Two months later ...
In front of us stood a long mahogany finish door that belonged to my parents. Yes, you guessed right we were at home, in South Africa, Pretoria. My home was a contrast to the smaller looking houses in the neighbourhood, standing tall and bright in a white dove paint colour, not to boast but the architect had done an excellent job when he designed the double storey.
"Knock!" Thato instructed beside me after the long seconds we had froze at my parent's doorstep, both with heavy bags weighing down on us whilst the sun shone at its brightest and hottest, something I had not missed since I preferred a cold climate to a hot one.
"Okay," I softly knocked my right fist against the brown door.
In no time we heard the thud of flip flops against the tiled floors before the door flew open and before us stood a woman full of melanin, she glowed under the sun's gaze, her chocolate brown eyes widening in surprise before her pink lips slowly lifted into a wide grin. She pulled her pear-shaped body against both Thato's and mine as she lifted her hands into a breathless hug.
"M-mom, you are suffocating us," I wheezed out from the lack of air I was receiving.
"Oh, sorry," she said in her prominent Venda accent before immediately letting go of us.
"Ndo vha ndi sa ḓivhi uri ni khoyo vhuya ṋamusi!" She exclaimed in my mother tongue which I understood and fortunately Thato understood as she spoke Setswana.
"We wanted to surprise you!" Thato said joy in her every word.
"Well, I am certainly surprised," she replied, smiling at the both of us, taking in our appearances "You guys are glowing, Italy has been treating you well, hey?"
"Too well, but how have you been?" I asked taking a look at the neatly kept yard with roses and sunflowers, trimmed lawns and a vegetable garden, something I had truly missed, my dad and I would wake up early each morning to work on it, something I had groaned upon but a few months later it was something I held pride towards as my dad and I had reaped what we had sowed. Today it looked clean, with a tomato tree with ripe tomatoes, and two pumpkins stuck out like sore thumbs, I'm sure had my dad been here, he would not want to wait for the harvest season.
"Fine but now I am great because my beautiful babies are right in front of me," she beamed before looking at us or rather our bags; frowning. "How rude of me, you are standing with heavy bags under the blazing sun." She ushered us in calling Sharon, the housekeeper to help us with our bags.
We walked into our home, seeing that nothing had changed except that the kitchen wall had been knocked door, giving the house an open feel. Grey-painted walls surrounded us from all directions, as it was my dad's favourite colour. Only the bedrooms and cabinets were coated in different colours. Soon, Sharon came from upstairs in her black and white uniform, in a chippy mood, as usual, she was in her early thirties, making her a friend of ours. She greeted us, giving the both of us a warm hug before taking our bags upstairs, leaving us in the middle of the living room.
Thato and I reminisced as we looked at the pictures covering the wall, all in order from when we had performed in a concert in grade five, to when we had gone on a week-long excursion in Durban for our primary school farewell.
"Remember, you cried, 'I do not want to wear a pantie-like swimming costume, it is too revealing, I don't want boys turning their eyes where they do not need to be,'" she did a bad imitation of my voice as I remembered the memory.
"And we swapped out swimming costumes," I completed, her mom had bought her a tankini swimming costume with a short being the religious woman of God she was but Thato wanted more freedom so she didn't mind swapping with me.
"Yep and we swam and surfed for the entire day," she smiled.
You must be wondering why Thato had not gone to her parent's home but sadly she had lost her parents to a car accident three years ago so my parents toke her in and loved her like their own.
My mom who had disappeared down into the sitting down called out to us making us move along and take a seat on the navy blue couches.
She was preparing some drinks, putting them in front of us in a tray before taking a seat, an expectant grin on her face.
"Now tell me, what were you up to in good old Italy?" Thato and I stared at each other before telling her the good parts of it, living out the bad Samantha parts. Speaking of Samantha she and Nio had been the picture-perfect couple these past months, making it a tad easier to hide my crush. But it was my time to enjoy myself with my family, friends and Christ so I would not think of that.
****
Christmas Day...
We had all by all I meant my parents, Thato, friends, aunts and uncles had just returned from church after a two-hour celebration over the birth of Christ. The sermon was powerfully eulogizing about how on that day we had received a saviour, redeemer, and sanctifier and the Light of the world on this day. He started by mentioning Matthew 1:23 which went as followed; "A virgin will become pregnant and have a son and he will be called Emmanuel" which means, 'God is with us.'"
