I was outside with the uncles who were leaving. There was about 17 of them. Gosh! My mother was with me so I wasn't that nervous to be in their presence. The male gender still made me uncomfortable bethu. Even though these men were the king's uncles, I still felt wary and uncomfortable around them. I didn't know them. This was my first time meeting all of them. Our curious neighbors were out and about, if you can believe it. Some of them couldn't even contain their curiosity. They had pulled my mother aside. I'm sure they were asking her about the men and the cars and what was going on. "Haike. We're going to leave now Khazie my child." Said one of them. I still didn't know their names. I was still getting used to how big and tall they were. Most of them had gray hairs but they didn't even look that old. "Hopefully we'll see more of you before the wedding." Another said. I just nodded. "Can't believe that she's our tenth daughter in law. Ei we're old brother." Another one said hitting the shoulder of the one next to him. Did he just say that I was the tenth? My God!! How many children did they have kanti? Phofu why was I even asking that, they were 20 of them so of course they would have a lot of children. I bet their children were double their number. Imagine, there being 40 of them or even more. Yeesh! I was marrying into a very big family people and I was scared, I don't want to lie. But best believe I wasn't going to let my myself get bullied. I might appear weak because of what happened to me but I was far from being weak. "We're really old but that is life." He shrugged. "We'll see you Little Super. Let's go gents." I smiled and waved at them as they got into their cars. Little Super? I shook my head and waved my hand again as the cars hooted as they passed me. I left my mother outside as she was still taking with the neighbors and went inside to my bedroom and I dialed the king. He needed to explain himself. Why hadn't he warned me about his uncles. Tshi! He picked up after a few rings.
Kumkani: "My moon."
Me: "You have 20 uncles?!" I whisper yelled and he chuckled.
Kumkani: "Yes."
Me: "A warning would've been nice you know." I told him... "do you know how beside myself I was when I saw them?" He said nothing and just chuckled even more. This jerk! When I said he should laugh more I hadn't meant him laughing at my expense.
Me: "This is funny to you?"
Kumkani: "Yes."
Me: "Are they really all your uncles?"
Kumkani: "They're my Father's friends but they're all close like brothers so yes, you could say they're all my real uncles." Wow!
Me: "Your family is big." He said nothing... "they said I'm going to be their tenth daughter in law. That's just crazy King."
Kumkani: "That might be true."
Me: "What do you mean that might be true? Don't you know the wives of your cousins?"
Kumkani: "No, not really. I keep to myself beautiful so I'm not that close to them." He told me... "and also work keeps me busy so when I have time I only go to visit my parents."
Me: "Oh."
Kumkani: "Yeah."
Me: "Anyways, your uncles seem like good men." I said sitting down on the bed... "but they are crazy as hell." He said nothing but chuckled a little... "where are you? Are you at your place?" He hummed in response... "are you watching sports?"
Kumkani: "Yes."
Me: "Gosh you and your sports." He laughed... "when we're married we're going to fight a lot."
Kumkani: "Because of the TV?" I hummed... "we won't. I'll just get you another TV that will be in our bedroom so that you can watch all your woman shit there" This man! Woman shit? Really?!... "but then again, I wouldn't want you not being close to me, so I'll end up letting you watch all those programs that you like with you in my arms." God! I could already picture it. This king of mine knew how to say all the right things.
Me: "I love you King." He made a deep sexy sound. My belly flipped.
Kumkani: "Would never get tired of hearing my woman say her love for me." Before I could answer I heard my mother call me from downstairs.
Me: "I have to go my King."
Kumkani: "Okay little beauty. Later."
Me: "Later." I hung up and went to the kitchen.
The lobola negotiations had come to an end now. The men were eating in the living room now. The negotiations had ended sooner than I expected them to. Sis' Thoko told me that the negotiations usually went on for hours especially if the two families were not reaching an agreeable agreement about the amount and number of cows that should be paid for the bride which in most cases would require for a later date to be set where they would come again and meet to negotiate for the second time or even for the third time sometimes. Crazy, right? Well luckily for me that wasn't the case. Everything was settled. Oh my gosh! I was going to get married guys. Now that the negotiations were over, it made it all more real for me now. That in 5 months time I was going to be the king's wife. Imagine! I pinched myself just to make sure that I wasn't dreaming. And I wasn't. After they ate and talked some more, the king's family left. I helped with the washing of the dishes and cleaning of the kitchen. My mother's friends also left after we were done together with my two uncles and Anga's father and then after that it was just me and my parents left. To be honest, I was exhausted which was weird since I didn't do much. Maybe I was exhausted from all the nerves I had felt since this morning. Now that the tension in my body was gone, it felt like I could breathe again. It felt like a really heavy weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I guess I had really been worried about something bad happening. Thankfully the universe had listened to my prayers this time. I decided to go take a shower and await the king's arrival.
