MATHONGA

Chapter 31

NDLELENI-

Ntabezikude is not home, he wouldn’t say where he was when he called him. Work is keeping him busy, the last thing he wants is to babysit two grown people who mean nothing to him.
He would care for them if family was not his brothers. In his eyes, Nandi is his mother’s second best and the teenage girl is another unfortunate child who happened to be fathered by Vumile Khanyile.
How that man keeps shooting his sperms without missing baffles him, it should be prohibited for men like him to father children. The old hag thinks he’s the king of the world, doing things as he pleases when he’s just a chief of a village.
It’s funny as fuck. 
He has decided to work from home, since he can’t leave them alone like Ntabezikude had commanded. If he didn’t love his brother to death like he does, he wouldn’t have gone to the house his father built for his mistress and daughter to fetch them.
“They are innocent in all of this, your anger is directed to the wrong people.” This is what Ntaba told him when he had asked that he goes back to KwaZulu-Natal and book them into a hotel, to keep Vumile from getting to them.
“They are nothing to me, I owe them nothing, ndoda. Why must we burden ourselves with those people?” Ndlela had asked him, his annoyance unclothed and gaudy.
That only upset Ntaba, something he rarely witnessed. With his brows furrows and eyes piercing Ndlela’s big head, Ntaba slammed a palm on his brother’s chest. It wasn’t meant to inflict any pain on him, but more like a big brother putting his young brother in his place.

“I am not going to ask you again, Ndlela. Say if you don’t want and I will do it myself.” Ntaba’s words got to him.
He would do anything for his brothers. Even if he asked him to kill, Ndlela would do it. It’s not like he’s never done it before, it’s not like he’s never killed for his loved ones.

He’s on a Zoom meeting with one of the Khanyile Holdings shareholders when Zamangwane walks into the lounge, he shoots a dead look at her and pulls his focus back to the laptop.
“My assistant will email you the details first thing in the morning.” He’s unaware how his teeth are grinding together as if he’s caught a big bone between them, there’s a mosquito in the middle of the room and it’s annoying him.
He wraps up the meeting and bids the shareholder farewell, his attention is not given to the young girl staring at him. He is greedy with it.
A frown leisurely grows on his features when he scratches the left side of his neck. The itch seems to move to the other side, he scratches it as well.
His whole body starts itching, he puts the laptop on the couch and stands to his feet to unbutton the white button-up shirt hugging his body.

Another throat clearance from the unwanted guest catches his full attention. She’s carrying a small cage, and it hits him. This one brought rats into his car, his whole body itched the entire ride home from Port Edward. It was fifty seven minutes of agony.
“Didn’t I tell you to throw those rats away?” He snaps, but she doesn’t look affected.
“They are not rats, bhuti, but hamsters.” 2000s think they know it all, walking around looking like Oxford English dictionaries and Google wrapped in one. “The brown one’s name is Zoro, he’s very smart and I named the white one Zaza after myself. She’s my favourite.”
Gosh, they better be siblings.
He’s shaking his head at how ridiculous she sounds, black people don’t keep hamsters.
“It’s rats and I don’t want them here.” He’s allergic to “rats”, and despises them. If a tiny thing can subject him to agony, it shouldn’t exist. What the fuck?
“I’m sorry bhuti, I’ll put them away.” That bhuti word again, Ndleleni doesn’t know this child, yet she is juggling the word around like it’s no big deal.
“Don’t call me that,” he keeps his voice low. Angry eyes pinned on her, his brows furrow when she covers her mouth and giggles resound.
This sound; he has heard it before, in his dreams where he’d find Vimbela playing with Sakhile. His eyes are abruptly red, a dam threatening to erupt behind them.
His puckered brow grows while staring down at the teenage girl in black giggling. Ndlela swiftly turns away from her, unable to keep his eyes on her. They remind him of a painful past. A place he doesn’t want to go back to.
“Are you okay bhuti?” It’s Zamangwane, her voice sounds warm and sweet to his ears, resembling a child’s vocal sound.
He wants to be alone, but he doesn’t tell her. The tears in his eyes are going to embarrass him, he wipes them away and uses this chance to scratch his itching body.
The damn rats, he’ll have to “accidently” step on them when she’s not looking.
 
“I’m fine,” he lies. Pain is shooting down the deepest parts of his core. He needs a drink, anything to make him forget. There’s a table just next to the sliding door that leads to the garden, he pours himself a glass of whiskey and downs the liquor like it’s a shot.
The entirety of his face crumbles at the strong taste, he recovers just as he pours another one. He’s brave enough to look at his half-sister now, she is a Khanyile to the bone.
He would’ve questioned her features had he met her as a stranger in a random place, that bastard Vumile’s genes are strong. 
“Where is your mother? Didn’t Khethiwe tell you that I’m working? You’re not supposed to be…”
“I’m bored,” she interjects with an irresolute smile on her face. The cage with “rats” has been placed on the coffee table. He will never eat anything from that table again.
“So?” It’s obvious he’s not interested in entertaining her.
“Can we do something fun?” She frisks to him with a childlike smile dancing on her face, Ndlela’s scary frown doesn’t stop her excitement. Didn’t Ntaba say this child is seventeen, not five?
“I told you I’m busy.” Ndlela steps back, she’s the rat-carrier. His skin is burning thanks to her Sir Zoro and lady Zaza. “And you don’t know me, go play with your mother.”
“Of course I know you, you are bhut’ Ndleleni, my brother. Bhut’ Ntaba told me everything about you and Bhuti Hlabela, bhuti Mathonga and bhuti’ Zakhe. He’s always talking about you, I have pictures of all of you on my phone. Do you want to see?”
She talks too much, he’s not interested. If she wants a place in his life, then tough luck, there’s a ‘closed’ sign.