{SHORT}

TSAKANI

No one dared said anything after bubbles exited the room with Luxolo except for Sabelo’s dramatic “yoh!” that was a killer one. The ladies look traumatized, Okuhle is worse because she even passed out during the whole ordeal. Thembeka threw up on the spot, and Sabelo is shocked, and that’s only because he doubted bubbles abilities. Now he knows better than to mess with bubbles, and her sister. Ali is still standing in the same position he was standing in when they got here, his eyes are the only thing moving around.

“So, hhayi shame.” Mmathabo says clapping hands. “People just kill without even thinking twice, banyisana nou asiyekeni ukudelela bahlali because we will end up dying. I’m still wondering who wanted Nomalanga dead. You guys aren’t scared of dying, you have livers with bones Ishuu,” she continues saying.

“They really do have it. They just signed their death wishes unprovoked. Nomalanga is one of the kindest woman I know, and for one to want her dead it doesn’t make any sense. And I wonder who is it, because judging by bubbles & Emma’s conversation that killer is amongst you here, but who?”

Hlulani: “The killer knows her/himself, and I’m sure they are holding poop in their pants/skirt right now because of fear. They saw how ruthless, and zero fucks Tammy gives. Now imagine the two sisters dealing with the culprit? I mean, these people don’t care they don’t have any mercy on anyone, I’m scared on behalf of the person who attempted killing Nomalanga. Sometimes people need to understand that other people’s ancestors work overtime to protect their loved ones from any harm meant for them.”

Mmathabo: “We can only wonder, on a serious note can someone please remove Emma’s body here before Mmangwane comes here with the kids I don’t want them getting traumatized, they are still young to be witnessing such.”

Me: “Hlulani, Sabelo, let’s pick her up and take her body outside.” Sabelo’s knees are shaking, almost forgot that he’s a coward, yet he’s older than us, mxm. “Sabelo!” I punch him on his shoulder.

Him: “Damn it maarn, Tsakani! What’s your problem?” Eeh, why is yelling now?

Me: “We need your help in taking out Emma’s body out of the house before Mmangwane comes back with the kids.”

Him: “What? You want me to help you take the corpse outside? How much more do you want to see me traumatized? I have been traumatized enough already, this is why I never watch action movies! I hate seeing blood.” And he hates action movies shame, he’d rather watch comedy or cartoons. Sometimes I think that he’s lowkey-gay…

Mmathabo: “My husband is such a weakling nina, and that’s I’m always strong for the both of us. I will have to take him for therapy I don’t want him getting nightmares,” Hlulani chuckles.

“I will help,” Ali says stepping forward. I nod, and all 3 of us pick her up. Hlulani has her legs, Ali hands, and me her back, and we walk out of the house taking baby steps, yhiiii she’s heavy nina, yoh.

We can’t just put her anywhere, the big trash bin will do for now until we figure out what to do with her body.

Hlulani: “We can’t just leave her here. The kids play all over the yard they might stumble upon her body.”

Me: “We will put her inside the trash bin until we figure something out.” He nods. We put her inside the bin.

Him: “Now that I’ve helped you removing evidence, does that make me an accomplice to the murder?” I laugh.

Me: “Yeah, if we go down, you go down too.”

Him: “What?” Ali snarls. “Yeah, I’m an accomplice, I guess,” I shake my head, and we walk back inside the house. Ali’s python tattoos are the ish, but scary at the same time they are covering his neck. He is taller & bigger than me, but I can still beat him, ngingamushaya anye mina.

Me: “So, Ali. What do you do for a living?”

Him: “I remove problems in this world.” It simply means that he’s a hitman.

Me: “Willingly or paid?”

Him: “I pay myself, but some do pay me if they want me to remove problems for them.”

Me: “I see. It must be nice.”

Him: “It used to be before, but now I no longer enjoy it. My wife & I are done with being gangsters. We are approaching 40 years soon, and we need to get our priorities in order, we don’t want to expose our kids to such life, they deserve a better life. And luckily for us, we don’t have enemies lurking around the shadows I’ve long dealt with them.” I nod. “This is your time young ones, enjoy it, and make the most of it.”

Me: “We sure will, and thanks for the house man. It really means a lot to me.”

Him: “No stress man, after what my wife told me about you & Tammy not having privacy in your own house we both saw it fit to give you the house, at least the state agents won’t call us any more annoying us about selling them the house,” I nod laughing.