I was in the king's car. He had his car parked in front of the gate. I was in one of his hoodies. The time now was around 9pm and tomorrow was school. How I wish I could just skip not go but I didn't have that luxury. I was already behind the rest of the other students. I couldn't afford to be even more behind.
Kumkani: "What are you thinking about little beauty?" We've been sitting in silence this whole time listening to the music that was playing on the radio.
Me: "About school." I told him. My seat was in a lying position and I had my feet up on the dashboard.
Kumkani: "You still having trouble with keeping up?"
Me: "Yeah." I groaned... "I don't know why because I'm trying my best to catch up." I blew out a breath... "maybe I'm stupid."
Kumkani: "There's no such thing. You just need to get your bearings that's all and then you'll be fine."
Me: "But time is against me. Exams are coming up soon and some of my DP scores are not looking good already which means I'll have to study like a maniac."
Kumkani: "Don't worry yourself beautiful." He said turning to me and brushing my face... "you'll do well."
Me: "Why are you so sure?"
Kumkani: "Because my little beauty is intelligent, of course." I smiled slightly.
Me: "At least one of us still thinks so." He shook his head.
Kumkani: "Knows so." I smiled fully now.
Me: "You give a good confidence boost, do you know that?" He just smiled and said nothing... "do you know that I actually did a whole bow when I was greeting your uncles earlier on?" I blurted out after a short while.
Kumkani: "I heard."
Me: "You did?" He nodded... "from your father?" He shook his head.
Kumkani: "From Uncle Sthe and Uncle Sine." I frowned trying to remember who they were out of the 20... "the twins." Oh the twins! I remember them. Of course. One of them had been funny as hell.
Me: "They laughed at me didn't they?" The king chuckled... "oh my God! They did didn't they?" I groaned... "I don't know why I bowed. I was just nervous and...and.." I groaned again covering my face... "I'm such an idiot. I'm sure they also think that, right?"
Kumkani: "No they don't my moon. They said the whole bow thing was really cute." He told me still chuckling.
Me: "Then why are you chuckling?" I squinted my eyes at him... "you're lying aren't you?"
Kumkani: "I'm not. I just wished that I had seen you do the bow that's all." I huffed.
Me: "This is all your fault." I said hitting his chest.
Kumkani: "Me? How?"
Me: "You're the one who's always bowing and everything so undosulele." Now he laughed a full laugh... "why you laughing? Stop laughing at me!" I pouted.
Kumkani: "Oh my beautiful moon, my uncles are right, you're cute as fuck." Mxm! I continued to pout turning my face away from him... "I'm so happy right now little beauty." He told me after a short while... "thank you." I turned my face looking at him... "because of you I'm smiling and laughing more than I've ever have in my life. Thank you." God!
Me: "King..."
Kumkani: "You will never want for anything my moon because I will make sure to give you everything in this world." He vowed.
Me: "All I want is you King, nothing else." I told him softly. The all too familiar sexy sound resonated from his chest.
Kumkani: "Say that again." He commanded all up in my face. Yikes!
Me: "I said all I want is you King, nothing else-." And then he kissed me.
Kumkani: "Say it again." He commanded against my tingling lips.
Me: "All I want is you King-." He kissed me again.
Kumkani: "Say it again." God! He was killing me.
Me: "All I want is you King-." He kissed me again but this one was longer and more bruising than the others.
Kumkani: "Fucken happy to hear you say that my moon but I'm still going to give you the world."
It was Monday evening, I was busy texting my friends when I got an incoming call. It was from a number I didn't know. After contemplating a bit, I answered.
Me: "Hello?"
Caller: "Hey Khazie sweetheart. It's me Busi, King's mother." I sat up fast.
