A Mother's Pride

Chapter 48

Lesedi's POV

Apparently I have to be here today. Aunt Mavis did not tell me the real reason why. We have been waiting in the waiting room for what seemed like twenty minutes. The service here is really bad for a private hospital. Aunt Mavis has not said anything to me since we got here, the last chat we had was in the taxi when we were talking about school and she asked me if I have a girlfriend, I said no but she did not believe me. Even though I was being completely honest with her.

"Lesedi Mokwena." The petite woman calls on me and Mavis tells me to stand up and go to her.

"Aren't you coming?" I ask her.

"No, I brought you here. You will find me right here when they are done with you." She says and she gives me my clinic card from when I was a baby and tells me to give it to the petite woman.

"Hi, I'm Lesedi." I tell the nurse as I give her the card.

"I'm Sophie and I need to ask you something really important, but we cannot speak here so please follow me." She says and I nod.

I follow her and we get to what seems like an office. She tells me that the doctor sitting down wants to talk to me. The lady looks like she is in her forties, and her blonde hair is curled. She has pink lipstick on her small lips.

"I have to go, this is Lesedi ma'am." Sophie tells the doctor and places the card on her desk.

"Hi Lesedi. I'm Doctor Williams and you may take a sit." I do as she tells me. I hope she is going to answer the question I have, which is why I got called here in the first place.

"So, we did some few tests on your father and turns out he lost a lot of blood in result to the accident. So his blood type is very rare and in the whole family, you are the only match. So we need you to be his donor." I froze. My eyes are wide open and I cannot get myself to move. The lump in my throat is hard to swallow, my throat feels like it has been closed up. It's getting hard to breath every second I inhale.

"Lesedi." She calls.

"Uh...wh, what happens if I don't do it?"

"We are not pressuring you or anything but, if you don't donate the blood, he could die." So Thabo's life is in my hands? Everybody will blame me if he dies, especially my little sister.

"Hell no, I don't want to do it, I'm sure you guys can make up another plan."

"I'm afraid it's getting late."

"Well, I don't care. I have to leave." I stand up and rush to where Mavis is sitting. She follows me outside.

"I should have known. Can you believe my mom, she expects me to donate blood for that sorry excuse of a father. After all he did to her, to us, she wants me to save his life. That's why she made me come here." I shout when we get outside.

"Well..."

"Wait Aunt Mavis, you are in on this? You knew? Wow. I expected better from you."

"But Lesedi," she attempts to speak but I do not let her.

"Do you even know what we had to go through because of that guy? When he threw me out of his house, he didn't think he would need me to save him someday, now did he? Tables have turned now."

"So you are just going to let him die?"

"He was dead to me the moment he said that he wants nothing to do with me. That's when my father died."

"Lesedi, can you at least think about it? I don't think you would be able to live with yourself and the guilt after he dies."

"But I don't care about him and mom shouldn't too but no, forgiveness helps you than it helps the other person," I mimic my mom's voice.

My mom and Naledi walk in at that moment. And I think Mavis gestured something to them because Naledi starts telling me the crap that she always tells me.

"Seriously Lesedi? Even your conscience isn't telling you to save your father instead of keeping your stupid grudge?"

"Naledi just leave me alone, would you? And for the hundredth time, I do not have a father." I say.

"You are so selfish Lesedi. I can't believe you right now. I cannot believe that you would rather let dad die because you are trying to punish him for his mistakes. Mind you, mistakes he did more than ten years ago."

"Do you know what a mistake is? Something that was not deliberate. Something that happened by accident and was not planned. What dad did? He knew what he was doing. He knew that he was choosing another woman over his children. He liked beating mom up. He knew that mom did not have a job, and that she would end up on the streets that night. He knew that we had nowhere else to go but that did not change his mind now did it? And right now, I know he's going to die but why should I let that change my mind? Because you want him to live? You know, we could have died on the streets too, we just got lucky. But your father did not care about that now did he? Why should you care about him? I mean, for me, he was not a part of my life for the past few months anyway, I still hated him and I still did not want anything to do with him. We did not talk, and I preferred not seeing his stupid, ugly face so it would not make much of a difference if he died." My sister had tears all over her face, and she was hyperventilating as she was listening to the words that I said unapologetically.

"You are selfish and do not care about anybody but yourself. You will regret this Lesedi." She says through her sobs.

"You are just scared that if your precious father dies, you won't be rich anymore and you will have to let go of the life of luxury and come back to the poor side like us. Guess that makes you selfish too huh?"

"Enough!" My mother interrupted.

"I hope you are not about to attack me too because it's not going to work. I am not doing it." I say and leave them there. I am going to catch a taxi home.

Does this make me selfish? Thabo was the selfish one.

Nobody understands this. Thabo was not there when I needed him but I should be there for him when he needs me? Why? Because it's best for everyone? That's so unfair. What about how I feel? I don't want that guy in my life, I'm not even going to save his life. He does not deserve it. In fact, this is his karma.

He wouldn't have thought that one day, his life would be in the hands of the same son that he abandoned for his girlfriend. I repeat, for his girlfriend.

A taxi comes and I get in. When I get home, I am going to buy myself some weed and smoke until I forget my name.

The pressure is all on me now. Everybody now sees me as the bad guy because of a choice I made. Don't we have freedom of choice? Then why is it that when you don't do what people expect of you, you are suddenly the enemy, and they all get mad. That's twisted.

They must find another donor for Thabo because I am not doing it.