Short Stories

The Tiger

Rehani put her hand gently upon her son’s forehead, moving away only when she heard her husband come through the front door, his footsteps faintly moving towards the shower. She breathed in gently and hesitantly, tensed on the edge of the bed, her big brown empty eyes gazing at the dust-ridden floor.

Do I have the strength to do this?

Knowing that it’ll tear this family apart?

At least... what’s left of it?

Rehani intertwined her fingers within one another, grasping tightly, a wave of bitterness and determination suddenly rushing over her.

No!

I won’t have been the one to tear this family apart!

It’s him that will have done so!

That has done so!

Right from the very moment he took his filthy hands and-

She jumped up slightly, the fabric of her dress rippling from thoughts being cut off as she heard the bedroom door slam shut. Rehani took another breath, this time filled with no hesitation whatsoever, and looked toward her son, Nzuzi, brushing her lips against his hand. She made her way out of the room, quietly locking the rusty door behind her. Checking. Locked. Double checking. Still Locked. Good. Rehani didn’t want a repeat of last time.

She made her way to the kitchen, putting a pot of water on the stove to boil, with flashes of lightning peering into the window and illuminating the begrimed counters. Rehani stared them for a moment. How many hours had she slaved away, trying to scrub those counters clean? How many times had she come back to them only to find them sullied and covered in soot once again? How many times had she been stuck in the unsurmisable mountains of dirt? Not just on the counters, but on the paint-flaked walls, on the worn furniture, on her children, her husband, herself? Rehani lifted her hands towards her face, feeling the familiar rough calluses on them grazing upon her cheeks. Then she felt herself begin to smile. If tonight went the way she had planned, as she hoped it would, these walls would transform from the prison she knew them as, to her savior.

Rehani hummed along happily to that thought, the tune of “Larger than Life” by the notable Pepe Kalle buzzing through her lips as she grabbed the basket of greens and threw them into the pot. She twisted and turned with a hop and a skip, sprinkling spices, pouring oils, and dropping cut onions into the mix. A few minutes later, with the greens wilted and bunched, she began to dish out the Saka-madesu into a slightly cracked bowl wobbling on a rusted TV tray. Rehani grabbed a frosted beer, and cracking it open, placed it next to the food. One deep breath. Two deep breaths. And another. Rehani was ready.

With the tray wobbling precariously in her hands, she floated through the rooms, stopping only outside the doorway of where the tiger sat. Tshibola, her husband, the man of whom all her hatred bloomed to. Oh, how happy she was to see him still awake.

“Here’s your food, love!” She purred, setting the tray on the table next to the couch from where he lurked, his ashen eyes curiously studying her. Why wouldn’t they, with this being the first term of endearment shared between them for years?

Tshibola’s crackly voice boomed softly, “Thank you... dear.” The word sounded foreign on his tongue, as if he were a mere child speaking it for the first time. Rehani smiled gently at him, and placed herself next to him, adjusting the collar of her dress, before looking at him imploringly, “Well, drink up! It won’t stay cold all night.” He looked at him before slowly taking a sip, his gaze never wavering from hers once. Any other night, she would’ve felt sweat beads trickling down the nape of her neck from those jet-black chilling eyes. Not tonight though.

He tilted his neck back, downing the last of his beer, his adam’s apple bobbing up and down as he did so. Then Rehani watched him throw it against the wall, the glass splinters flying through the air, clattering harmoniously on the floor. Tshibola licked a drop off his lips savagely, “Another.” She just smiled, obeying his wish. This continued on for a little bit, until he was properly drunk, swaying and muttering angrily as he paced the room.

He caught Rehani’s arm when she entered the room again, her slender fingers still holding what was his seventh beer that night. Tshibola brought her close to him, his drunk breath lapping at her nose, “You we- you were the worst decision of m- my life.”, He stumbled over his words, his eyes twitching as they bore into her. Rehani stroked his face, “I know.”, she said. He stared at her for a moment, this isn’t what he wanted. He brought his gargantuan hand and brought it down upon her cheek. The full force of it put her on the floor, caressing her cheek. Tshibola spat at her, “If there’s one goddamn thing I’ve e- ever done right, it was putting my hands around our little girl, watching the life bleed out her eyes, watching her str-struggle for breath, knowing that obnoxious tiny voice of hers wouldn’t scream ever again.” He watched her, waiting for her to get up, to shout at him, for angry tears to roll down her face, for her puny hands to bash to no avail against his broad chest. That’s all he was looking for after all, an outlet he could thrust his violent self onto. Rehani looked back up at him, her brown cheek blooming scarlet, and then threw her head back, laughter bubbling out of her. She stood up slowly, hysterical tears streaked down her face, bits of glasses stuck in her hand, and it was then, for the first time in her life, that she ever saw her husband take a step back, his brows furrowed.

That only threw her into an even worse fit of laughter. Her whole body shook as Tshibola tried to regain the upper hand again, “After I finally choked the life o-out of Adama, I cut our girl into so many different pieces in so, so, so many different ways. Some I tossed on the farmland, ha! Better than the fertilizer we use! An-and some I threw out the window as I driving, and some...”, he prowled towards her, regaining the step forward again, “some, when you weren’t looking, I sprinkled into the food.” He chuckled wryly. “And you! You never- you never even noticed, as you ate the one thing you so grieved o-over.”

Rehani met his eyes at that, Tshibola’s chuckling ceased when he saw the grin still plastered on her face.

She said, “Thank you.”

Rehani walked in a joyful daze back to her bed, taking out the recorder hidden in the folds of her dress. She looked at it for moment, caressing it in the palm of her hands before placing it into her already packed bags, hidden in the large gaping hole in the wall behind her headboard. As soon as she showed that to the police tomorrow, there was no way that disgusting man would ever come within a mile of her or her son ever again. Her grin grew even wider.

She was finally free from the tiger.