…
[MABONTLE]
We’ve arrived at Mary Ann’s Girls High. I am not in the mood to face that child but Fikani insisted that she needed some talking to. We’ve already went through the gate and submitted our ID documents. Now we’re at her dormitory, signing in as well. I’m waiting for Fikani to finish filling in these names and time blocks while looking around. I don’t get the purpose of this because they’ve already checked if we’re her registered guardians on their system but oh well. It is still in the same great condition I left it in when I came here to review it before having her enrolled. He is done. We use the stairs and when I get to the third floor, I am already fighting for my life. Fikani keeps laughing at me. I need to work out because this chest? No.
We get to her room and knock. Some girl with Bantu knots opens the door.
‘Hello. Are you here for Masedi?’ she asks. She looks and sounds sweet. I wonder what they were fighting about but I am certain that it’s that one of my mother that started it.
‘Yes where is she? Can we come in?’ Fikani asks. The girl opens the door wide and we find my little sis sleeping on her stomach on her side of the room. There’s no partition here. It’s just one big room with two beds and, tables and wardrobes on opposite ends. And one fridge.
‘I’m Bontle and this is my husband, Fikani. You are?’
‘Oh my name is Amthandile Mthembu’ she politely introduces herself while snacking on a Magnum.
‘Nice to meet you Amtha’ Fikani shakes her hand.
‘Why were you two fighting?’ I ask. She starts looking apprehensive. I feel like I need to hear her side of the story first.
‘Don’t worry. We’re not here to gang up on you’ Fikani assures.
‘Masedi likes leaving her stuff on the floor. I’m talking school uniform, books, and everything else. On that day, my parents told me they were on the way and I asked her to tidy up because…’
We wait for her to finish talking.
‘Because if they came here and found the room a mess, they were going to make res management swap us for different roommates’
I smile. She sounds like she likes her.
‘And you don’t wanna swap?’
‘No, not really. It’s not like we don’t get along. We do when she’s not being moody. She’s cool’
This makes me happy. Masedi is not good at making friends. I am so glad there’s at least one person who’s not willing to give up on her.
‘What are you doing here?’ I hear her ask. She’s awake.
‘That is no way to greet your elders’ Fikani calmly chides. Masedi drops her eyes and sulks. Amtha’s phone rings from her table, which has an open textbook and her stationery. She was studying and this one was sleeping. I am just glad there is no smell of drugs in here because she had started being a weed-head when I brought her here.
‘It’s my dad. Can I please take this?’
‘Sure you can’ I approve. She steps out of the room and Fikani grabs a chair to sit next to Masedi’s bed.
‘What did you hit that poor child?’
‘She was poking her small nose in my business’
‘The business of being untidy?’
I’m just standing here, against the wall – prepared to say absolutely nothing. I’ve tried everything with Masedi, including the belt.
‘But this is my part of the room. Why was it bothering her?’
‘Open the window. This side your speak of needs some air’ Fikani commands. Masedi gets up. What? I must be dreaming. Masedi takes orders from nobody. She sits back down after following his orders.
‘This is your second offense. One more and you’re out. Where are you going to go?’
She shrugs. Her eyes are still glued to her feet.
‘Well since you don’t know, I will tell you. You will come live with us and go to a public school. Is that what you want?’
She gasps. ‘You want to take me to the bundus?’
‘Exactly. That twang of yours will dissolve in that school. Carry on being a menace’
She folds her arms.
‘Before I came into her life, you only had Bontle left. She has tried in so many ways to make life comfortable for you but you show her each day how ungrateful you can get. Do you understand that this woman is as good as your mother now? I will raise no brat, do you hear me?’
She nods. I’ve never seen her so scared. He’s so firm and strict, it’s making me emotional seeing her like that.
‘From now on, your fees are going to be settled by me. Anything you need, the school will contact me directly. Even regarding your wrongdoings so please do not test me’
She nods again.
‘Do you need anything before we leave?’
‘No’ she meekly responds.
‘Are you sure?’
‘I lost my blazer at the mall’ she quickly confesses. I sigh.
‘Where do we buy it?’
‘There’s a store near the gate but it’s closed today.
‘How much do you need?’
‘It was R720 the last time I checked’
He stands up, takes out his wallet and hands her a couple of one hundred rand notes.
