The Two Of Us

Chapter 26

 

THE TWO OF US

CHAPTER 26

NOKUKHANYA MTHEMBU

She's just got to her place. It's 5am in the morning. She had to leave as early as possible because she was not supposed to spend a night there in the first place, especially, not in Bheka's bed, wrapped in his arms. It felt good though. She find herself smiling without her will at the thought.
"Last night was a biggest mistake," she keeps on repeating the words to herself. She knows that she is lying to herself, she wanted it as much as he did but still, she regret it. She shouldn't have let her feeling get the best of her but the truth must be told, she's never felt like that in a very long time. The sex couldn't be any better. This is not a 'biting on your lips when you think about it' matter because sex is like a pocket of snacks. Once you start, you barely can stop.  She doesn't want to catch feelings for Bheka. But do you catch feelings you never lost? She doubts.
She thought she was over it, over him but clearly not. When he gets close, she can barely think. When he touches her, it's another story. When their eyes lock, she just can't look away because she loves the butterflies that comes with his soft stares. Shall she continue to the kisses? The sex? With him everything is just so easy, it's like she belong there, like they belong together.

"Get over it Khanyo,"she says trying to snap herself out of her trance.

She's out of the shower, browsing through her closet when she remembers the most important part about last night. The condom! This is how she always fell pregnant, the guy like it raw. She exhales through her mouth, trying to calm down. She will have to go to the pharmacy when they open. She's too busy for a baby, she's not sure if she can afford one with all the bills she have to pay a month and she doesn't want to think of how her mother would react to all of this. She is thirty-four but her mother would roast her alive not for merely falling pregnant but for being impregnated by 'that Khumalo boy' again. "You never learn Nokukhanya, I really hope he leaves you again."
That woman delivers harsh truth no matter what.

Speak of the devil, she thinks to herself as she reaches for her ringing cell phone from the bed with her mother's name as the caller ID.

"Ntombi ka baba," she answers. That's how she always teases her mother, calling her, her father's girlfriend.

"Aunty Khanyo," it's Zethembiso. She shivers in fear at the panic in her voice. "Gogo got shot..." that's the only part that reaches her ears. Zethembiso is still talking but she can barely hear her. Her heart just stopped.

"Where? How? Is she okay?"

"She left the house at 3 to the tavern..."

"Zeh, is she okay?"

"I don't know, we're here at the clinic—"

"Is it bad? I mean, where's the wound? Is she going to make it? Is she..." she exhales through her mouth when she realises that she asking too much. Zeh is fifteen to know all those things.
"I will sort the medical aid," she says with a sigh, rubbing her wet eyes with her fingers.

"What was she doing at the tavern in the first place?"

"To tell bhut' Masiya to lock up."

Wow! Not that it was Masiya who was supposed to catch the bullet but isn't she too old to be acting Superwoman and leaving the house at 3:00 in the morning just to tell the employees to lock up? Isn't that what white people invented cell phones for?

They closes at 11pm during weekdays and at 4am during the weekends. So, she probably felt uneasy about something and decided to wake up and tell them to close before time. Her mother though!