TSAKANI

I look at the time and it’s just afternoon, I’ve asked for a meeting with my mother & brothers. I’ve booked for spa day for Nomalanga, Mmangwane, and the ladies together with the kids for the whole day, they will only be back later. For now, it’s just me & my family we have something to iron out. Kedibone, is the only one missing that one doesn’t care about her family that’s for sure, she hardly calls us, and when I try calling her, her number goes through voicemail. Argh, no wonder everyone has given up on her, she’s stubborn.

“You sounded urgent over the phone, what’s up?” Hlulani implores taking a sip of his protein shake. I sigh, and glare at everyone present, but at my mother mostly. The one I need answers from. She has gotten away with so much and has secrets that she thought she was going to take to the grave, but she’s wrong. Very wrong, and today is the day for her to tell us where exactly our fathers are, for her to tell us nothing but the truth we’ve had it with her bullshit, and her dodging us.

Bubbles & I did some research on our own after the meeting with her father. The shock on my face when she told me that Tsebo, our family Dr. Is her father, was nothing compared to all the other shocks I’ve ever had in my whole life, I was really taken aback by the revelation. But then again, I never paid much attention to such, and it never crossed my mind that Tsebo is bubbles father even though there’s some resemblance that I spotted recently between the two of them it just never strikes me that they are father & daughter, guess I never really paid to much attention to his features, but then. Who pays attention to another man’s face? That so wrong, and comes off gay too. Anyway, the findings regarding our fathers were shocking, and unfortunately for me, my father & Hlulani is no more he passed on 6 years ago due to heart complications so says the first report, but when we dig deeper regarding his death we found out that he was actually killed whilst at the hospital. It’s quite clear that someone suffocated him with a pillow because there were no signs of drugs/poison in his blood. And he had 2 more kids younger than Hlulani & I, and they are a successful bunch and his wife is still alive, but they reside abroad.

“Speak up man, we don’t have the whole day,” Sabelo notifies me.

Me: “Ma. Where are our fathers?” I don’t shift my gaze at her.

Her: “You called this meeting just to ask me nonsense?” She half yells, rolling her eyes at me.

Me: “Asking about our fathers is not nonsense, we just want to know where they are then we will take it from there.”

Hlulani: “Yeah, mom. Where are our fathers?”

Her: “After all that I’ve done for you, you come here and ask me shit? I’ve raised all of you single handily without your fathers. That should tell you that I don’t know where your fathers are, and once again that should tell you that they actually don’t want anything to do with you because they never bothered to reach out to you!” An unintentional chuckle leaves my mouth.

Sabelo: “Mama, and we are very grateful that you raised us to be the men that we are today, but then again it won’t hurt you or take anything from you by telling us where our fathers are.”

Her: “Why want to know them now, old as you are? You are grown men with beards and have kids, yet, here you are asking me about your deadbeat fathers! Seniyahlanya nina?”

Me: “Stop going around in circles, just give us their names and we’ll take it from there.”

Her: “No. I won’t tell you anything, because there’s nothing to say to you boys, and this better be the last time you bring this topic up!”

Me: “I knew that you’d become all defensive and not tell us anything, well, I did research of my own and my findings were quite interesting.”

Her: “What did you find?”

Me: “Well, I found out that Hlulani & I are sons of Mr. Chauke, former tycoon, baseball coach, motivational speaker, and ran a few community projects working side to side with Tsebo, of course. He passed away 6 years ago due to heart complications, and before he died he tried reaching out to you about us, and you turned him away by lying to him that we were dead.”

Hlulani: “What? You killed us whilst we are still alive? You have some audacity Mama! How can you do such?”

Her: Gasps. “You are lying Tsakani! You do…”

Me: “Shut the hell up I’m still talking!” She gasps again, and my brothers glare at me in shock, I ignore their expression. “As I was saying; “You even showed him fake death certificates of me & Hlulani, and the poor man believed that. He mourned for us, and maybe that’s another reason why he had heart complications. It’s because of you and your evil ways,” she looks down when I tell her that and she doesn’t even try disputing that because I have evidence in my hand.

Hlulani: “How dare you Mama! How dare you rob us of a chance of knowing our father? You are one evil woman, I detest you! You robbed us the chance of having a father, how could you be so heartless!” He bangs the table causing Babalwa to jump. “You are dead to me, from now onward you are no longer my mother I don’t want anything to do with you!” He abruptly rises from the couch and leaves our presence, he’s pissed off, but he will come around that’s for sure.

