CHAPTER SEVEN
Z
While mom took Asanda to church for a thing with him, the house was buzzing with people from all walks of life. For someone who isn't supposed to be 'existing' mom sure has a lot of friends. Kelly and I came a little early to ensure the cake is here before the celebration begins. Tables and chairs are nicely set under eleven gazebos and right in the middle of the whole set up, is a DJ station complete with a turn table.
I can't believe my eyes but mom has not changed one bit since the time she raised us. I blame myself for not telling her the truth about how I felt growing up under her care. Not that we weren't fed, protected or loved. It just would've been better without the under handed activities and over exaggerated holy life and milestone celebrations.
"Welcome family!" Cookie shouts upon seeing us. She picks Notho up and kisses her before dropping her to her feet again and I catch the little girl wiping Cookie's kiss off her left chick. Cookie doesn't notice and continues to instruct Khomo to place the choc-vanilla cake next to the three-step fancy cake which Cookie proudly announces to have had done just in time for the party.
Wonderful...not.
My bedroom is stocked with alcohol enough to knock a thousand people off, so I end up sitting in my car, waiting for mom to return so that the party can begin.
*****
Upon mom's return with Asanda and 'father'; everyone starts singing a church song I don't know about taking small steps.
I swear that's all the song says; we will step little-by-little. The lyrics are in Zulu though.
The mood becomes jovial and even Asanda's friends from school join in the song and enjoy with mom's friends, escorting her to the DJ's station. She picks up the microphone and thanks everyone for coming then tells them to feel at home and eat as much as they desire - stating there's enough to feed the whole city.
Directions to the hired female and male toilets are given then finally she announces that the big room next to the pool area is waiting for the children to enjoy. "Games and food galore!" Mom exclaims joyfully. Then without mentioning a thing about Asanda turning ten she calls on the DJ to take over.
Classic.
Kelly, Khomo and I slowly drag ourselves to one of the five serving stations and dish up. Tendai's bedroom is packed with barbequed meat and the spare room is storing all kinds of soft drinks so we end up sitting in the study room no one ever uses. Moments later, Zanda walks in with the woman I know is Ella. I have looked at her inactive facebook page for a good number of days now. Her eyes stay on me from the moment she notices me and although I know she's most probably shocked by my likeness to Tendai, I can't help but feel like she's reminiscing on our first and last meeting.
Tendai breaks her trans on me by introducing her to everyone and the ladies get up to hug and welcome her first, giving me time to recover from her stare. They come to me last, with my brother jovially stating the obvious - our resemblance. Ella admits to be shocked beyond words then says nice to meet you, while coming in for a brief embrace. After pulling away, she says "Oh my God, you even feel familiar" I have absolutely nothing to say in response to that so I sit next to Ella, holding her like I'm guilty of cheating.
Ella again gives me a break from her stare by going to wish her son a happy birthday but quickly returns, saying Asa looked like he was having too much fun with his peers. "I would hate to embarrass him by hugging and kissing him" she says with a giggle and at that moment I notice for the first time how beautiful she is and sense that my brother is taken in by her.
What a wow.
T
The plan was to wish our son a happy day, eat then leave. Ella was going to return to her house but I was going to encourage her to go past my place where I was hoping to seduce her to sleeping over.
In my bed of course.
I'm not sure why my mother though hiring DJ Gregory was a good idea for a ten-year-old's birthday party but I later learned he's hot stuff in the area and of course, mom Catherine - lover of fine and trendy things had to get him. The music wasn't child appropriate but thankfully, the kids were safe inside the play/game room with pop-corn and ice-cream machines on top of hot dogs and pizzas. So the only people exposed to the doof-doof noise was the neighbours and church group who appeared to enjoy that tremendously.
I kept to Ella, Zanda, Khomo and my brother and we had a lovely time. A lil' later, Andrew, Musa, Gugu and Zanda's long-time friend Zipho joined us, adding to the already enjoyable time. Khomo's a lil' doff and I caught Kelly rolling her eyes at her comments every now and then, especially when Ella laughed at her. She's very beautiful though, so I suppose that makes up for her blond-ness.
It was almost 7pm when mom remembered the purpose of the celebration and got the famous DJ to summon everyone to the living room for the cutting of the cake. Only a few followed though. It was there that I saw 'Father' for the first time that day. I had successfully dodged seeing him at the after-robbery meeting a week ago by claiming to be busy. As always I avoided looking his way and pulled Ella with me to our son's direction.
