[LARONA]
I am running on half a bar here because I never got a wink of sleep last night. Kuli asked me to pray like I never prayed before and that’s exactly what I did. I am sitting on this bed watching the remains of the candles she asked me to burn as the misshapen wax sits atop a white plate. She will wake up, right? They can’t send her to war by herself,her army will surely protect her.
The knock at the door cuts my thoughts off. I had the intention of going to church but I don’t have the strength to drag myself there. I stand up to go open and I find Mabontle; I stare and wait for her to speak. I’ve realized that she has sized me up and concluded that I am not worthy of her respect,not that I want any of it. People who judge others at first sight are not my cup of tea anyway. They tend to be shallow, mid, and hollow-minded human beings.
‘We have been called downstairs’ she informs me and I nod. Are they already back?
‘I’ll be there in a second’
She turns back and calls my name when I was sure she had left.
‘Yes?’
‘What did you mean earlier?’ she asks, bringing me to a sigh. I shouldn’t have said that, I really shouldn’t have bluntly said that she would murder her husband.
‘Come in and close the door’ I offer. We go sit on the bed. She’s looking at the plate on the floor, probably thinking I was busy chanting witchcraft around it – manifesting her sister’s death.
‘Last night I prayed for hours without ceasing and I unexpectedly saw a lot of things’
She’s silent but her head movements tell me she’s listening.
‘The two of you were having an altercation in the kitchen then you stabbed him with a big knife, directly on the heart’
She gasps.
‘Yoh… okay; Maybe it was just a dream. We’ll finish this conversation later. For now, they need us’ she says and leaves me in the guestroom. I shrug and wrap a purple m’ceka around my waist. Mhan’ Singi once gave it to me when she saw me wearing a bodycon dress. She said she could see I wasn’t wearing any underwear, I explained to her that I was wearing a thong and she wouldn’t hear it. I am still wearing that dress today. I see nothing wrong with this dress. It’s long-sleeved and it goes all the way down to my ankles, but I will respect her and her wishes by covering up. I find the twins, Junior and Mabontle already seated – waiting for me. I take my seat next to her on one of the couches and Fikani finishes off his drink before addressing us. Just like Aunty Lydia, he’s always drinking something. Speaking of the glam aunt, I wonder where she is.
‘We went to Gogo Mkhanyisi and she instructed us to bring Kuli’s body back home’
‘Body???’ Junior asks with a panic-filled voice.
‘Relax. Apparently, this is one of her spiritual things and that we shouldn’t worry nor ask too many questions. She will come back to us; we just don’t know when. On another sad note, the royal healer has left us’
‘Magezi died?’ Junior asks. Fikani nods. Him and his big brother are the only ones doing the talking. The rest of us are quiet.
‘I received a call this morning from his wife. She says he suffered multiple seizures last night. She took him to the hospital but he was declared dead on arrival. I need to go there so we can discuss his funeral proceedings and all that’
I am not going to Magezi’s funeral. I have better things to do with my time.
Kurhula is just silently sitting there – resting his hands in his pockets, with his head against the couch and gazing at the roof.
‘Another thing is that I have given all the staff two days off to minimize ups and downs in this house, and rumours. You guys know that people are always quick to jump to conclusions. Next thing, it’ll be all over the village that Kuli is not waking up’
That makes a lot of sense.
‘I’ll also make sure that no one, even if they’re family, is allowed entry here. If anyone calls and asks, just say we’re fumigating or something’
‘Where are the kids?’ I ask.
‘Napping’ Fikani responds. ‘I am going to need you two to keep this house intact. You’ll resume your petty fights after this storm is over’ he sternly commands, looking at both Mabontle and I. I look away. There’s just something about Fikani that screams he should be feared and revered. I can’t quite look him in the eye, especially when he’s not being his usual ‘playful but still serious’ self, when he’s cracking jokes and not even realizing how funny the things he says are.
‘I’ll go make you some ham sandwiches for breakfast. Tea, juice, or cold drink?’ Mabontle asks.
‘Tea for me’ Fikani responds.
‘Juice please’ Junior follows. Kurhula continues starring at the roof. My heart is breaking at this sight. He looks so… defeated.
‘Bhoti?’ Junior nudges him.
‘Hm?’
His mind was never here.
‘What would like to drink? Ses’ Bontle is making breakfast’
‘I am not hungry’
‘But you need to eat something. You can’t—’
‘Ey! Ey! Junior? Hhayi man…’ he immediately stands up and leaves after losing his cool. Fikani squeezes Junior’s shoulder, assuring him that it’s not personal and that he shouldn’t take it to heart.