He then went on to preach Isaiah 53 about the suffering servant, who was like a lamb about to be slaughtered, a sheep about to be sheered, how he was so disfigured people did not want to even want look at him but he still carried the cross with no complaint because he loved us and on that day we were celebrating his birth, it wasn't for the gifts, for the compliments or even for the reunions but only for the celebration of the birth of our Savior.
We then went on to sing praise and worship songs that got us on our dancing feet.
Now each of us were in aprons, peeling, cooking, tasting and decorating for our yearly Christmas dinner. The dinner rotated around my dad's siblings, this year it was being hosted by my aunt Lufuno who lived in the city of gold, Johannesburg, in a famous township called Soweto. Her house was a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house, a huge difference from my parent's house, she had said she wanted to remember her roots and she would not be able to do so in a mansion in some suburban residential area so she lived in a fenced in home with world-class seats to the Soweto towers which were visible from my standing view. Children littered the hired jumping castle, their waves of laughter filling the air, making the atmosphere even more merrier.
A light-skinned boy or what we called a yellow bone in dark faded jeans approached me as Thato went to the kitchen to get a sack of potatoes. I pretended not to see him in hopes of him not being interested and turned back but when I raised my head, he was right in front of me.
"Hello. O kae?" He asked how I was in Thato's mother tongue, licking his lips making me feel highly uncomfortable. His good looks and fancy hairstyle were not helping.
"Fine, how are you?" I did not want to just ignore him or seem rude by ignoring so I responded.
"Good, what would a beautiful girl like you be doing here?" He rubbed his non-existent beard or chin rather, looking at me like some piece of meat. What happened to respectful men?
"Working," I curtly replied as I thought through how he had just committed adultery with me in his heart by looking at me lustfully so I had to stop it, "Stop looking at me like that," I commanded making him furrow his brows.
"Looking at you how baby girl?" He acted confused but I could read through his lie.
"Lustfully."
"Oh, I thought that's how you girls liked it," he replied with no shame.
"Well, I don't like it, it's degrading so please stop it," I said with pursed lips and that's when he walked away, guess he didn't like being told what to do, even if it was affecting the other person.
Thato came back holding a large sack of potatoes which she was struggling with so I walked over to her and held the left side whilst she held the right side.
"Who was that boy you were talking to?" She asked once we had sat down and had started peeling off the skin of the potatoes.
"I don't know his name but I did tell him I did not like the way he was looking at me so he walked away," I shrugged as my best friend smiled proudly.
"Destiny?!" My mom called out from the kitchen in the house.
"Aaa?!" I responded respectively in a word equivalent to yes, just more traditional.
I got no response which I did not understand because you would find her sending me down here instead of telling me so I could go there with whatever she wanted but nevertheless I went into the clean house.
In a few hours, all of us sat in the dining from the babies to the teenagers, to us the young adults and the actual adults, all in all, we were twenty-four. Scrumptious food from braaied meat, to chakakala, to green salads, to pap, rice and samp, to roasted chicken with herbs and spices and for the sides, mashed potatoes and beetroot mixed with our famous Mrs Balls chutney giving it an even sweeter taste and flavour, if I said everything then I would take the entire day but oh before I forgot, Thato had made her famous blueberry pie and some cake and malva pudding. We were indeed in for a delicious ride but before we could dig in my twelve-year-old niece Rendani offered to give thanks so we all closed our eyes and bowed our heads.
"Dear Lord, I thank you for this wonderful food you have blessed us with, please bless the hands that made the food, bless the food inside our stomachs and please continue to provide for those who cannot provide for themselves. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen." A chorus of amens were let out before we dug into the yummy food. Listening to a funny story about my uncle getting chased out of a shop by the shopkeeper because he had accidentally called him fat.
*****
"Heavenly Lord, thank you for this blessed day you gave us, thank you for being Jehovah Jireh today and forever more. Thank you for blessing us with a Savior on this day, because you loved us, please continue to shelter us under your wings. I love you and happy birthday. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen."
___________
Ndo vha ndi sa ḓivhi uri ni khoyo vhuya ṋamusi - I didn't know you were coming back today.
O kae - How are you?
A/N
I wrote this chapter as a gift for
Christmas from me to you. I hope you enjoyed it, even though it might've been bad in some parts but thank you for reading nonetheless.
I hope you enjoy this blessed day filled with love and joy and let us not forget the true reason we celebrate this day.
Thank you once more for reading!
God bless you and Merry Christmas!!!