The Other Brother

The drive was silent, just my sister playing soft music DVSN – Hallucinations. I find myself smiling. This song reminds me of when I started dating Skhosane. He would play this song on repeat until I would get bored to the core and upset. At first, I did not understand the concept of it until I actually got to download it and listen to it every morning. The lyrics speak. I swear this guy took time in writing his affection for his woman. ‘Tryna rewind 'til we're back where we started’ is the line Skhosane always sings with soft kisses following being planted on my face. I believe it's his favorite line. From my understanding even if we go our separate ways – it will be hard for him to fully move one. I will always be in his mind and heart. 
“Do you also love this song?” I ask my sister. 
“One of my best.” 
“You’ve got taste.” I tell her. Her smile is not the best. 

As promised, she passed by the Bakery to buy me the scones that she loves the most. We are slowly warming up to each other and I love it. She parks the car outside the gate. She steps out first, tells me to stay in the car.  She comes on to my side. She opens the door and helps me out. 
“I am not crippled you know that, right?” I ask her. 
“Just shut up.” She smiles. She puts her arm around my waist and helps me to the house. We find our parents seated in the dining room area with three men I don’t recognize. They look deep in conversation. 
“Sanibona.” I greet. Thabi has suddenly become annoyed. 
“Yebo. I must admit. Our daughter-in-law is beautiful.” One of the old men say. I look at Thabi who was looking onto the side. I clear my throat and limp past them.  I can sense the tension when I am not needed. 
“The youngest one is Khanyisile.” My father proudly says. No response comes from these men. I don’t care. I am always used to this response and reaction whenever I am being introduced. As much as it hurts - I cannot change the way my eyes look. I should woman up and be a big girl. 
“Come let's go.” Thabi pulls me by my hand, gently. I follow the lead.  The minute we enter my bedroom she closes the door and begins to swim in tears. 
“Thabi.” 
“I just want to sleep.” She throws herself on my bed and curls herself into a ball and continues to cry. I don’t know how to comfort her at this moment. Do I just stand there and watch her? Or do I call our mother? I stans beside the bed like a statue. Listening to her tint sobs hurt.
“I just to be alone.” She tells me. Okay I will let her be. But this is my room. Now I am being excused in my own bedroom. Sighs! I walk out making sure to close the door. I hope she heals and tells me how she truly feels. I am still astonished about our parents' decision. How can they be this sensitive and old-fashioned? I walked into Thabi’s room – closed the door and threw myself on the bed. I thought I had problems – what Thabi is facing is beyond what I go through. I feel my heart heavy on behalf of her.
I decided to call my only joy...
“Yea.” That’s so odd for him just to say over the phone call I made to him. 
“You good?” I ask.
“Yea.” Okay this is defiantly not my man. 
“Are you okay? You do not sound right.” A moment of silence from his end. 
“Look. I will call you later on. I am busy with something.” The line goes dead. Looks like people are having issues. Life crises if I could say. 
“Okay...” Maybe sleeping will do for me. I just feel like I'm in the middle of people who are fighting their demons. 

I didn’t notice that I slept for so long. I heard my father’s voice from afar. I believe I really needed that sleep. My body is still tired from the accident itself. The medication is slowly wearing off my system, that I can tell. The pains are shooting slowly. I wake up from the bed and stretch myself after regaining strength. My body parts hurt, especially my back. 
“Khanyisile!” That is my father shouting my name on top of his lungs. Looks like the voice is near. I search for my phone hoping to wake up to tons of missed calls from Skhosane – but nothing. Whatever he is going through I hope he opens up to me and talks to me about it. 
“Ngiyezaa.” I shout back. I slip my feet to my sleepers and drag myself out of Thabi’s room. Looks like there is a family meeting. I sit next to Thabi who looks very uncomfortable. 
“Now that everyone is here. I would like to address something. Mntanami...” My dad looks at Thabi who was looking at the blank tv screen. “There is a letter from the Gumede homestead requesting for your hand in marriage. The date has been set and the negotiations will take place this upcoming weekend.” So, his word is final. I feel my heart skip a beat on behalf of my sister. I clear my throat. 
“Is it a must that she gets to marry a man she doesn’t even know and love?” I ask. 
“You are too young to understand. One day you would take these kinds of decisions for your kids.” 
“I would never sell my daughter away or even let alone hand them off to a stranger.” 
“Khanyisile!” MaNgcobo reprimands me. 
“No Mah, you guys are wrong. You are completely wrong. Wena Mah, would you agree if your parents sold you off?” I direct the question to my mother.  Instead of answering - the woman decides to keep quiet. I chuck in disbelief. 
“So, it's okay for your kids to suffer for your own selfish reasons? Wow.” I am done with them. It’s so obvious that they will sell me off at some point. 
“Khanyisile sit down! I am not done talking!” My father roars. I swear I felt the room shake. I will not sit down and listen to this nonsense. I will tell my sister to run away as far as her legs can take her. I’d rather sit by the pool and think about the bullying I face because of one particular teacher. Thinking of her just makes my skin crawl. I am in this position because of her. She made me throw myself in front of the car unintentionally. I have a cast wrapped around my arm because of her! Miss Nkambule is my worst nightmare I swear. 

