The Two Of Us

Chapter 15

THE TWO OF US

CHAPTER 15

UKHONA MTHEMBU

Curiosity killed the cat. I might as well be one. My mother is hiding something from me. I'm not even suspecting, I know. That's what got me prying and ransacking my mother's bedroom. I cannot just lazy around the whole day, I have to be useful. I need to find that photo album she hid from me the other day. Maybe I will find a photo of my father or something because my mother seems like she want to tell me anything. Next year is too far, maybe I will be dead by that time if I don't do anything.

She had it hidden behind the shelves. I thought I knew my mother. I take the damn thing to my bedroom not caring to put things back like they were. On the very first page, there's a photo of a new born baby. It was taken back in 2002, there's a date by the corner. Now I'm sure I will only look at this toddler smiling photos. He has a cute smile though, no wonder he was photographed throughout year 2003. I even find myself smiling. I love babies, they're cute and innocent. I wonder who's kid is this? Probably Gogo's child that passed away at a young age. I've never heard of one but I mean if my mother was still in high school then, I'm sure Gogo could still get children. She's not that old after all. She's still fifty-six.  Their generation was full of potential wives, they'd hand themselves to the in-laws before they even reach adolescence.

A frown replaces my sad smile when realization finally hit me. The baby looks very familiar. No, he looks like Nathi. If it's a resent photo, I can even conclude that it's his son. Maybe that's why mother almost fainted when they met at the hospital. She thought it was her late brother. Maybe that's why she also told me to break up with him. She worries a lot. Nathi can never be her brother or cousin or whoever she thought he was. Just because this baby boy looks like him, it doesn't mean that it's him.
Well, my assumption are short-lived. Now there's another guy, probably my age. He's darker than the baby boy but they look exactly the same. Okay? If my mother didn't look thirteen on this photo I would say they're a couple or something but then they're just teenagers playing with a two-year-old if my left brain is still functioning well.
Is this baby even her baby brother? Doubt has found it way into my heart. What if–? Yoh! What if what? I don't want to go take that path. But no matter how much I try to resist the feeling that there's more behind these baby photos, the more I want to dig for more. I find myself taking out the photos out of the album pages. There are notes written at the back of many of the:

"Mommy loves you and she'll always do"

"I hope you don't hate me for this but I don't really have a choice"

"I hope you're okay with your new mother"

Haibo! Did she gave away this baby of hers or I am imagining things. The one that follows makes my heart race:

"I maybe young but you are my greatest gift Siphosethu"

I feel like my heart is being raptured. Tears just come ouf like a waterfall. It's just a coincidence! It have to be!

                 ____________________

NOKUKHANYA MTHEMBU

They've cleared the bad air between them. Now, she can have her beautiful day at work without pretending to like her boss. She's done glaring at him when looks the other direction but avoid eye contact when he looks her way. She wears her emotions like spectacles, you can read it all there in her eyes and the last she needed before this reconciliation was Bheka seeing through her and realizing how broken she is.

At least one problem is solved even though there's no still a mountain ahead. She need to tell Ukhona the truth and it might change their relationship because the girl has grown impulsive but whatever is bound to happen will happen. On the other hand, she wants to meet her son too. Of which is a dream that will never come true. Her children are going to hate her for life more especially with this dating situation involved.

She feels light, like a load has been lifted off of her shoulders. She's hymning a song she doesn't even know walking into her apartment. Ukhona must be in her room studying if not sleeping. Her bedroom door is slightly open. She peek inside and all the singing stops.
Ukhona is laying on  with photos scattered near her head like a pillow, some on the floor. She recognized the photos very well. Her heart hammers in her chest. She was going to tell her just today. Tell her why did she have to find out before she spills the beans? Now she's a worse person than what she was going to be.

"Khona," she test the waters.
She doesn't reply, probably asleep. Her breaths are shaky due to the weeping sounds. She cried herself to sleep. Khanyo's heart breaks at the sight. Things are getting worse. She's breaking Ukhona even more. She's snapped out of her head by Ukhona moving away from her touch.

"Don't touch me."

"Baby, you need to—"

"Whatever it is I don't need it!"

The last thing Khanyo can pay attention to, is the way this child is shouting at her. She's busy thinking of a way to say it.

"Who are these people Ma? Is this the reason why you almost fainted when you saw my boyfriend, the one that you told me to break up with?" She have a photo of a two-year-old Siphosethu in her hand.

"Tell me Ma! Tell me what I'm thinking is not true! Tell me!" the last words are followed by cry as she drops the photo back onto the bed.
Luckily, Khona doesn't protest when Khanyo wrap her arms around her.

"I'm sorry," is the only thing she manages to say.

"Please tell me that it's just a coincidence!"

She only keeps on saying sorry, rubbing her back.

"I have something to tell you," she softly says after the weeping situation has passed.
She start from the very beginning, when she was thirteen and crazy in love with a seventeen-year-old Bhekamantungwa Khumalo. He was in grade twelve and her? Well, she was a grade eight pupil. This is so embarrassing to talk about. She goes on, to the pregnancy, admitting that Nathi is her son and how he was taken away from her. Ukhona is a crying mess. Khanyo stutters trying to explain that she was only trying to protect her.

"If there's someone you should be hating, it's me. Bheka didn't know that I was pregnant. He just found out about you when you got admitted at St Adain's Hospital."

Ukhona doesn't say anything.
"I couldn't afford to another child to those people."

"Telling me who my fathers is and that I have a brother was not going to hurt anyone Ma! You ruined my life and that's the only excuse you have?"

"Khona."

She sits on her bed facing the other side. She's not going to answer her.

"He wants to meet you."

"Okay..."

"Really—?"

"Please do me a favor then and tell your boyfriend that I don't want to see any of you!"