Zanokuhle

Chapter 14

ZANOKUHLE
Chapter 14

I look at myself through the mirror and I don’t know how I look, I am not sure how I am looking but what I know is that I had a bit of instructions on what I should do with my hair and that is not covering it and no pigtails. I haven’t done it and I don’t know what to do than to just comb it and ket it be. This summer dress looks good and I like how it looks so bright too, a bright green that just makes me look different. That is why I am not really sure with how I am viewing myself right now.
I take my hairdryer and hair dry my hair after applying some products and then I sit on the bed and plug the straight iron and I look at myself. I want my hair to be really flat even if it is this big but I still want it to be really flat. I sigh, I don’t know how to do it so I get off the bed and unplug this flat iron and I go and find the driver. I get inside the elevator and go a floor below me and it pings when it gets there. I go to his room and I knock on the door and he opens and stands there looking at me.
“I need to call Bhungane”, I say and he looks at me.
“I don’t have muffins right now, I will give them to you when I have baked them”, he nods his head and he takes out his phone and calls him.
I wait for him to explain that I am the one who wants to talk to him and he then hands over the phone and I take it then move away from him. I don’t want him to hear me talking to someone over the phone. It would be very weird.
“Hey, are you okay?”, he asks.
“I want to do my hair but I cant do what I want to do with my hair”, I tell him.
“I will get someone to come and help you okay?”, he mentions.
“Oh, okay”
“Okay, I cannot wait to see you”, I smile.
“Me too, bye”
I hang up after that and then I go back to give the driver his phone as he is waiting by the door for me. I thank him and then I turn and walk away from him. I go back to my room. I hope that whomever who will come and help me with my  hair will not talk too much.
It is the day that Bhungane and I are going on about our activity and I want to look different today. We have been putting the activities on hold for 3 days now because of his work and I didn’t mind at all. I was just happy to be in Nomvelo’s presence. I felt like me and her are the same and I just…don’t know how to put it in words but I feel like she somewhat understands me in a way since she also has struggled in school before though she seems to have had it better than I did because her parents are there and they love her. I had to be with my aunt. I am grateful that she never deserted me though, my aunt that is. Even though I was not her child but she didn’t stop being like a mother to me in my life.

