THE NIGHT MY SON SAW OUR NEIGHBOUR SITTING ON HIS ROOF WITH A SNAKE

THE NIGHT MY SON SAW OUR NEIGHBOUR SITTING ON HIS ROOF WITH A SNAKE

I am writing this because I can no longer carry this pain alone. People in my village think I am jealous or making up stories, but I know what my son saw, and I know how our lives changed after that night. I wish this was just a rumour. I wish my son was still the same child he used to be.

Let me start from the beginning.

Our neighbour disappeared for almost three months. He left home saying he was going to the mountains for prayer and that he would return the same day. He never came back. At first we thought maybe he got lost, but as days passed, fear grew in the community.

The police and the villagers went into the mountains searching for him. They searched every path, every corner, for weeks. No one found anything. No bag, no clothing, no body. Nothing at all. After a month, people gave up and assumed he was dead.

Then out of nowhere, three months later, he just walked back home.

He looked dry, tired, dusty, and extremely skinny. His lips were cracked, and his eyes had a strange emptiness. People rushed to help him and tried to take him to the clinic, but he refused. He didn’t want medical help. He didn’t want to talk about where he had been. He didn’t explain anything. He just said he was fine.

But two weeks later, everything changed.

Suddenly he started having money. Not small money—serious money. In a single month he extended his house, fixed the yard, furnished everything, and bought a new car in cash. He became the biggest spender in the village just like that. He gave people R100 just for greeting him nicely. He never worked, but the money never stopped.

People respected him so much. They called him blessed. They called him a prayerful man. But something in me didn’t feel right. His wife also looked scared all the time, but no one asked her anything.

My life turned upside down during my son’s matric exams.

He was studying late at night, around past midnight. He said he felt a strange coldness enter the room. He told me it felt like every single hair on his body stood straight. Something inside him whispered, “Look outside.”

When he looked out of the window, he saw a sight that broke his mind.

He said he saw our neighbour sitting on his own roof in the darkness, and next to him was a very big snake. Long, thick, and moving slowly. My son said it looked like the man and the snake were having a conversation. The snake lifted its head like it was listening. My son froze. He was shaking.

He ran straight to my bedroom crying and screaming. I went to look outside, but the neighbour’s roof was empty by then. Nothing was there.

The next morning my son was mentally disturbed. He couldn’t focus, he couldn’t study, he couldn’t think properly. His eyes looked lost. Something had broken inside him. To this day, he has never fully recovered.

The worst part is that the neighbour stopped talking to us after that night. He avoided us completely. People in the village started saying maybe we were jealous of him. They said we were making up stories because he suddenly became successful. They didn’t know the truth. They didn’t know the nights we heard strange movements. They didn’t know how a snake started troubling us around the house.

We were alone in this.

One day I swallowed my pride and went to my neighbour. I apologised for whatever my son saw and begged him to help my child become well again. I told him we would stay quiet forever.

He looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Your son will only be normal again if he goes to the mountain and joins the cult. But be warned… most people don’t survive the training. If he goes, you might never see him again.”

My whole body went numb. How can a mother accept that? How can I send my son to a cult that might kill him? But how do I live with him suffering like this every day? It is the worst pain a parent can feel.

I don’t want my child to join any cult. I just want him to be well again. I want this darkness to leave my home. I want my life back. I want my son back.

But right now, the whole village sees me as the jealous neighbour. They don’t know the fear we sleep with. They don’t know the things my son still sees in his dreams.

They praise the man who destroyed my child.

And we suffer in silence.