UNBREAKABLE Novel Chapter 11

11

MLUNGHISI

It’s 4am and i just woke up. I get water and bath. After I’m done I take my bag and walk out. I would wait for everyone to wake up so I can say goodbye but i don’t want to see my father. I walk to the gate and my father stops me. Has he been up all this time?

“If you walk out that gate you are no longer my child. I’m not going to let you choose our enemies over us.”

I continue walking. I don’t care what he does anymore. I’m done groveling to him to get his approval. It’s time i live my life according to my will. On my own terms.

I get to my uncle’s house and Risuna is ready and waiting. I thank uncle and walk to the bus station. When we get there we wait for a taxi or bus.

“Babe,look behind us.” I look there and there’s a group of people coming. They are not going to do anything to her. I will fight them if I have to. I hear a sound of a bus coming. What a relief!

Just as the bus is close those people get to where we are. They have all kinds of weapons. I guess they came here to attack. That man I call a father must have alerted them. I pull Risuna to me. They will have to get through to me first before they get to her.

The bus stops and a guy pulls Risuna down as she gets in. I give her the bags and ask her to get in.

“Leave my woman alone. If it’s a fight that you want I can ask the driver to drive away and you and I will fight. What’s it going to be?” They all stare at me,anger evident on their faces. I am not scared. They can do whatever they want.

“Whoever wants to fight me must stop me from getting in this bus. ” I take the first step and look back. They are still staring at me. I get in and the door closes. I go and sit with my woman and watch those people as the engine comes to life.

I hold Risuna as she sniffs. Tears are falling. It’s understandable. That was an experience she never thought she’d go through. But she will never have to go through that again. For as long as I’m alive i will not let anyone put her through that again. This is my promise to her.

The bus comes to a stop and we get out. When I decided to leave home i had a plan. I wasn’t just going to leave without knowing where i would go. I decided to go straight to town to open a bank account and deposit all this mondy. I can’t walk around with a backpack full of money.

We get to the bank and the que is so long. I give the bags to Risuna and go get us something to eat. It’s almost 8am. Our town is a bit far. I get our food and go back. When I get there I find her inside. I give her her food and we eat.

After almost an hour we leave the bank branch. Even though there were some hard questions asked I ended up being able to open an account and my money is now safe. I have nothing to worry about now. We go to the bus station and the only busses available are leaving at 2pm. We go to the taxis and fortunately for us one is about to be full. We get in and immediately Risuna puts her head on my shoulder. I woke her up really early. And I don’t think she got any sleep last night. She must be tired.

…….

Risuna slept all the way home. We’ve arrived and I’ll be staying at justice’s home. Now I’m with her at my place. It’s been a long day. It’s almost 2pm now.

“I am sorry about everything that has been happening. I didn’t know that it was going to end this way. “

“Baby,it’s not your fault. You didn’t know that things were going to end this way. You didn’t know that your dad was going to come back.” She’s trying to make me not to feel bad. But I do. I feel like all of this is my fault. If I didn’t take a risk of taking her home with me we wouldn’t be here.

“Why does he hate you so much?” She’s talking about my dad. That man hates me. Growing up he would be strict. Way more strict when it comes to me. I hated it but after getting the story behind it I made peace with it and moved on.

“Baby,that man has always been like that. Especially with me. You know when you live your life to please someone? That’s how I lived. That man doesn’t care. As long as at the end of the month I bring in money and buy groceries then it’s fine. He will be good to me for that moment then suddenly change until the month end. He loves me for what I can do for him. All my life I’ve had to live according to his rules. “

When I asked my mother why my father was like that she didn’t hide it at all. She told me everything. She said that they were what we call high school sweethearts. They dated since high school then after high school my father found a job. They made plans to look for a place then get married. Everything was going well.

Then my mother fell pregnant. That’s where everything went wrong. My father was not ready to be a father. He didn’t want a baby before achieving what he wanted. He asked my mother to get rid of it. He even took her to the person who was going to perform the termination. When they got there my mother managed to run away.

My mother stayed away from my father until she gave birth. That’s when her family took her to my father’s home. At least he didn’t deny that he was the father. Soon they got married. But the man hated me. He actually hated me before i was even born.

I grew up differently from my siblings. When Basani was born I was four years old. She’s Risuna’s age. My mtoher said that my father was so happy. He treated Basani different. Not the same way he treated me. Same as Khensi and Dzunisani.

When I was in high school he tried to force me to stop going to school so that I could help him at his farm. My mother intervened and said that was not happening. His hate for me got worse. Then I finished grade 12. Soon after that I met a man who taught me all about welding. That man worked with me for a year. After that he took me to college. I used to work with him part time. When I finished with my studies my father was so happy and started acting like he was the one who took me to college. I then started working full time with that man. Last year he fell sick and left all of his equipment with me and went back to his home.

Every month my father is the one to ask about my payment or how much i made. I don’t tell him. I just give him grocery money and he goes to town with my mother to buy whatever is needed. But his hate never stopped. Peace was something foreign to me until i met my woman. That man can really drain the life out of you. This went on for so long because I let it. If i had put a stop to it a long time ago things would have been different. But it is what it is.

RISUNA

Life sometimes makes you go through things you never thought you would face. I never thought I’d ever be in a situation where my life would be threatened. I thout it was a joke when Mlunghisi woke me up. I thought maybe he just wanted me to stay up and spend time with him. But it was serious.

Hearing that those angry people came with fire after I left Mlunghisi’s home scared me. I didn’t know how to react. I’m still shocked. What would have happened to me if Mlunghisi didn’t hear his father leaving and took me to his uncle’s? And about this morning, were those people really going to attack me?

“Risuna answer your phone! it’sBeen making noise all this time.” Calvin, my second brothers says. He’s back from university. This is his last year doing his postgraduate studies. Education matters in this family. I’m actually the only one who didn’t further my studies after getting my degree.

“Please put it on silent. I’m not in the mood to talk to people. “

“Even Mlunghisi? when am i meeting him? You couldn’t stop talking about him. “

“Any time you want to. He stays around here now. You know, I almost died today and yesterday. I will never forget it.”

He looks at me with a raised eyebrow. I know he wants the full details.

“Relax. It’s not Mlunghisi who wanted to kill me. He’d never do that. His father went to let the chief know that I was there. The villagers came ready to attack. They wanted to burn me. Luckily Mlunghisi heard when his father left and went to hide me at his uncle’s. Then this morning when we were going to the bus stop the angry crowd came with weapons ready to attack me. He stood thers and faced them. But they didn’t do anything. “

“That’s a real man. So why are you ignoring him?”

“I feel bad,I feel like I’m ruining his life. He’s moving away from his home to come and stay here. His father hates me. He fought with his father because of me. I ruined his life. If we didn’t meet he’d be at home now and with his family. “

“You can’t do this to him. He chose you and now you want to disappoint him? ” I don’t want to disappoint him. I just want to get over this guilt that I’m feeling first.

Calvin takes my phone and answers it. He puts it on loudspeaker.

“Hello,this is Calvin. I’m Risuna’s brother. She’s sleeping. You can leave a message.”

“Oh,it’s Mlunghisi. I wanted to check up on her. Tell her I called.”

“Okay. I will tell her that you called. Uhm,please be patient with her. She feels guilty about what happened at your home.”

“Oh. I hear you. I just wanted to know if she was okay.” When the call ends Calvin looks at me.

“I will call him.”

I love this man so much. He cares about me and my wellbeing. I will never find aanother like him. So I will love him and hold onto him.

…………