THE ROYAL MATRIMONY
CHAPTER 39
UNEDITED
[MOKGADI]
Who is he?
Everyone in the house is asking this question. Uncle Wiseman studies his face carefully and then stands up right. He swears he’s seen him before but he cannot recall the instance in which they’ve met.
‘Do you know him?’ Mhani Singi probes. The boy apparently came running and collapsed in front of the gate before even greeting the guard. He’s still unconscious and has been placed in the middle of the carpet.
‘Maybe he has information on Akani’s whereabouts’ Mhani Xongi’s voice is pregnant with hope. I keep checking my phone even though I know that I’ve missed no calls. It’s been in my mind ever since Mlambya furiously shot out of this house. Larona is still at the school with the police and the last time we spoke, she was telling someone they’re not leaving the premises until they find him.
The story they gave her doesn’t even make sense. The class teacher says she wasn’t in charge of the register. The student teacher who’s supposed to have the answers has none. Do these people not verify that the person who’s fetching the child is registered on their system? How do these things even work?
My only hope is the airtag that resides in the inner pocket of his bag. I remember Mlambya once scolded him for taking it out and playing with it.
The boy on the floor seems to be regaining his conscious and opening his eyes. Uncle Wiseman snaps his fingers like he’s just thought of an answer to a complex math equation.
‘Boy! Are you not the one who once brought a painting of Sarah here? Was it a painting or a drawing nah?’
The boy sighs like an exhausted construction worker. He does look spent.
‘He’s probably here to seek more money. Give him a plate and tell him to go home after that. We have far more important things to worry about!’ Uncle Wiseman launches himself out of the house after pulling out his phone from the pocket of his two-tone military shirt.
‘All that was hidden in the dark will now shine in the light’
‘Hm?’
Mystified faces are exchanged among us. His voice sounded hoarse so I pour him a glass of juice from the table. Sensibly, I should be getting him water but the fear of missing out has me cuffed at the ankles.
He refuses to receive it. With collapsed shoulders, he’s now staring into space.
‘Things will continue to go wrong if you two proceed to prioritize that throne over everything else. You know about the suicide curse and still, you’re doing nothing about it. It almost took your own daughter, remember?’ his accusing eyes find Mhani Singi.
What? Mixo once tried to end her own life? The boy stands up and drags his foot before beginning to limp. Is he a seer or something? I am so confused!
The eye-contact between these old women reeks of guilt.
‘Let me go get started on supper for Munene’ Mhani Singi walks out. Her speed is suspicious. Knowing her, her feet would be competing to touch the ground if she really had something important to do but here she is, walking like a toddler who has pooped on his pants and afraid that the evidence will fall. She’s visibly drowning in thought.
‘Come with me’ Mhani does not give me a chance to opine. She’s already leading the way to the kitchen. I follow closely behind.
‘Why did your mother leave so hastily? Was the meeting that offensive to her?’
‘We have our own issues’
We’ve walked out the door and she’s now heading towards the tree she once told me about.
‘What did I say we do here?’ she’s sitting down on the bare ground. Am I supposed to sit beside her? I would gladly accept a chair but she doesn’t look like she’s in the mood for such triviality right now. I also straighten my feet on the dusty and sandy ground. Even the pavement would be a better option but as I’ve said, she doesn’t look like someone who’ll have any patience for my meaningless grievances.
‘Your position requires that you hold the knife by the blade. You know that, right?’
I’m inclined to nod but mistrust holds me back. Where is this going?
‘I’ve told you that my husband once left and came back a different man, ahi swona?’
‘You did’
‘What did I say about the state he came back in?’
Something about this conversation and her demeanour makes me uncomfortable. She said a lot of traumatizing things. Which part is she looking for me to quote?
‘Uhm… you said he used to…’ – I clear my congested throat – ‘You said he used to beat you up. And that he once threw a pot of offal at you’
I watch as she gathers soil and measures it into her other palm, alternately – like sand through an hourglass.
‘In as much as I have fought with blood and sweat for that throne over the years, if I knew that your husband carried such a huge resemblance of that wild animal, I wouldn’t have brought him back here’
Are we seriously doing this again?
‘Mhani, Kurhula and Fikani are basically the same person. Why do you insist on punishing one but not the other?’
