Stars Aligned

Insert 19

Snakes' pov

Me: Jade?
Jade: Present uncle.
Siya: Check.
Sanele: Come this side.
Me: Lungi?
Lungi: Check.
Siya: Hey, you say present, I say check.
Lungi snickered along with Ronnie, these two were the worst case in our scenario.
Me: Veronica?
Silence, I swear that little punk is being silent deliberately.

I bite my tough in frustration, why that little-
Me: Veronica!?
Ronnie: Daddy?
I squat to her level and smile sweetly at her little frame.
Me: Baby, when I call your name, you say what?
Ronnie: Check!
The little jerks starts to laugh all together, that wasn't even funny, I find it hard that I was ever a kid.
Me: Check that.
Siya chuckles finding my encounter amusing.

Me: Khalu?
I hear incoherent words coming from Khalu who's eating his toy with baby drool all over the toy and himself.
Siya: Check.
He says running to him to take the toy and wipe his face. Being a Dad kinda looks good on him, I never really saw him this tamed before even with Jade he was composed. I clap my hands.
Me: Great everyone is here, now food.

What do these rascals eat? Sanele is on food department, Siya on nap time and reading books and well I am on playtime duty, the worst. Siya picks up Khalu and puts him on the stroller. Now we stand looking at each other, knowing my time has passed already, the kids are hungry, both me and Siya turn to Sanele. His eyes start to go wide at the realization that he's on food duty. He groans and walks off to the kitchen, he better not cook shit.

Siya: Isn't funny how we all big men out there but we can't even babysit four kids, hell our kids.
I chuckle at that, letting it sink it that I'm Dad, I have someone else's life in my hands. I have a mini Lisa, just like I've always wanted. I find my lips twitching at the memories we've talked about having kids and me wanting a baby girl, a mini her. The kids are now paying attention on the cartoons playing on the tv.

***

Me: What's this?
I take the bowl of whatever it is, it looks like goat slime. I scrunch my face in disgust, does anyone know how to cook here before Sanele burns my house down and poison our kids.
Sanele: Baby food I googled.
Siya: They don't eat those anymore, they six, five and three.
Me: Khalu ate already.
Sanele: So I made this for nothing? This took me an hour to make.

Me: I'm sure the kids have collapsed from hunger.
Siya: I'll order in.
Thankful for whoever genius invented restaurants, because right now we need it.
Me: Good idea.
Sanele: This is difficult than I thought, Mbali made it look so easy.
Me: Look man, I know close to nothing about kids, I just discovered that I have a three year old daughter that I didn't know about a few days ago and unlike you, I never got the chance to see her grow.
Sanele: Hade man ( Sorry man)
I smirk and shake it off, my anger has ebbed.

I was furious at Monalisa, the more I thought about her being pregnant, with a huge bump. Her giving birth alone. Holding my child for the first time, seeing her crawl, stand and walk for the first time. All her firsts that I never to experience because she denied me that right. But how could I be angry at her for that long, I love that woman. One thing I know is that, I'll never let her slip through my fingers again, Veronica will have many firsts, her first time at a school, puberty, and as much as it pains me to say this, her first boyfriend. And many more!

I inwardly cringe at the thought of my little girl having a boyfriend, boys!!!
Siya: That face, I know it all too well.
I look at him with a raised brow. He chuckles and sits next to me on the kitchen barstool.
Me: The fuck you talking about?
Siya: You think about Ronnie dating aren't you?
I avoid eye contact with him, how the hell did he know that.
Sanele: Have boys. Much more convenient.
Siya: You having twins in less than seven months.
Sanele: It could be two boys.
Me: You delusional.

He doesn't think that he'll have more boys now is he? I mean is it possible to bear only boys?
Me: Ronnie is banned from dating.
Sanele: She is literally three years old.
Me: Exactly, perfect age for her to have crushes and shit.
Siya: Yeah, I'm with bafo on this one, Jade is six, she started school a year ago and some boys have came to my house at the front of projects.
Me: That's the shit that makes me feel uncomfortable.

The door dinged, Sanele got up going to take the food. But when he didn't return after a while I got worried and looked at Siya to see him shrug. I walked over to the living room. My eyebrows shot up, what the fuck!?
Me: Lillian?
Lilly: Snaky! Hi.
Siya/Sanele: Snaky?
The two looked at each other, I didn't even notice Siya following me.

The whole house was now looking at me, the kids had stopped with their tv session and looked curiously at the woman standing at the doorway. This is not gonna end well.