with one of the local floozies, leaving her to fend for their six-month old baby, their seven-year-old son and herself.

Whenever the subject of her errant husband was ever broached by one of her neighbours or friends, her immediate response always was, “Good riddance! The loser was holding me back. I only realised it after he abandoned me.” Of course, her heart was broken and she still missed Eric, as he had been her first and only love, but she never allowed anyone to see how deeply his betrayal had scarred her.

Theresa focused completely on her two boys, the loves of her life, and no mother was more fiercely protective of her children as she was of her boys, Myles and Cyril. They were the centre of her world and she would go to any lengths to offer them a better life. If necessary, she was ready to sacrifice herself to save them, and in her area that could become an awful reality on any cursed day.

Myles was working at Mercedes Benz at Century City as a fully qualified mechanic after having to struggle to finish his studies because of their financial difficulties. Luckily for him, Theresa was wise enough to help him apply for a scholarship and even though he had some initial issues with being granted one, he eventually succeeded because of her perseverance. His income supplemented Theresa’s salary as a cleaning staff supervisor at Metro Cleaning Services, one of the largest cleaning companies in Cape Town.

It was as a result of a Metro initiative that Theresa found herself in the Computer Lab at the company’s headquarters. Metro had selected a number of employees to receive basic computer training lessons for free, and Theresa was extremely proud to have been chosen. She didn’t know though that she would be so petrified of the machine.

“Mummy,” Cyril had said to her that morning, “you’re going to be playing with a mouse today. It will help you to use the computer better,” he had stated.

Both Cyril and Myles were extremely proud of their mom going for computer lessons, but they loved to tease her, especially since she was such a traditional, “old school” mother.

“Yeah, mom,” Myles added, his Asian-looking eyes narrowing as he smiled at her, “but just be careful it doesn’t bite you!”

“Praat julle twee alweer kak?” (Are the two of you talking shit/crap again?) Theresa asked her sons, frowning deeply and standing arms akimbo over them at the dining table. They were just finishing their breakfast and had only a few minutes to spare before they had to leave to catch a taxi. Both of them burst out laughing.

“We would never do that, Mom,” Myles said through his laughter while Cyril hugged Theresa tightly.

“Gotta go, Mummy, but don’t let the mice bite,” he said jokingly. Theresa shoved him away from her as Myles leaned in to kiss her on her forehead. Theresa looked after them with her heart in her eyes as they left.

“Ai, daai twee gaan my nog mal maak,” (Oh, those two are still going to drive me crazy.) she told herself, then hurried to get ready for work.

In the Computer Lab the facilitator showed the learners how to use the mouse. Theresa smiled sheepishly when she realised that the mouse was a computer device and not a real one. She was still afraid to use the computer, mostly because she didn’t want to make a fool of herself, but as she looked at how the others were struggling, she started to relax.

“Maybe this isn’t so bad after all,” she thought as she typed the short sentence the trainer had asked the class to type. She pressed each key individually and with great care, simply because she had to hunt for each letter on the unfamiliar keyboard. Then things got a bit more challenging.

“Please look at the interactive board now,” Mr Carr, the computer teacher, instructed them. He was quite patient with the class because he knew most, if not all, of them had never used a computer before.

“We are going to use the mouse now to perform a few functions,” he explained. “I will come around to look at what each of you is doing once you’ve started on the task, okay?” he told them.

Theresa sat rigidly in her seat and looked at the mouse. It sat beside her right hand and she thought its shape did somewhat resemble that of a mouse’s. It had a tiny wheel on its “back”, and Mr Carr explained how the learners could use this wheel to scroll up and down the page. Theresa reached out for the mouse and gripped it firmly.

“Voertsek, you’re not going to bite me,” she said softly and held the mouse even tighter. She struggled to manoeuvre it around the page and after a while, she gave up in disgust. Many of her fellow colleagues had also given up on trying to “tame” the mouse. Sheila, the Big Momma of the group, was glaring at the mouse in fury, her lips clenched together in a thin crimson line.

“Theresa, what’s up? Why aren’t you using the mouse?” Mr Carr asked when he came around to her computer station. He moved the mouse around on its pad and showed her how to grip it lightly, with her hand positioned just so.

“Sir, this thing is too difficult to use,” Sheila said from behind him. She was trying again to use the mouse, but with no success.

“Yes, initially it will be difficult, Sheila, but if you learn to use it correctly, you will have no trouble at all,” Mr Carr tried to encourage her. “Here, let me show you how to hold it,” he added and went over to show her what to do.

Theresa watched him teach Sheila how to hold the mouse and tried it herself. She felt she was getting the hang of it, but that’s when her day turned into the most forgettable moment of her life. She would never tell her sons about it because they would not ever let her forget her blaps (blunder).

“Theresa,” Mr Carr said as he came to stand next to her. “Let me see you use the mouse, okay?”

“Am I holding it right, sir?” she asked him.

“No, let me adjust your grip just a bit like this,” he said and shifted her hold on the mouse. “There, that’s just right. Now, I would like you to click here for me, please,” he said and touched a spot on the screen with his finger.

Theresa let go of the mouse, reached with her hand to the screen and touched the same spot Mr Carr had touched on the screen. For a second or two his lips twitched violently before he smoothed his features into a completely straight face.

“No,” he said patiently, “use the mouse to click on the spot I showed you.”

Theresa lifted the mouse up and was about to move it physically onto the screen when Mr Carr gently put his hand over hers and pressed the mouse down.

That’s when Theresa realised her mistake and turned blood red. She prayed for the floor to open up and swallow her, but all she could hear was Cyril’s voice saying, “Don’t let the mice bite.”

This mouse didn’t just bite her; it had bitten her with a vengeance.

Voertsek – a mild curse word meaning “Get lost!”

Image: https://www.vocfm.co.za/hanover-park-set-stage-protest-gang-violence/