I will never understand her logic because these people are mirror twins.
‘They’re not. The same way Edward and Edwin weren’t’
Edwin?
‘Who’s Edwin?’
‘The man who came here and stole my husband’s identity. The man who made us choose between the brutality of poverty and the warmth of our seats besides the throne’
This woman likes to speak in riddles.
‘I betrayed my husband for a snake that turned around to strike me on the heel’
I meet her gaze when my calculations begin falling into place.
‘Were you lying when you said he changed?’
‘There’s a difference between lying and modifying the truth so you can shed the load that you’re required to take to the grave. He did change, did he not?
‘But he wasn’t—’
‘Are you not the one who was saying my sons are the same person moments ago? Why can’t you apply the same smarts now to understand what it is I am entrusting you with?’
Why is her tone mad?
‘What curse was the boy talking about?’
‘The bad habit of consulting different healers isn’t only starting with now with your generation. That’s how Magezi gained access into this palace in the first place. That’s how the man who finished my children came into the picture!’
Her eyes are glassy, inflamed.
‘That man came here with the intention of destroying everything that Edward had built, including his wives. We knew it would get worse if Matimba became an official wife here, so Masingita and I took care of her, on her wedding day’
Is she now confessing to another murder? I am too stunned to speak. I’m even experiencing mild tinnitus.
‘She had to go’ she strongly emphasizes, shoving this into the brief silence that existed prior between us.
‘When he found out, that was the first time I saw tears dropping from his eyes. He never forgave us. Even went to the extent of cursing the throne together with his sister and that warlock of theirs’
When I suspected that there’s a lot I may not know about these people, the eye in my mind was not apt enough to look this far.
…
[KULANI]
I’m not alone in this house. The presence is heavier than most times and I’m perceiving the smell of cigarettes. I’ve been here for almost half and hour but I’m only perceiving it now.
I can feel myself slowly slipping into a trance. I want to open my eyes but they’re just too heavy. The only thing I can do is to allow it to happen.
Moments later, I begin to see them. Terrifying as they are, I cannot stand up from this couch and run because my legs are locked. The warriors have come to face me today, spears and all. One is approaching me and I vaguely recognize him.
‘When mere mortals threaten you, you do not turn away and cower. If you do, what does that say about us?’
He’s not happy with me.
‘Your husband still owes us. Warn him to tread carefully because when we say go left, we expect you to go left. Him dragging you to the right will have dire consequences’
I am still listening.
‘You walked into the lion’s den before. Have we ever failed you?’
That wasn’t a question; it was an instruction. I am tempted to ask questions but this isn’t the time for introductions.
Kurhula will have to forgive me. I get up from the couch and grab the car keys from the table. I also have to find out how AK is doing because no one is updating me.
Now I’m the one driving like I have extra lives. The fact that I have to stop by a filling station makes me grow more impatient. I am suddenly pumped up with confidence that does not match the fact that I am about to stand in front of the face of death.
I can hear the chants as I approach the royal house. I can also see Fikani addressing his angry people in front of the gate. My eyes meet my husband’s and I can see the flames in his. He’s standing under the light with his brother and he’s not happy that I have decided to show face.
‘She’s here!’ I hear someone scream. I lock the car as they surround it. Some are yelling that they’ve always known that I am a witch that I should be set on fire. Others are disputing and insistent that they have the wrong person. I close my eyes as I am being pulled in different directions and the voice in my head insists that I stay calm as nails dig into my skin. My heart is incapable of beating calmly in this moment.
When I see Larona, I find her looking at me with teary eyes.
A gunshot goes off and I shoot my eyes open. It’s Kurhula. He still has the weapon pointed to the sky and people have gone silent.
‘I’m trigger happy. I need someone who’s brave enough to put their hands on her again’
It’s still silent. I see someone raise their hand and Kurhula frowns daringly. The smoke from the fires is suffocating me. Uncle Sol is standing next his car with bodyguards beside him. A part of me wishes to smack those glasses off his face.
‘I want to say what I’ve been saying along the way here’ the voice sounds meek. ‘I am certain that this woman is being wrongfully accused. She saved the mother of my child’s life along with our baby. Does that sound like a witch?’