Me: “Thanks, once more man.” Since, I didn’t go with Batista to town I guess I will have to go with bubbles seeing that both our plans got interrupted.

Mmathabo: “I tried cleaning up the blood, but we will need inyaga to cleanse the house because I don’t want to have bad dreams at night, or Sabelo shouting in his sleep,” she tells us as we step inside the house. The others are not around I wonder where are they…

Hlulani: “Where’s everyone?”

Her: “In their rooms. They all left when I asked them to help me clean up, they are still traumatized about what happened, they’ve never seen someone getting killed before.”

Hlulani: “I’m sure they think that the two of us once killed people since we are the ones who are cleaning up the mess.”

Her: “Exactly. But I don’t care about them, they need to understand that Tsakani is a gangster, and killings will happen every now & then especially that we now live together. Tsakani’s enemies will come at any given time that’s if he has any, and we must all be ready, and adapt to this lifestyle. The sooner everyone accepts this reality, the better for all of us.”

Hlulani: “You need to understand that this is a total different thing to them, they are not used to this side of violence. I’m also not used to this, it was better while it was a distance thing that would’ve been understandable, but now that we are living it. Yoh, hhayi it’s a total different story.”

Her: “Different? That’s bullshit. Everyone here knows Tsakani’s lifestyle, and they knew very well that sooner or later we will be bound to witness it within us, especially after the war, but ke… Who am I to advocate for everyone? And unfortunately for everyone this is a house full of killers whether directly or indirectly.”

Me: “You are right, but one thing I will ever do is to put you guys in danger intentionally. None of my enemies know about this place, and as far as I’m concerned I have no enemies lurking in the shadows. You are all safe.”

Her: “But that doesn’t change the fact that we live with a killer in this house.”

Hlulani: “And Tammy will deal with that killer since she said she knows him/her, funny enough I don’t suspect anyone. I don’t think Bulelwa did it though as much as she doesn’t like Nomalanga, she would never kill her.”

Me: “We will never know hey, let’s just say everyone is a suspect until Tammy tell us who the killer is.”

Mmathabo: “You are right. I’m also a suspect, but I didn’t kill Nomalanga. I love that woman, I can’t wait for the day where Tammy exposes the real killer.”

Hlulani: “We will probably pass out when she exposes him/her.” I shake my head.

★»★«

LUXOLO

I thought I was the only one whose phone doesn’t have pattern/password, but it seems like I was wrong because Emma is in the same boat as me. Biggie is sitting on the edge of the bed looking at Nomalanga, and Jabu is cleaning up Annah’s blood on the wall and on the floor, traumatized as she is

she’s doing her job. Yazi biggie may act like she doesn’t care about Nomalanga, but deep down she does, a lot for that matter. Her worried expression says it all, I know that Nomalanga did her bad and all but she, too, deserves a second chance in fact, everyone deserves a second chance, well, not entirely everyone but those who really deserve it. 

I’m going through Emma’s phone log and there’s a number that she’s been receiving calls frequently from, and the last call she received from this very same number was 30 minutes ago. Hmmm, I wonder who do they belong too, but my suspicions are already on someone, I sommar suspect her, and if it is indeed her… Hehehe, may God and her ancestors accept her soul. Messages are cleared, and she doesn’t have WhatsApp.

“Found out who is it already?” Biggie asks averting her attention to me.

“I know who it is, but I just want to be sure before I act on it,” I reply walking to her.

Her: “Don’t you have true caller?”

Me: “No. Let me download it.”

“No need. I have it, but you can still download it for future purposes,” Jabu tells me.

Me: “Oh, please check for me who these numbers belong too,” handing her the phone.

Biggie: “When is Nomalanga going to wake up, Jabu?”

Her: “When she wants too, but it won’t be long until she’s awake,” she nods. “These numbers belong to Thembeka Mvilane.” I chuckle shaking my head. Just as I suspected! Now it explains why she was chatting me up earlier on, she was actually trying to delay me from getting inside the house, if I continued chatting her up I would’ve been too late to save my mother. Hahaha, bloody whore. But wait, where did she get the money to pay Dr Strydom? Because I’m sure that Emma was paid a lot of money, her services charges are insane, even her consultation is someone’s 3 months salary. Or maybe she does have money, after all I don’t know how full her pockets are.