‘Send your sister the receipt no later than 5PM tomorrow. Are we clear? Hingetwi hi wena hina. You’re a child. A baby in fact and I expect you to carry yourself like one. ’
She nods with understanding. I am crying because I’ve just seen my mother’s little baby in those eyes. The one I used to laugh with before she sped off track. The other who used to call me Ausi Mabobo, all before adolescence engulfed her. She’s still in there. I wipe my tears and Fikani squeezes my upper arm and tells me I’ll find him outside, then steps out. I look at Masedi and she looks at me. I wave her goodbye and turn to walk out as well.
‘Bontle??’
I stop. She stands up and comes to me.
‘I’m sorry’ she says with wet eyes and trembling lips. I quickly bring her to my chest and comfort her. She breaks down even further. Oh mama’s baby bathong…
At this point we are both crying.
‘I’m really sorry for my behaviour. It will never happen again. It’s just that after mom died, you were always at work and I felt like you didn’t love me’
‘I do love you though’
‘I know’
I am making out pieces of her speech her voice keeps breaking. I understand. Masedi has never given herself the time to grieve for our mother. I don’t think she knew how to. This monster she carries was born after our stepdad completely disappeared as well. We eventually gather ourselves together and sit on her bed.
‘How have you been?’ I ask.
‘Grade 10 is hectic but I’ll be fine. How have you been? How’s work?’
‘I quit’
She frowns. ‘You’re a housewife now?’
‘Not necessarily. I am trying to pursue one dream of mine I had to give up’
‘What dream is that?’
‘Interior design. It’s more flexible’
‘But why quit medicine though?’
‘You have to understand that I could afford to do something that had low job prospects because of you and mom. I had a family to take care of’ I try to make her understand with a smile.
‘Did he force you to quit?’
‘Not really, but his culture did’
‘How?’
‘They believe a queen serves no one, so I can’t be running up and down in the hospital trying to get people to feel better’
She nods but I can see that she’s not convinced. We hug it out and I kiss her goodbye.
Fikani and I leave. My eyes are red and swollen from all the crying I’ve been doing. He’s hold my hand as he drives, brushing it with his thumb. We get to a Woolies because I’m craving their fried chicken strips. We’ll see what else we get for breakfast.
I remember that I need deodorant while we wait for the food and I leave him there to quickly get it. I can. I cannot decide which one to take between the gel and the solid one. I eventually decide on the gel and as I turn, I find Vincent standing in front of me. Crap. I thought I’d never see this man again, ever in my life.
‘Still gorgeous and fresh as ever’ he says. His grey hair has gotten worse. It’s even affecting the beard now.
‘Hi Vince’
‘How are you? Please tell me you have graduated and that my money did not go to waste?’
He’ll always remind me that he paid for the whole of my first year in varsity when I did not have funding. I owe him nothing. I paid him back with what he wanted at the time. I try walk away and he grabs me by the shoulders.
‘Where are you rushing to? We are still walking’
We both cannot afford to be seen with one another.
‘I’m here with my husband. Please let me go before he sees us’
‘You’re even married now? Ah, why am I not surprised? No man would fumble a gem like you’
‘You did’
‘You know what the situation was at the time. I couldn’t—’
I yank myself out of his hands when I see Fikani standing at the end of the aisle.
‘I need to go, Vince. Keep well’
I quickly walk towards him and he waits for me.
‘Did you get everything you need?’ he asks and I nod. I can’t read his face. He nods after me and takes the deodorant from my hands. He pays for everything and I follow him to the car. I don’t know what I would exchange to get to know what’s on his mind. We get in the car and he drives off. This isn’t driving. He is flying on this road. He keeps sniffing and rubbing the underside of his nose with his index finger.
‘Are you okay?’
‘I’m fine. My nose is just irritated’
I’m fiddling my fingers and I need to stop. I can’t tell him who Vincent is and what he was in my life. I cannot tell Fikani that I had a blesser at some point. How is he going to look at me? That chapter of my life was supposed to be closed for good. I steal glance and I find a taut muscle on his temple. Metro FM is still going off and I want to silence it but I don’t want to make him more incensed than he already is.
‘Baby?’ I softly call. He doesn’t respond. Instead he opens the sunroof and exhales dramatically. I am in deep ****.
CHAPTER 7
Start from the beginning
