Amile The Queen

Chapter Fifty-Five

***Amile Gumede***

The brothers are just standing there staring at each other, I know this is a reunion, but a pregnant woman just fell down the stairs.
“Someone help, please, anyone!?” now I’m in tears.
My heart is racing and there is a lump stuck in my throat. They just stand in a staring match. Bayede drops the spear and it rolls down the carpet and stops by Langalethu’s feet.
Maybe my vision is playing tricks on me because I’m crying. A spear can’t roll on a flat surface. What kind of sorcery is this? Higher powers? Witchcraft?
“Bayede!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.
I see blood slowly staining the carpet and I panic. He finally decided to turn around and he ran towards me. I was slapping her cheek gently trying to wake her up, but it seemed like she wasn’t even breathing. She better not do this.
And why is the ghost just standing there staring at the whole debacle like it’s a film!? The husband picked MaMzobe up and walked hurriedly past him shouting for Mgabadeli to get the car ready. I’m shaking, my breathing is unsteady. I’m standing next to the pool of blood, and it is blocking my nostrils up. He’s standing in my way; I want to get through and go to the hospital with Bayede and MaMzobe.
He bends down and picks up the spear and holds it in his hand, firmly placing it on the ground. He possesses so much power, my heart is racing. He looks exactly like he did in my dreams. I try to walk past him without peeping a word, but he grabbed my wrist and pulled me back. My whole body heated up.
“Who are you?” he asked in his naturally deep voice.
Tears rolled down my face as I felt my head feeling light.
“Amile.” I whispered.
I didn’t mean to, but my voice couldn’t come out. I’ve been holding these tears back since this man walked in here. 
“What are you doing here?” I should be asking him that.
I have so many questions, but I’m having an out of body experience. It’s not everyday that you see your dreams coming to life. All I need to do now is to kneel in front of him and apologize to make it come to life.
“I’m Bayede’s wife.” His brown eyes are capturing. They are almost the same colour as his t-shirt.
His hand is still wrapped around my wrist.
“Zwelibanzi or me?” my eyes widened, and I felt the air leave my lungs.
“What do you mean?” my vision is getting blurred by tears.
“Tell me what you are doing here?” I shook my head.
“I don’t understand what you mean.” I tried to free my wrist.
He let me go and I wiped my tears.
“You’ve been haunting my dreams; you have been driving me crazy. What did you do to me?”
“Nothing, I don’t know you?” his chest is bouncing up and down.
I feel like I’m going to throw up. He smells like incense and herbs, it’s a very natural scent. Even knowing that he has dreams about me is not enough to relieve me, in fact, it scares me.
“You don’t know me?” he moved closer.
I moved back and shook my head vigorously.
“I didn’t want to come back here to this hell hole, but you, you kept begging me to come back. Who are you?”
I almost tripped over the step from moving back, and when I almost fell flat faced on the floor, he held me up.
“I’m sorry.” I said holding on to his hands.
These are the warmest hands I’ve ever held. Am I really not dreaming?
“Tell me who you are.” He’s not raising his voice, but he sounds very frustrated.
“Leave her shlobo.” He lets go of my hand and turns around.
“Shlobo…”
“Muyeke.” It’s a woman’s voice. I want to see her, but his tall figure is blocking my view.
He turns back around and gives me the spear. With my trembling hands, I take it and stand there dumbstruck not knowing what to do.
“Hey!” he’s walking away.
I don’t even know what to call him. I know he’s older than me, but my head is all over the place. He turned around and looked at me.
“You can’t leave.” He frowned.
“What’s stopping me?” okay, he’s mean, I don’t like him.
“Your brother needs you; your kingdom needs you.” I don’t like the way I sound.
“How were they surviving when I wasn’t here.” I kept quiet.
“I was never here.” I’m not going to start chasing after him, I’ve done enough of that in my dreams.
I saw the woman. She had dreadlocks and was wearing red cloths. It’s that woman that I went to when I fetched him. What the heck is going on!? Are they dating, what’s going on?