Me: “Hlulani just needs to breathe & calm down he will be fine, I mean it’s not nice finding out that you were once declared as a dead person while alive, outrageous. Moving right along, Sabelo, your father is still alive, but very sick he has stage 3 cancer, and he might vaya anytime soon. He doesn’t know about your existence because he broke things off with Mama not knowing that she’s pregnant with you, and Mama didn’t even see it fit to let him know since he was now a married man, and had a child on the way. Piece of shit. Then Dakalo & Kedibone’s father is alive, and what’s funny is that I once worked for their father, shit life it is I tell you. I can’t believe that I was actually slaving for your father Dakalo. The very same man that wanted to kill me for business, for the fact that I was quickly climbing the ladder and growing my own wings, pffft. What a joke.”

Dakalo: “And who is that man?” I grimace and glare at Babalwa who’s face is hanging down.”

Me: “Mr.Mazibuko. Lawrence the fucking Mazibuko is your father.” He laughs, like seriously laughing as if I just cracked a joke or something.

Him: “You must be kidding me! Mr. Mazibuko? The one and only Mr. Mazibuko is my father?” I nod. “Mama, is it true? And please don’t lie to me.” She lifts her head and looks at her, tears veiling her eyes. Then, she nods. “Wow! Why did you never tell us this, Mama? How can you be so evil? No wonder you have anger issues, uyanyayisa old as you are. Excuse me, he rises from his seat too, and leaves our presence. Sabelo is the only one remaining digesting all this.

Me: “Well, it is up to you Sabelo, and the guys to go and look for your fathers and take it from there. And as for me, I have a plane to catch. See you around,” I wink and turn around making my way to the door whistling.

Once out of the house, I find Dakalo & Hlulani sitting in one of the benches apart from each other, lost in their own thoughts. They will be fine. Hlulani & I must make a day and go visit our father’s grave. If it wasn’t for bubbles I wouldn’t have known who my father is, and Tsebo really came through for me with half of the information he has given me. He was a great help indeed. But now, bubbles and I must go to Italy, apparently, she has business to take of and she’d really appreciate it if I leave with her. She doesn’t want her father meddling in her business.

I step inside my car and bring the engine to life, then take off. I’m heading straight to the airport, that’s where bubbles is waiting for me. Hope the trip is going to be worth it, even though I don’t really know what we are going to do there, but she needs me there.

★»★«

VUYO

My relationship with Nandi is the best. We are attending therapy together and I’ve taken her back to school, she only has a grade 9 report with her, so she opted to go to Tvet college instead of going back to school, and I did just that, she’s doing levels thereby college and she’s such a smart kid. Blessing is one happy soul, and I’m glad to say that Dineo has given birth a week ago and it’s a boy. His name is Yezwe Justine Maraba. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get hold of Dineo’s relatives it’s like they’ve all got swallowed by the ground or died during the war I don’t know. I wanted to do right by her and my son. Oh well, guess it’s part of life…

My search of finding my sister is not going well because I don’t even know where to begin, and my Uncle is refusing to tell me where to find her, he knows about her existence, but then again he said it’s best if I don’t know her because she’s bad news. But I’m not going to give up on finding her

at least I got her first name and her mother’s name, I will work around them. Hopefully, I’ll find her before the week ends. My phone rings, I look at the screen and it’s a number I’m familiar with, we may have dated years back, but I still know her numbers by the head. I don’t know what she wants from me. I watch it ring until my phone stops ringing. Blocking her numbers will do just fine. 

“Baba, aunty Dinny is requesting your presence immediately,” Nandi notifies me.

“Is there anything wrong?” I implore following her to our room.

Her: “No. There’s nothing wrong she’s just requesting your presence, maybe she misses you,” I laugh. “I’m serious, she really loves you that I can tell you. I may not know her for long, but the little time I spent with her is enough for me to conclude that she’s the one for you, I like her a lot,” she gives me an assuring smile, and I return it back. We step inside the room and Yezwe is in Blessing’s hands, he’s playing with him. Their bond is too much, and I’m here for it.

Me: “You called for me,” she nods sitting upright. “What is it?” I crawl into bed, and settle next to her.

Her: “I just wanted to see your ugly face, I missed it.” I laugh, funny is she.

Me: “What do you want?” I raise my brow at her. I know her tricks very well.

Her: “Psssh. I don’t want anything from you, darling. I just wanted to see you.”

Me: “I know you, Dee. You are my woman. Now, tell me what is it that you want?” She giggles shaking her head, then looks at Nandi. Guess Nandi is the one who wants something and she asked Dee to ask me for that particular thing on her behalf. “Ufunani sisi?”

Nandi: “I-, ” she stops talking and purse her lips together. I gesture for her to continue talking using my hand. “Urhm, I was wondering if I could get a new phone my old phone is giving me problems especially the screen.”

Me: “Now, was it hard to ask me that yourself?”

Her: “Yeah, it’s just that I’m not used to asking for things.”