Me: "Oh hey Busi." She laughed a bit.
Busi: "I didn't disturb you didn't I?"
Me: "N-No you didn't."
Busi: "Oh that's great then. You know, I've been meaning to call you all this time but I told myself let me call you after the whole thing with the lobola negotiations is over." She told me... "so how are you Makoti wam?" Gosh! Why was it so nice to hear her call me like that?
Me: "I'm good Ma thanks. How are you?"
Busi: "I'm also good sweetheart. Can you do me a favor though?"
Me: "Yes?"
Busi: "Could you text me your mother's phone number. I want to call her and invite you all to have dinner with us this Saturday evening."
Me: "Oh okay that's not a problem. I'll do that."
Busi: "Oh thank you Khazie my child. You know I'm so excited that I'll get to see you again." She told me.
Me: "Really?"
Busi: "Yes. I've missed you." This woman! My heart warmed. And to be honest I had missed her too even though I didn't know her that well. But what I did know about her so far, I liked a lot. She was the bomb man.
Me: "I've also missed you Ma."
Busi: "Really?!" She exclaimed happily. "Honey Khazie said she missed me too." I heard grunting in the background. Oh my gosh! Was that her husband? I'm sure it was. I couldn't mistake that grunt.
Busi: "Ohh Khazie you can't begin to know how happy that makes me to hear that from you." Actually I could since I could hear the genuine happiness from her voice. This woman really liked me. There was no pretending... "okay let me let you go and not keep you Khazie. Don't forget to send me that number okay?"
Me: "Okay Ma."
Busi: "Okay bye sweetheart." Then she hung up. I quickly sent her my mother's cellphone number and she replied with a heart emoji. So Saturday we were going to eat dinner with the king's family. I guess I had to cancel the plans I had made with my friends. They were not going to be happy but there was nothing I could do about that. So I proceeded to tell them that we should postpone the meet up to another date since something came up. Even though they weren't happy as I had said, we postponed our meet up to the following week.
Mother: "Are you sure this is the right address Zolani?"
Father: "Yes, the GPS says so wife."
Me: "It's the right address Mama." I might not remember the way here but I remember the house. We were parked in front of the huge ass gate.
Mother: "Khazimle tell me, how rich are your in laws?"
Me: "Judging from what I've seen and heard, I would say very rich."
Mother: "O-Oh I see." She said nodding. If she was white I would say she looked pale right now but I couldn't say that since she wasn't. But I'm sure you guys get the picture of how she looked... "what do we do now? How do we get this gate opened?" I called the king and he picked up after one ring. Yikes! It's likes he had been waiting for my call.
Kumkani: "My moon."
Me: "We're here. Can you open the gate for us?"
Kumkani: "Okay wait a sec." After a few seconds the gate started to open... "done."
Me: "Okay thank you."
Kumkani: "Just to give you a heads up beautiful, some of my cousins and their wives are also here."
Me: "Really?" He hummed.
Kumkani: "My mother is not happy. I guess they kind of like invited themselves." Oh wow!
Me: "Okay. Thank you for the heads up my King."
Kumkani: "When I see you, I'm going to kiss you. Be prepared." This man! My belly flipped... "you hear?"
Me: "I hear you." Then he hung up. As we drove up the driveway my mother's mouth was literally on the floor. Not that I blamed her. This house was absolutely exquisite guys. Even me, I was in awe even though it wasn't my first time being here. My father was the only one who looked composed amongst us three.
It somehow happened that I got stuck with the wives. My mother was chatting up a storm with Busi. I think they were discussing the guest list for the wedding or something, and my father and the king had disappeared somewhere in the house with the king's father and all the other men. There was 9 wives in total. I was really going to be the tenth wife bethu. Crazy, I know. Anyway, most of them were smiling and at me while some assessed me. As they assessed me I also did my own assessment of them. I wasn't going to be intimidated by them even though I could see that they were a little older than me. "So you're the soon to be wife of Kumkani?" One of them asked. I said nothing because I mean, hello, she was asking the obvious. She sighed.
Her: "It's a real pity since I had promised my friend to hook her up with him." She said taking a sip of her wine.
Me: "It is a real pity." I said surprising her... "so make sure that you console her...since I'm here to stay." I said showing and pointing to my ring......