‘I know you care about him but once he gets like this, just leave him alone okay?’
The teenager simply nods. He doesn’t even look offended.
Tlhari is awake, I take the baby monitor from the table and walk up to the nursery room. I take him out of his cot and try to quieten him. The smell coming from his diaper tells me he has made a big mess in there. When I put him on the changing table, I find nothing but diarrhoea. Is he teething? We almost go through the entire pack of wipes while I’m trying to get him cleaned up. He needs a bath, this won’t do. I find AK standing behind me. His eyes carry evidence of the fact that he just woke up. I ask him what they use to bath Tlhari and he runs out of the room. Is he planning on coming back soon?
He shortly comes back with a yellow plastic basin; those ones specifically designed for bathing babies. It has a transparent toiletry bag inside, and a white washcloth.
‘Thank you boy’
He smiles at his achievement. He looks proud of himself. I find Tlhari’s clothes and we move to my room.
‘My dad married you and mommy?’
Then it starts. Why did we tell him this again?
I nod as I bathe the little one, while I’m seated on the closed toilet seat.
‘Both of you?’
I nod again. He looks like he’s processing this.
‘I also want two wives’ he says and I explode.
‘Really?’ I ask. He bobs his head a couple of times.
‘It’s going to be Ole and Luva’
This is getting interesting.
‘Who are those? Your schoolmates?’
‘Yeah. I love Ole’s dresses. They always have flowers on them. And she likes showing me that they have pockets’
‘Oh really?’
I take Tlhari out of the water and wrap him with a dry towel. We move to the bedroom to get some lotion on this tender skin and some clothes on. We find Kurhula eavesdropping. He laughs when he realizes he’s been caught.
‘And what do you like about Xiluva?’ he asks. AK blushes.
‘She always shares her colouring pens. She’s kind’
‘And where are yours? Didn’t we buy you stationery, boy?’
‘Hers are nicer. They go in and out when you twist them papa’
Kurhula laughs. ‘So why didn’t you say that you also want retractable crayons?’
‘I don’t want them. I like using hers’
He runs out after saying this.
‘Stationery rizz’ I say and Kurhula laughs out loud. ‘Where is he going now?’ I ask.
‘To fetch something. He’ll come back, you’ll see’
He indeed does come back with a paper and hands it to his dad. Kurhula reads it out loud.
It says he needs to pay for a zoo trip.
‘The trip is this Wednesday? This is short notice’ he complains.
‘How much do they want?’
‘It’s not about the money; it’s about the principle. I am going to call your teachers so they can move this date. These women…’
I am not even going to try change his mind. He’s always looking for arguments even in unnecessary places. I moisturize Tlhari’s hair after putting some socks on his tiny feet. I ask the big bro to take everything back where he found it.
‘How is she?’ I enquire and Kurhula lets out a heavy sigh before sitting on the bed. He extends his hands and I give Vutlhari to him.
‘Her heart rate and everything else is apparently stable but she’s still unresponsive’
‘She’s going to be fine’
He just shrugs and kisses his son. ‘Thanks for bathing him’ he says with a smile.
‘You don’t have to say thank you’
I go hang the towel in the bathroom. When I come back, I find him on his feet. He pecks my lips and gives Tlhari back to me.
‘Are you off to Magezi’s?’
‘Nah, Fikani will go by himself. I have to go to Benzy’s. His uncle died and I haven’t been able to go. In as much I don’t want to leave Kuli alone, I have to’
I get it.
‘I won’t stay long. I’ll just get there and offer my condolences so they can buy what’s needed’
He must find all this low vibrational energy exhausting. I ask where they keep the baby carrier and he offers to fetch it for me from Tlhari’s room. He helps me strap him up on my back. I also support him with a very lightweight baby blankie.
Kurhula is just standing there, looking at me with a smile.
‘What?’
‘Nothing’
He kisses me and leaves. Tlhari and I need to get started with cooking lunch. Nothing complicated – just samp and chicken stew.
…
[NARRATED]
Fikani opens the door to the study, switches the lights on and sees Kurhula seated by himself. He turns them off and walks in.
‘Chief’ Fikani greets before turning the desk lamp on – putting it on the lowest setting.
‘Sho, mfo’
He pours drinks for the both of them and hands Kurhula his. His brother reluctantly receives it but downs it a minute later. Fikani pours him another one.
‘Still no improvement?’
Kurhula languidly shakes his head. Fikani suggests they go stand on the balcony so Kurhula can get some fresh air. He doesn’t argue.