***Mandlenkosi Zulu***

It was him who came and drove Banzi instead. It doesn’t take away the fact that he’s also panicking behind the steering wheel. They will make it to the hospital by god’s grace.
“What happened bhuti?” Nkosi asks in a voice close to breaking.
“Please just concentrate on the road. She’s losing blood.” He slams the steering wheel a couple of times out of frustration.
He’s not getting an answer, that’s why he’s frustrated. A part of him is ready to blame his brother for this and if she loses this child, it will be his fault. The same thing happened to Amile and Banzi wasn’t there, he had to experience it on his own as if he had put that child in her stomach.
It felt like his own heart was being cut open that night, the amount of pain she endured, before, during and after the incident was enough to send her to the grave. Women are strong people, they endure so much but they keep going.
He’s still going to pretend like he didn’t hear all the commotion that happened, the screaming and shouting before she was rushed into the car like this.
They got to the hospital in no time and they rushed her to the emergency. Stretchers were brought out immediately after he ran to the reception screaming for help. They wheeled her inside the emergency room and Banzi was directed to the reception to give out all the details they needed.
“What happened to her?”
“She fell down the stairs.” He said without thinking.
Nkosi stared at him a little longer than necessary, thoughts running through his mind. Which stairs is he talking about, there is only one flight of stairs at the palace and those stairs are very close to his bedroom, he didn’t hear a single thing.
When Banzi finished signing whatever it is that was required, they went to sit on the cold chairs in the waiting room. Banzi is covered in blood, his hands, pants, shirt, all of it. He leans forward in frustration and heaves a heavy sigh. He can’t afford to lose another child, especially in such a short space of time.
“Bhuti what happened? Which stairs did she fall from?”
“Nkosi, please. Not now.” He raised a hand to try and dismiss him.
“I want to know, you can’t keep me in the dark forever. This is the second child you will be losing and this is not just anyone, this is MaMzobe, a woman who has been like a mother to me. I deserve to know what the hell is going on.”
“Can’t you be a little sensitive, or maybe put yourself in my shoes just for a day? You are always whining and complaining about yourself, when is it never about you?” 
“You always treat me like a child…”
“I treat you like one because you act like one Mandlenkosi. Why can’t we just be civil with each other, you are always ready to pick a fight with me, forgetting that I am older than you. Kwimanje ngiyazi uyangisola ngalento eyenzeke kunina.”
He’s not trying to draw attention to himself, he already has the attention drawn, but today has been emotionally taxing and he has finally gotten to that breaking point where he feels like enough is enough.
“Because that’s how I was raised, raised to always have my defences high and protect myself from people ready to take advantage of my vulnerability.”
“And that is the difference between me and you. You weren’t raised to always have your defences high, you were raised to be vulnerable while I couldn’t wear my heart on my sleeve like you do. I was raised to be strong, to take control and never show the weak side of me. And what about what I feel?”
“You had a father.”
“And you had a mom.” He replied in displeasure.
Silence passed between the two of them. Therapy was necessary. There’s definitely more to their characters than what meets the eye and maybe they would understand each other better had they attended.
“I hate fighting with you Mandlenkosi, you are my brother and I love you. You are the only good memory my mother left behind for me. The last thing I want to do is to lose you.” Tears broke in his eyes.
“Tell me the truth bhuti.” Banzi sighed.
“I think MaMzobe was behind Langalethu’s attempted murder. He is alive and back at the palace. The spear rolled to him from my feet, I was never the chosen one for the throne and now that he’s back the trouble is starting.” This was the absolute last thing he was expecting to hear.
It’s overwhelming, he said a couple of things, he doesn’t know which is scarier.
“My king, my prince.” The doctor came and stood in front of them and bowed her head lowly.
“The queen is awake; you may now see her.”
“How is the baby?” Nkosi chimed in.
“The baby is safe my prince.” She bowed again.
“Thank you. Please show us the way.” Banzi said in a low voice.
She led them down the passage. That took quicker than they both expected, in instances like this, they stay and wait in hospitals for hours un-end.
When they walked into the ward, she was sitting on the bed staring into space. Nkosi was the one who ran up to her bedside and gave her a hug.
“I was so worried ma, I’m so glad you are okay.” Banzi stood at the door feeling a flood of mixed emotions.
“I’m fine Nkosi, I promise.” She rubbed his shoulder.
When he moved away from her side, she looked at her husband, but couldn’t stare for too long and looked away. He didn’t tear away from the door frame, he just looked at her lying on the bed, avoiding eye contact.
“I think I should excuse you.” Nkosi said after seeing the tension between them.
He kissed her forehead before walking out the room. They exchanged with Banzi and he went inside. He stood outside and leaned against the wall replaying all the words his brother had said to him.
He doesn’t understand what he means when he says he didn’t have a mother, he gets even more confused at the fact that he wants to blame MaMzobe, the sweetest, most kindest woman under the sun, for killing their brother, and that the alleged dead brother is alive. He won’t believe it until he sees it with his own eyes.


***Amile Gumede***

I can feel that the bed is empty, but I someone’s breath fanning my face. I’m too scared to open my eyes and meet the face that is staring at me. I can’t even pick up the scent, but I know it’s a man because it’s a heavy presence towering over me. I don’t even remember which side I’m facing.
If it’s Bayede then why isn’t he inside the bed, holding me, comforting me? He went through a lot today, and it was supposed to be his day, a day where he was doing good for people from the bottom of his heart, where he was supposed to be happy. He doesn’t deserve everything that is going on, everything that is happening to him. He’s a good man and all he does is put other people first, I just wish I could take the time to put him first, just once. That’s if he would let me put him first. He makes it hard for me not to love him.
I couldn’t keep my eyes closed for a second longer so I opened them only to meet with the dark brown eyes boring into my skin. I get such a fright that I move back and cover myself with the duvet completely. Didn’t he say he was leaving?
“I asked you who you are?” I don’t know what creeps me out more, that this man is supposedly dead, or that I’m not just seeing him in my dreams but here, in real life. And how long has he been staring at me?
Maybe I’m still asleep and I’m dreaming. This is all a dream that is why we are conversing as normal, we always converse like this in the dreams.
“Why are you here? How did you get here?” I don’t know if he’s blind or what. Can’t he see my facial expression?
“I’m married to Bayede.” He stood up, held his head in frustration before he heaved a sigh.
He seems like a person with anger issues. He sat back down and he looked at me.
“Don’t call him that, call him by his name.” I respect him way too much to call him by name.
But this one’s face is intimidating. He’s worse than Bayede, and I thought he was scary.
“I’m sorry, I can’t do that.” I said with a trembling voice.
“Zwelibanzi took another wife?” that sounded like a question to himself so I kept quiet.
“How old are you?” he raised his eyebrow at me.
I’m not really intrigued by the bushy black hair on his head and that beard with white hairs peaking out.
“Seventeen.” He couldn’t disguise the shock on his face.
“Did you finish school?” I cleared my throat.
I’m uncomfortable and I don’t think he can see that.
“I did, I wrote my matric at the end of November.”
“So you are waiting for your results?” I kept quiet.
He stood up and stared at me for a long time. I shifted uncomfortably on the spot.
“I’m sorry for bombarding you, I just can’t believe I’m actually seeing you.” I could tell from the way he was hesitating that he had more to say, but he held back.
He slammed his fists against his thighs as he turned his back and walked out the room.
Langalethu kaMhlabawesizwe Zulu is his name. the man of my dreams is standing right in front of me.