My boyfriend and I visited his mother in Tzaneen over Christmas. We currently don’t have a car that can reliably handle long distances, so we decided to take the bus.

While traveling back, the highway was especially busy—apparently everyone wanted to be back in Pretoria for New Year’s—so what is usually a four-hour journey ended up taking almost five and a half hours. As we drove, I snapped photos of the landscape flashing past us. I know these kinds of photos aren’t usually great, but if I see something beautiful, I have to at least try to capture it.

As the sun set, we were treated to the most beautiful gradients of orange, red, purple, and gray.

While taking pictures, growing uncomfortable in my seat on the stuffy bus, people-watching the other travelers, and feeling jealous of the birds flying home so effortlessly, I decided to jot down a few ideas and phrases for a micro story. Once I got home, I worked on it a little more, and voilà—Migratory Habits was born.

Fifty Word Stories published it today on their website. You can read it here:

MARINDA KOTZE: Migratory Habits