“Thank you for standing up for me. That truly means a lot.” Thabi. She decided to follow me. This is where I sit if I decide to unwind my mind. If I want to forget about something. 
“What will happen if you decide to run away?”
She chucks. “I will be cut off from the family and be left with nothing.” I gasp in shock. I clearly, I don’t know our parents the way I thought I did. 
“Is this some kind of witchcraft?” I ask She smiles weakly. I hate how she has given up so easily without a fight. 
“Let's just drop this it depresses me a lot.”  She is right. She really looks warn out. I take a deep breath. I feel like dipping my feet into the water. 
“Let's put our feet to the water.” I say. 
“So late. It’s cold. “ She needs this more than me. 
“Trust me you will feel better after this.” I tell her. She looks skeptical but eventually follows me. 
“This improves your blood flow, reduces inflammation, and lowers pressure in the …"
“Girl, I did not come here for Life Science lessons.” She laughs. At least I am making her laugh a bit. She turns to face me and smiles. “I miss this. Us, spending time together. Having fun and stirring trouble.” She tells me. Ow how much I miss those days. 
“I remember how I used to make you sneak at night. Remember when you made me put pillows in your bed?” She looks at me and howls in laughter. I swear the whole neighborhood heard that. 
“Did you really have to take me there?” 
“It’s the trouble you made me go through. You made me lie straight to my mother's face.” I say. 
“Do you blame me though. I was drunk in love.” She chucks. 
“Drunk in love you say huh? Thatha Beyonce.” Honestly, I don’t remember the last time I ever laughed this badly with my sister. It feels refreshing and I so badly want these moments between us. “Can we please keep it like this. I miss you.” I blurt out.
“I’d love to and intend to. Come on let's go back in. I’m feeling cold.” She says. No thank you Khanyisile for making me feel better. So much if being a big sister. 

MKHULEKO

I look at my arm and I feel triumphant. This is exactly what I ordered. The lion.
“Why go for a tattoo lion?” One of my cell mates asks. 
“The lion represents strength, courage, fearlessness, and wisdom.” I respond. The whole left arm is drawn.
“I see.” He looks at me more like he is reading me. “So, tell me is the deal still on?”  
“What deal?” I ask. 
“Come on. I know you guys poach rhino horns and go sell them for a higher price.” 
“Where did you get that information from?” I ask. I don’t remember telling him my details. Infact no one knows this side hustle of mines. 
“You were talking over the phone some days back and I somehow overheard.” 
“Sqeda, I don’t recall talking about any rhino horns. Where did get that information from?” 
“I... You...” He stutters. Now he is failing to maintain eyes contact with me. I stand up and stand inches away from him.
“Repeat what you’ve just asked me.” I say. He keeps quiet and looks at me without saying a word. A scraping sound of the gate, and suddenly, the padlock clicked open. 
“You have a visitor.” says the warden. I stepped back from Sqeda. The fear in him. “Follow me I don’t have all day.” He tells me. I will deal with Sqeda when I come back. I want to know where he got the data from. I take a deep breath and follow the warden...
“Impiyakhe. What are you doing here?”
“We have a problem.” He tells me. I look around just to make sure that we don’t have ear lurking around. Even the walls have ears.
“And that is?” I furrow my eyebrows anxiously. He starts by popping his knuckles. I know when he is nervous, especially when it comes to me. I let him sweat all he wants. I have all the time in the world. I held my arms against my chest and waited...
Finally, he finds courage. “We believe we have a pimp on the circle.”   
Now this needs my full attention. “How so?” 
“The horns are missing.” I feel my body itch in every corner. This can’t be happening. All my sweat has been swept out just like that!
“Who is it?” I ask. 
“We don’t have the source of yet.”
“Work on it. I don’t pay you to tell me that the job went wrong.” I spit and roughly push the chair backwards. I can't lose those thousand. Whoever did this surely know the worth of those horns. I feel my chest burning to its utmost. People are now doing as they please because I'm all locked up in here. But first I want to deal with Sqeda...