‘I am getting tired of sitting back and doing nothing. Why don’t we contact my seer? Maybe he can help?’ – Fikani.
‘She doesn’t mix with traditional healers. I also feel like my hands are tied. I wish there was something I could do to help her but at the same time, I cannot risk making the situation worse. I hate feeling like I’m about to lose her. It drives me nuts!’
‘I completely understand. I’d feel the same’
‘Anyway, enough about me. Are you two okay?’
Fikani huffs and takes a sip.
‘I don’t know’
‘What do you mean you don’t know?’
‘I fvcked up with the whole Khensani thing and now she’s determined to destroy my marriage. She sent Mabontle a picture of her in my car and made sure that the ‘X6M’ sign on the seat shows. Luckily, I saw the message before Bontle could and deleted it.
‘Did you block her number from Bontle’s phone? If you haven’t, make sure you do. Marha na wena. Why are you attracted to chaos?’
Fikani laughs. ‘What do you mean I’m attracted to chaos?’
‘All the stories you’ve told me about your exes have some sort of psychotic element in them. Now you got married to one’
‘A what? A psycho?’ he continues to laugh. Kurhula shakes his head.
‘You’re an adrenaline junkie and it’s gonna end badly. Then you find people who think we’re alike. I am nothing like you meh I have a brain’
‘Tsek! It just happens. I don’t go out with a sign on my forehead written “Vacant post for crazy woman. Reach out if available’’
‘You need a sea salt cleansing. This ain’t it’
‘Then there’s Uncle Albert who is adamant on making matters worse’
‘What did he do?’
‘He called this afternoon and said there’s someone I have to meet’
The eye contact gives Kurhula all the answers he needs.
‘If Bontle never finds out about her, I don’t see why not. In as much as Uncle and I disagree on a lot of things, I have to give him this one’
‘But what if this mistress starts wanting more?’
‘Nah. They never do if you keep your end of the deal. Do you see that grey and red house next to the Engen garage? Just after you make a turn?’
Fikani nods.
‘The one with pine trees next to the gate?’
‘That one. The woman who lives there was one of dad’s mistresses’
Fikani’s mouth hangs open.
‘Never reached out even during and after the funeral. I only knew of her at the ripe age of 27, when they started letting me in on things’
‘I’ve seen a boy in that yard. Is that our brother?’
Kurhula nods.
‘Had all necessary rituals done for him but till this day, Xongi still doesn’t know about her’
‘Where are the others?’
‘I only know of three. The other two are in GP’
‘How did you feel when you found out?’
‘I wasn’t surprised. I always knew that dad was cheating on his wives. I just didn’t know who he was cheating with’
Fikani goes silent.
‘Something in me deeply yearns for his presence. I wish I had met him at some point’
‘No you don’t, trust me’ Kurhula argues.
‘Was there any commendable attribute about him? At least one? Anything?’
Kurhula sighs.
‘Let me finish. In as much as he was all that, he never forgot to take care of his family. One thing I learnt from him is being a provider and knowing that it is my responsibility at all times. And oh, the only time his eyes lit up was when he was with Wiseman. He loved his little brother to a fault’
‘Apart from the photos in the house, do you have any other ones?’
‘If you want to see Diablo’s face, just look in the mirror bro’
Fikani laughs. Kurhula smiles into his whiskey glass.
‘Ja, you genuinely despise the guy’
‘I have spat on his grave before. If that doesn’t convince you, I don’t know what will’
‘You have no memory of him being loving towards you? Zero? Zilch?’
‘All Edward has ever seen in me was a project. I was eight when he started telling me to my face how a real man behaves. The only reason why Xongi loved Junior so much is because Edward loved him too. That woman worshipped her Satan of a husband. They deserved one another’
‘Sorry bro. I didn’t mean to scrab old wounds open’
‘Ah it’s okay. I’ll always be willing to share whenever you wonder what your childhood was like in an alternate universe’
They continue to drink in silence.
‘But you should get that behaviour under control…’ Kurhula states, while starring at the night sky.
‘What behaviour?’
‘This vase-throwing behaviour. What’s next? Boiling water?’
‘I believe I have. I can handle my wife, don’t worry about it’
‘And the mistress?’
‘The mistress neh…’ he pours himself more of their adult beverage. ‘Albert will handle all her financial needs in the meantime. Bontle is pregnant and she’s already under a lot of stress. I can’t afford to divide my attention right now’
‘See now you’re speaking like a true Mlambya’ Kurhula says and puts up his glass, Fikani almost rolls his eyes but lightly clinks it against his brother’s.