"Come cut your cake Asa!" Mom shouted. From about ten feet from his birthday cakes Asanda stood shocked and wide-eyed. "Come sweety" Ella summoned but he remained stationary. One of his school friends nudged him forward and he slowly approached saying something no one could here. Ella briefly hugged him but he was still unresponsive. When Ella pulled away from him, his eyes were glassy from tears. "What's wrong baby?" mom asked in the most sing-song and truly dramatic way...mildly working on my nerves.
"Where's my puzzle" he asked but nobody but me heard him. "Come cut your cake" mom said passing him a knife. "Where's my puzzle?!" he screamed from nowhere and everyone kept quiet. "My puzzle! It was on the table! Where's my puzzle?!" He shouted, effectively creating panic in the whole room. From nowhere, Cookie appeared - "I needed space for the cake..."
The scream that followed Cookie's last word shook me to reach for him but he lost the ability to stand on his own and dropped to the floor. Quickly, Ella and I joined him on the cold floor and tried to calm him to no avail. Zanda moved in swiftly and scooped him up like he was a lil' child and walked out of the room, pushing through the crowd that was now suffocating me. Ella, Kelly and I followed him outside and through the partying crowd that was dancing and singing along to Gregory's loud music; completely oblivious of what had just transpired inside.
Zanda successfully put Asanda inside his car then held him down till he was calm. I looked up, blinking tears I didn't know I had then looked away. My eyes landed on the crowd that was now dancing to Zakes Bantwini's Osama song. Everything was now in slow motion and feelings of sadness, confliction and confusion descended as I continued to watch the happy, dancing people smiling at nothing but that song. It felt torturous, really.
I really don't wanna say anything about this but my mind won't stop talking.
Z
We're all standing around Asa's bed, watching him sleep thanks to a shot a guest doctor gave him. One of his classmate's father is a medical practitioner and he took over me after Asanda's sudden outburst came down. When he finally stopped screaming his lungs out, he seemed to have travelled to a different world. His wide open and fearful eyes glared at nothing although I was gently talking to him. I had never witnessed anything like this and my heart is still pounding.
"You know; I find it strange that this child has never behaved in this manner up until his mother came here for the first time"
"Really mom?" Zanda and I ask simultaneously without having probed each other. We do that sometimes when we're in the same space. Say the exact same thing at the same time. The amount of time spent apart has not altered that one thing about us.
"I just find it amusing that this child's behaviour took a wrong turn on the very first day his mother visited." Mom says with a fake worried face accompanied by a down curved C mouth shape.
"Mom, please. This has absolutely nothing to do with Ella." Tendai jumps in sounding a tad bit ticked off.
"I didn't say it had anything to do with her, but one just has to wonder..."
Ella leaves the room and Tendai follows her while telling mom to be blippin sensitive.
"Why is he defending her any.."
"Mom please!" I interrupt, sounding louder than I intended. "There's clearly an issue with Asa. That should be our primary focus - nothing else"
I almost begged her to not storm out like Ella and Tendai but I quickly stop myself from falling for her overly dramatic response to everything.
Catherine has a tendency of making herself the centre of every situation, good or bad.
Once at a school meeting on my ninth grade, a parent raised concern over the school's proximity to a newly opened pub. The school board had also tried to communicate their concern to the local councillor and Mayor but no response followed up until the pub was up and running. And boy did we love to stand on the street across it and dance to the in-fashion music they so loudly played.
So while most parents supported the lady's statement and urgent need to have the alcohol establishment moved at all costs, mom used the very opportunity to explain how alcohol in itself is never a problem but rather, a person's soul that needs saving.
"We can't control what gets established where but we can save our people by directing them to the heavenly father, amen?"
If you think the crowd's silence to her 'amen' prompt embarrassed her to shut the hell up and sit, then you haven't gotten a clear idea of who Catherin is. Instead, she proceeded to invite everyone to the Sunday service where she is a treasurer and the reason behind the smooth running of the whole church.
"Let me lead you into the light and watch how my guidance will help you become less and less affected by worldly matters"
*****
Annoying as my mother is, I chose to remain a good person and help clear all tables outside and pack up chairs before leaving for my house. I felt terrible leaving Asanda behind and internally instructed myself to return the next day. Notho was fast asleep when we left her granny's but was up and asking questions by the time we got ready for bed. None of us had a clue as to why Asa lost it over a puzzle so I told Notho that Asa was probably overwhelmed by the day's events and overreacted to a small issue. "So, he's not skitzo?" she surprised me with that word even. "I heard one of the big boys say maybe he is a skitzo".