Biggie: “Any idea who she is smallie?” She gets off the bed.

Me: “Yeah, it’s that pregnant granny. Talon’s baby Mama!”

Her: “What’s her problem with Nomalanga? And was she amongst you when I came inside the house?”

Me: “Yes, she was, and I don’t know what her problem is with Nomalanga. We are yet to find out, but then there’s only one problem.”

Her: “What is it?”

Me: “We can’t sort her out since she’s still pregnant, we need to wait for her to give birth first then we deal with her accordingly. Her baby won’t be an orphan then, Talon will take care of it once born,” she clicks her tongue shaking her head.

Her: “No. We need to deal with her now smallie, and I know just a person who can help her give birth fast without hospital equipment, and shit. She will slice her up once, and her baby will be born.”

Me: “No. Let’s wait for her to give birth first Biggie, then we confront her, and she will give us all the answers we need. She will tell us why she hates Nomalanga to an extent of wanting her dead, I mean my mother is a good woman, well, not good- good but yeah.”

Her: “Guess you are right. How far long is she?”

Me: “I don’t know, but she looks very much ready to pop in a month or two,” she sneers.

Her: “A month or two? We can’t wait that long Tammy! She must die, I mean she was ready to get your mother, Nomalanga, killed without even giving it a second doubt, why must we be lenient with her? I just don’t get it!”

Me: “I don’t want to give Talon any reason to hate me if I kill his unborn baby, and I definitely don’t want to rob him of the chance of being a father. The baby is innocent in all of this.”

Her: “Whatever. But we need to quicken her labor pains or something, since she’s on her 3rd trimester it will make things easy for us, she will give birth to a pre-term baby, and that baby will come out healthy.”

Me: “Let me sleep on it, then I will reply you tomorrow. I’m sure some mind-blowing sex will get me back to my senses!”

Her: “I trust it will, you really need it.” I laugh.

Me: “So, I take it that you’ve forgiven Nomalanga.”

Her: “I haven’t, but I do want justice for her. She’s your mother after all, and she was all that you had until I came along. Well, and until Tsakani came along of course.”

Me: “I see. Hopefully one day you will find it in your heart to forgive her, and give her a chance to be a mother to you, and make it up for all the time lost.”

Her: “I don’t know about that honestly. Did you ask her about who your father is?”

Me: “I was going to ask her today, and this happened I guess I will have to wait for her to recover, and ask her. Do you think we share a same father?”

Her: “No. We don’t.”

Me: “How do you know?”

Her: “Because I’m the only daughter he has, but the might be a possibility tha-t, argh. Never mind.”

Me: “No. Tell me. The might be a possibility that?”

Her: “Forget I said anything. I’m sure your mother will tell you everything, and just to let know I hate my father too. I truly do.”

Me: “Why did you even start telling me? Don’t start something you can’t finish, Tammy!”

Her: “Your mother will tell you everything, I’m in no position to tell you this. My mouth can be much at times, it’s best you hear this from your mother herself than me.”

Me: “Why don’t you just tell me?”

Her: “Because I, too, don’t know anything.”

Me: “Mxm. Yet you call yourself my sister, fuck you. Besides, you are the one who told me, I didn’t ask you!”

Her: “I know, but trust me when I say it will be better if you hear it from your mother’s mouth.” Nxa, yazi abantu bayadina. Why bring up an interesting topic only for you not to go ahead with it? Ai. Ubu selfish nje lobo. Luxolo is being selfish now.

“Urh-m, I think I’m done for the day. Can I leave?” Jabu says. Yazi I’ve completely forgotten about her presence yazi.

Biggie: “You still here? I’ve completely forgotten about you.”

Her: “I’ve figured.”

Biggie: If we allow you to leave, what are we expected to do when she wakes up? We are clueless about these things.”

Me: “Why don’t you be her stay in nurse once until she fully healed or something? I mean, we can’t watch over her, and besides you are the experienced one here.”

Jabu: “But you do know that nothing is for free right?”

Me: “Of course. We will pay you just make sure that she becomes better,” she nods.

Biggie: “And if you need anything do not hesitate to tell us.” Ncoahhh, she cares, how cute. At least she’s trying to warm up to her. But, I still want to know what she wanted to tell me, and knowing her no matter how much I press on she will never tell me, yinja this child. I still love her anyway…