Me: “Child. You can ask anything from me, I’m your father Nandi. And you are my responsibility. Don’t ever think that you are troubling me when you ask for things, okay?” She nods.

Blessing: “You should be like me, Nandi. I always ask what I want, but the only problem is that I have work for those things.” He sulks, and we all laugh.

Her: “I will remember that next time little champ.”

Me: “I will get you a new phone, don’t worry, Nandi.”

Her: “Thank you, Baba. So, what will be my duties in order for me to get my phone?”

Me: “Just make me a proud father and ace your grades, that’s all I’m asking from you.”

Her: “I promise you. Let me go and start cooking,” she steps out of the room leaving me and my three1 Musketeers.

Dineo: “I love her, she’s such a lovely child. It’s a good thing that you guys attended therapy. You are such a great father, Vuyo. Don’t ever doubt that,” she squeezes my hand.

Me: “I know sweety, I know.” I lie my head on her chest, listening to her heartbeat. With Dineo I feel content unlike I was with Cindy, and I get to be myself without her judging me or pointing my flaws. She corrects me when I’m wrong, and she’s a very good financial advisor I’m very lucky to have a woman like her in my life. God, brought her into my life at a perfect time. I’m grateful.

★»★«

LUXOLO

Touchdown Italy, and we will be staying in townhouse galleria in Milan, located inside Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. Tsakani, is really impressed by it, I am too, I only saw it when I passed by I didn’t know that inside was this beautiful. The money is very steep though, but hey, we can afford it so why not? And this will be a good thing for Tsakani, hopefully by him being here will stop him from thinking about his friends every now & then, and that he will finally have a peaceful sleep, he deserves it.

“Wow, bubbles. This place is beautiful. I’m in love with it,” he compliments as we get inside our room. He puts our luggage on top of the bed. The room is extremely beautiful, the bedding is crisp white, and so is the carpet, in fact, this whole room is white. Everything here is white. I just don’t get it, why do all these hotels & BnBs have white bedding, towels, walk-in closets, etc? I’d really like to see a different set up with bright colors, dark colors, or mixed colors and all. Or maybe I’m just weird.

“Very beautiful indeed. Look, you can even see the view from here and we can even watch the sky whilst in bed.”

Him: “Hmmm, so, there are no witches here?” I laugh. “I’m serious my love, I don’t like the fact that we can see the sky while in bed, no.”

Me: “No problem. We can always use the remote to close the window, the binds will just fall down shutting the window altogether.”

Him: “Now, we are talking. So, why are we here?”

Me: “I’m here to settle a score with someone.”

Him: “Nikolai?” I nod. “How are we going to get there since you said that the place is too secured and the walls are high?”

Me: “Underground. There’s a passage leading there, and it will take us out in this other room filled with golds & diamonds, and from there we will climb the ladder and it will take us to the dead room, yuck the smell is very unpleasant in that room, sies. Then, we will wait in the dead room for one of the guards to come and dispose of a fresh corpse, we attack the guard and you will wear his clothes posing as one of them, and I will check the coast, if we are clear then I will give you a room number, that’s where Nikolai sleeps, then I will show you his office. And we will take it from there. Ung’bambile?”

Him: “Yeap, go the plan loud & clear. So, how much gold & diamond is there?”

Me: “Do you see how big this room is?”  He nods. “It fills this entire room, there are even monuments crafted in gold. Let me tell not tell you, you will see it when we get there tomorrow. For now, let’s sleep I’m tired.”

Him: “Let me get my sleeping tablets then.”

Me: “You don’t need them, let’s snuggle, you will sleep peacefully and the sound of the wind is mind soothing together with the angry waves that we can hear all the way from here. Relax your mind, body, and soul. Think of something positive or you can always think of me naked,” he grins. I wiggle my brows and he chuckles.

Him: “That can work, that’s the first useful thing you’ve said so far since we got here,” I punch him on his shoulder lightly laughing.

Me: “I can be clever too at times.”

Him: “And that’s why I love you so much,” he lies with his tummy then brings his arms together making some sort of a pillow with them, then rests his head on them, and I get on top of him, I do the same with my hands on his back and close my eyes.

Nikolai is in for a big surprise, plus I heard that there’s some black-tie event that will be taking place tomorrow night, and it’s strictly invitation. Shame, if only he knew that some of us don’t even need invitations to make ourselves present in these events of theirs., I’ll be doing this for Maxine, and all the girls that died at the hands of Nikolai. All the girls that are there will be free from all that torturing that Nikolai puts them through every day.

Then, You are next in line, sunshine, that I can assure you. I tap my fingers in Tsakani’s back in my mind, I’m already planning on how I’m going to kill her. I face out the window and watch the night sky and it’s a very beautiful sight to witness.