Only then did I realise the worst thing about the incident is that it transpired in the presence of all his grade learners. I could always return to school with ease after mom's embarrassing behaviour at meetings because only a handful of students would be present and it was always those who minded their own business and had absolutely nothing to gain from making me a laughing stock.
Asa on the other hand had successfully put himself inside a box labelled weirdo of the school. Or schizophrenic as Notho stated.
With only a few weeks in his new school, moving him to a different learning institution will be disruptive to his learning and emotions. Stability is of crucial importance for a kid like him but leaving him to be bullied for the rest of his school days will be especially cruel.
My mind was made up. Asa was definitely getting registered at a new school come Monday. So, while Kelly fell into a deep exhausted sleep next to me, I got on a mission of identifying good institutions in and around mom's area.
Notho goes to a good school too but that may require Asa move in with us. Mom would hate that but it would make me feel good knowing both my children reside with me. He's been my potential child since we met but after meeting Ella, I'm strongly convinced he's mine.
T
A crazy day at work failed to derail my plans of driving past Ella's place on Monday afternoon. Zanda had requested we all meet at mom's to facilitate a reunion between Ella and Catherine, but baby mama wasn't having it. The same way she refused to return inside the house after being insulted by mom on Sunday night. I ended up driving her home and apologising over and over again for everything that transpired in the last hour of our son's birthday celebration.
I prolonged the Monday meeting by inquiring about Asanda's temperament and according to Ella, he is a stable child. Asanda is a level-headed, straight thinking young fellow and his mother was just as mortified by his outburst. On the other hand, Zanda's worry was on steroids as he kept blowing up my phone with text messages about 'professional intervention' and possible challenges Asanda may face when returning to school.
I went through a lot in my childhood and never required a therapist. Not even when 'Father' unexpectedly picked me up from school, causing my friends to......never mind.
Bottom line is, kids act up, get made fun of then move on like nothing happened. Ella said nothing to Zanda's suggestion to have the child moved. All she wanted was some time with her child away from Catherine so I got on the mission quickly and worked half a day. I told mom to relax and let me pick Asanda up from school, claiming to want to talk and advise him on how to survive at school after the incident. How to deal with the mean kids. "He doesn't need that" mom responded deadpan but I continued with my plan to deliver Ella's heart desire on a silver platter.
I picked Ella up at the entrance of a local mall and together we headed to Kingship Combined. Asanda was approaching the gate where over twenty fellow students were staring at him like he was some Alien. "Oh, heavens" Ella said sounding deflated. "Zanda might be right. Maybe we need to move him".
"Hello" Asanda greeted as he entered the back seat of my Mercedes Benz. "How was school?" Ella asked and failing to hide the pain in her voice. What we both didn't expect was for Asanda to give us a break down of how a volcano erupts, which countries you find them in and what danger they pose to human beings. Teacher Smit is clearly a favourite and the details of his teaching style and drawing skills were a confirmation of Asanda's love for the young teacher and his subject. We let him talk for what seemed like five minutes while I was musing about how leaving the school will affect his interest in Geography.
"I'm glad you enjoyed Geography, baby but your dad and I will completely understand if you want to transfer to a new school.
"Why would I want to do that?" He asked deadpan.
While Ella was mentally formulating an emotionally sensitive response, I jumped in.
"You don't have to endure the stares and ridicule from your mates, Asanda. Your mother and I are here to protect you at whatever cost"
"But I don't need protecting...not from anyone in the school"
"I don't like how they stare at you Asa, baby. You are not a showpiece. I'm sure some make comments"
"I like my school"
The four words shut Ella and I up for a few minutes. I was initially against uprooting him yet again in such a very short space but after witnessing the chilling stares from his school mates, I genuinely want him to have a fresh start. I get that he likes the school but it's equally important that he like other students too. And even more vital, that he be liked by others as well. At this very moment, I can't see how he could ever make friends moving forward.
"How are you feeling after Sunday, sweety?" Ella's voice startles me back to the present.
"Well, my puzzle is back on the table and I spent most of the night rebuilding it. Granny Cookie apologised for meddling with my work and promised to not ever delay me again by breaking my work apart. I forgave her"
"And what did your friends at school say?" I ask, hoping to make him see the need for a move.
"Well...they're not my friends anymore because they think I'll cramp their style. I couldn't hear what they were mostly saying because they whisper. Ms. Attridge warned everyone about bullying in the morning"
"That's good, baby. So they haven't tried to physically confront you"
"No. They just shout 'puzzles' when I walk past.