Here I am now in the penthouse, I am just standing by the glass wall and looking outside of here at the view. The people moving from a distance and the cars that are moving here and there too. The tall buildings build a scenario that my aunt has never painted in my mind about this city but the one she has ever painted keeps on visiting here and there and would leave every once in a while but would come back. I don’t want to be here for long though until I have to sell my body and then I di and my aunt doesn’t bury me or have a funeral for me and I know what she said before, she meant it.
I stay there for atleast 30 minutes just distracted by the view until I hear a ping and I turn around. The driver walks in followed by someone behind him carrying a bag.
“Miss Ngubo, the hair dresser is here for you”, she is going to do my hair?
I nod my head and the driver walks off and I look at the lady in front of me.
“We can get right onto what you would like to do with your hair”, she says and I like the sound of that.
“I want my hair to be straight”, I say and walk away from the glass wall and then she pulls the high chair and asks me to sit on it. I let her know that she should help me on and she doesn’t mind helping me get on there. She takes out her things and her extensions too and she plugs her things. She covers my shoulders and my dress before she looks at my hair.
“How long have you been natural?”, she asks.
I don’t want questions but I don’t know how to answer her.
“Since I was born”, I say and she nods her head.
“You have really long beautiful hair”
“Thank you”, I keep it at that.
She sprays some of her things on my hair and I sit there waiting for her to get my hair straight as I want it. I just want it straight but I don’t want the relaxer. I saw how Nomfundo would cry at how it burns her and I always cried and told my grandmother I don’t want the relaxer and my aunt insisted I never take it because my hair is not that difficult to manage and also the fact that she didn’t want to take me to the salon too like she would take Nomfundo.
She blow dry’s my hair as it gets longer and longer. I can just feel it with how my head feels a bit  hot. She takes the flat iron and uses it after blow drying my hair and I can feel it being hot but it was not burning my hair. She would use a hot comb to straighten the front of my hair until she was done and she took a mirror and gave it to me.
“What do you think?”
“There is a bigger mirror in the bedroom”, I give her the mirror and get off the chair. She removes her cover from me and then she lets me walk away to the bedroom. I get in there and my hair is very long. I didn’t think that it would be this long. I always thought that it reached just below my armpits and not on my bums. I think I will sit on it by accident wherever I am going.
I go back to where this lady is and she smiles looking at me.
“You like it?”
“It is too long. I will sit on it by mistake”, she giggles.
“You will not, how about we curl it then?”
“You can do that”, I say and I ask her to help me on the chair and she does.
She puts her cover on me and then she goes to her bag and grabs the curler and I sit there. I hope that it works better.
She curls my hair, I am feeling hot as I am seated on this chair but I hope that very soon this will be over. I don’t want to be here anymore but my aunt would tell me that beauty is pain so I need to go through pain to look beautiful. That would come with me crying everytime my grandmother used to do benny and betty on my hair and my aunt did it better and gentler.
“Done”
This lady says and I remove her cover from me and jump off the chair and go to the bedroom and I look at myself.
I like it, it is not as long as it looked when it was straight and I could sit down too and not sit  on my hair. I walk out of the room and I look at her as she waits for me.
“I love it”, I give her a smile and walk off to the kitchen and get some juice for her and come back as she is packing her things.
“Here, thank you. I don’t work so this is what I have”, I say with a smile and she giggles.
“Don’t worry about it, its paid for already but thank you”, she takes the juice and has it.
She finishes it and then she says her goodbyes and I watch her as she leaves. Now I am just going to wait for Bhungane to come and then we will go for our activity. I wonder what it is and this dress looks a bit good for the park so I wonder what we will be doing.
The elevator pings while I am still left in thoughts and he comes in. I go towards him and he has a smile on his face, that abnormal dimple appears on his dark face.
“Wow”, he says as he comes to stand in front of me.
“You look beautiful Zano, you have really long hair.”,he says.
“Thank you, do you want to touch it?”
“I don’t want to ruin your beautiful hair style but I can take a kiss on the cheek”, he says and I blush.
I am blushing and I touch my cheeks. This feels unusual but nice.
“Can I?”, he mentions and I nod my head.
He leans in and kisses my cheek and I look away from him as my cheeks get heated.
“We can go now”, I nod my head and he reaches out his hand and I take it before we get inside the elevator together. It closes and goes down. I feel beautiful right now and I like that feeling. He keeps on looking at me and I cannot even keep the eye contact that long. Something is wrong with me? Why am I smiling for nothing with him just looking at me?
We get out of the elevator as it opens and we walk out of this place going to the parking lot.
.
“You are turning red Zano”, he says as he smiles while sitting across me.
I touch my face and cover it and he reaches out his hand over the table.
“People are looking”, I say as he removes my hands over my face.
“I want to look at you”, we are in a restaurant and he said we are here to have lunch together.
This is beautiful and I feel  happy. I always wished to have my own restaurant one day when I was young but right now just staying here for long just feels good and it looks fancy too.
“This place is beautiful.”
“Ngicela ungibuke Zano(Please look at me Zano)”, I look at him as he looks at me too. I am able to maintain eye contact this moment.
“I want to try things with you and go at your pace and how you feel”, he says.
“Meaning?”
“I want us to be boyfriend and girlfriend. Only if that is okay with you”, he says and I smile.
Excitement rests in me and I cant help but smile.
“Are you serious?”, I say.
“Yes”, he says with a smile as he looks at me.
“If I say yes then that will mean you are my first boyfriend”, I say and he chuckles.
“I guess so”
“Yes. I want you to be my boy friend.”, I gasp and cover my mouth.
“That means you are not my friend who is a boy anymore but my boyfriend that I can kiss and can kiss me too”, I say and he chuckles amused by me.
“Yes Zano”, I nod my head.
“Yes, you can be my boyfriend Nkosana”, he smiles and reaches out on the table and I put my hand on his palm.
“Thank you for making me your boyfriend Zano”
“Thank you for liking me”
“I love you”, I smile and my cheeks are heating up again.
“I can say I love you right?”, I ask and he nods.
“If that is how you feel about me”
“I love you too”, I say and get off the chair and I go to him and I kiss his cheek and he stands up and gives me a hug.
“I wont hurt you Zano”
“I trust you”, I trust him.
A waiter disturbs us and we break the hug and he has a big bunch of flowers.
“This is for the lady here”, he says.
“For me?”,he nods his head and  Bhungane looks a bit confused but these flowers are big and beautiful.
“Who are they from?”
“The man who delivered them said they are from Mr Mthimkhulu”,I look at Bhungane.
“That is you”, I say and he nods his head.
“Yes, they look beautiful like you”, oh he is so sweet.
“That is very sweet of you boyfriend”, he chuckles.
We sit down again before we get to order. He asks to be excused a bit to take a call and tells me to get anything I want and I will. I have a boyfriend! Yay!