‘Yey! Stop licking arse! Why would one of the most respected uncles of this place lie?’ a giant of a man argues with the tone of a bully. I’ve once seen them together – him and Uncle Sol. ‘This is the same girl who has been to prison for murdering her own mother!’
Those who agree with him roar in unison.
‘She’s out, meaning she’s innocent. Do you understand how the law works or are you just walking around with this pumpkin head for nothing?!’ Larona argues. She should keep quiet before they pull her into this mess.
‘Are you in this together? Why would she spare an in-law when she could end her own mother? She’s probably the reason why that poor woman, may her soul rest in peace, was wrongfully burned. We will not tolerate it any longer. It is her turn now!’
I hear a woman’s laughter.
‘By poor woman, you mean Fanisa?’
‘I would also never forgive myself if I allowed you lot to punish the wrong person. This girl once bought me bread and I hadn’t asked. She passed me by the benches at the mall and a single look at me convinced her that I was hungry. She wasn’t wrong’
I may have never gotten his name, but I recognize this man. I am in tears. Not because I am facing execution for something I know nothing about but because of these people whom I never thought would one day stand up for me. They keep raising arms as if asking permission from a teacher in class, one after the other to speak in my defence.
We all turn when we hear footfalls pounding into the ground.
‘All these torches here are for who? This girl?’
The woman forcefully thrusts herself into the crowd and comes to stand in front of me. The stench of her heat-fermented armpit hits me. She’s also barefoot and has soap foam in her ears.
‘You will have to kill me first!’ she declares. Who is she?
‘The very same woman you’re fighting for had my son trapped in her house while I was convinced that I had buried him successfully. You think we don’t know???’
People begin gasping in shock.
‘Mhana Xitlhangu, we buried your son eight years ago. Or was it nine?’
‘I thought so too until he began tormenting me with dreams of him saying nothing because that witch had his tongue cut!’
The gasps grow in intensity.
‘Is this not the girl who helped set him free?’
How does she know? All I did was talk to their ancestors on their behalf, in their absence. I wasn’t even aware that I was successful in my attempt. I couldn’t afford to approach them as a family because the royal house would’ve been implicated, I was afraid.
‘My dear, thank you. We went to the abandoned ruins to go fetch his spirit. He is now resting peacefully’ she says to me and catches me off guard with a tight hug that almost knocks all the air out of my lungs.
‘This is not the time for chit chat’ the giant disturbs our moment. Another woman stands in the centre where she can find space, dragging a little girl by the wrist. I remember them.
‘Do you all see this child?’
Some mumble, some let out audible affirmatives.
‘How many of you remember calling me barren?’
The look on her face spells fury. I see a few guilty faces.
‘If it was not for this girl, you would still be having fun with slandering my name, bloody witches! Especially you, Mhani Maria’
It’s getting chaotic now.
‘The person who sent you here is the one you should be setting alight’ I hear Mhani Xongi’s voice before I can see her face. She steps forward, poised and sure. This woman?
‘He’s been working together with Fanisa to make sure that this royal house does not prosper’
They turn and look at him. His goons firm up.
‘If you don’t believe our queen mother, then take it from me’ Solomon Junior corroborates. Why is this boy so adamant on betraying his own father?
‘Son? Are you thinking straight?’ Uncle Sol’s voice is loaded with panic. When he fails to respond, the angry mob migrates in his direction. Uncle Wiseman’s silence and roaming eyes are telling of the state of his mind.
‘You know very well that you sacrificed my mother to these things of yours that are always demanding blood. Kaneta? Am I lying? Joe, move away from there if you still want to be on my payroll’ he commands and the bodyguards hesitate, then step away from his father a moment later.
‘Attacking a blind man is considered taboo in my culture!’ Uncle Sol screams out in his defence as they surround him.
‘In whose culture?’ Fikani and Sol Junior ask in unison. Why is no one calling the police?
Kurhula pulls me into a tight embrace. I’m only noticing now that I am trembling like a vibrating Nokia.
‘Where’s my… AK… where’s baby?’ I stutter. All the bravado that has led me here has evaporated.
‘He’s in the house. Are you okay?’ he’s gentle in his speech. I know we’re going to fight once all of this chaos dies down.
