MELAMINA THE QUEEN

CHAPTER 35

This near-death experience was a blessing in disguise. It brought together our family and it has been so long since we were all under the same roof. Busi hardly comes home because she took this marriage thing seriously. She doesn’t visit home unless it is really necessary. Like an event or a birthday celebration. But never randomly like Kuhle and I. Thando lives overseas, so I can’t exactly blame her for not coming home every now and then, but she is better than Busi. My older sister just isolates herself and I think it has more to do with personal and marital problems.

“You lost weight. What’s going on?” I ask as soon as we are alone with Thando. She sighs and looks outside the window.
“I know you think you are everyone’s rock, but you can’t fix every problem that you come across. And I am on a special diet. That’s why I lost weight. When was the last time you saw me?” she challenges, and I chuckle.
“You do know that all I have to do is touch you and I will know everything about what’s going on with you?”
She scoffs. “Have it your way.” She extends her hand and I look at it before looking at her eyes that carry so much sadness and grief. Her heart is so heavy, and I immediately feel a stab into my own heart. Like someone is plugging a knife into it over and over again.

I gasp and my eyes water. I suddenly feel like a weight has been placed on my back and I can’t breathe. “Busi, please talk now because this is weighing down on me. Literally. And that is not good for me.”
She chuckles angrily. “Why does everything have to be about you? Now I am forced to speak out just because you said so? You are not the boss of me, Futhy. I just want to leave this godforsaken place and go back to my house. You all are too much.” Her words weigh heavily on my shoulder so much that I slowly slide off the bed and my knees hit the floor before I know it.

“Busi come on. Speak before something happens.” Thando pleads in a frantic voice. My vision darkens until I see only darkness swallowing my family little by little.
“Futhy, Futhy.” I hear Busi calling me, and I feel her coming near. She touches my shoulders and I scurry away from her touch. Slowly, my vision goes back to normal, and I can see her sitting in front of me. “He is not the man I fell in love with and married. He changed within the past two years. He started having more business trips, late night meetings, incoming texts and calls that made him smile like a lovesick teenager. At first, I brushed off his behaviour. But then he started missing date nights, not spending time with the kids or finding an excuse to ditch family time. When I confronted him, he turned me into some overthinking psycho and said all my facts were just in my head. I had too much time on my plate. Then he gave me money and said I should go on a vacation to clear my head.

“I dismissed my suspicious and planned my trip. I was supposed to leave on a Thursday, but something came up and I had to reschedule my flight. I didn’t tell him about the changes. I went to surprise him on Thursday night at his workplace, but I am the one who got the shock of a lifetime. He was fucking one of his colleagues on his desk and he was screaming like never before. I screamed and he turned. That was the first time he had the decency to act shocked. He apologized and said the lady seduced him and all that bullshit. That was just the start of the whole drama. He continued cheating and when I told him that I am going to leave and take my kids with me, he said ‘Futhy will laugh in your face. She is still married but you are going to go back home and become a laughingstock. You wanna teach Thando to give up on love just because of a few hiccups?’ that’s how the emotional abuse started. He would tell me I am nothing without him. I even regrated resigning from my job because that somehow gave him the right to shit on my head.”

She continues telling us all the things she has been through and by the time she is done, instead of being sad and sympathizing with her, I feel this intense anger emanating from deep within. It’s like something or someone takes over my body that instant. I stand up and open the door. I march downstairs where all the men are seated and head straight to Busi’s husband.

NARRATED

Futhy walked into the lounge area where all the men were seated. She headed straight for Busi’s husband, grabbed him by the neck and gave him a mean right hook that shocked him to death. He tried freeing himself from Futhy’s hold but she was too strong. She gave him another punch and banged his head in the table. The men were shocked by all this while the women, who were now at the doorway, screamed.

“Futhy, what are you doing?” Busi shouted but Busi couldn’t hear anything.

“HOW DARE YOU MISTREAT MY DESCENDANT?” Futhy asked but the voice was not hers. It was a hoarse voice that no one had heard before. “SHE SHED TEARS IN THE ROYAL GROUNDS BECAUSE OF YOU! HOW DARE YOU ABUSE HER? WHO ARE YOU TO TREAT MY OWN BLOOD LIKE THAT? A FUCKING COMMONER WITH NO OUNCE OF ROYAL BLOOD? HURTING A PRINCESS? DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? DO YOU UNDERSTAND MY POWER? I CAN END YOU AND YOUR WHOLE FAMILY NOW WITHOUT BLINKING AN EYE! MAYBE I SHOULD DO IT!” She pulled him up and punched him again so hard that he landed on the floor.

“Lwandle.” Thokozani called out and Futhy turned to look at him, anger written all over her face.
“WENA THOKOZANI, HOW DARE YOU SIT THERE IN THAT HIGH HORSE OF YOURS AND WATCH WHILE MY CHILDREN SUFFER? WE GAVE YOU THIS GIFT JUST SO YOU COULD IGNORE ALL THE SIGNS AND THE VISIONS SHOWN TO YOU?” She asked with her head tilted to the side and turned to walk towards him. “WE SHOULD TAKE THIS GIFT OF YOURS BECAUSE YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO UTILIZE IT.”

It took Thokozani a while for him to realize that this wasn’t Futhy, but someone else had inhibited Futhy’s body. A spirit of a great ancestor. His great-great-great aunt, one of the most powerful healers the Mkhize royal family has ever had. She had a temper, and she was known for being violent if something angered her. She had never revealed herself to him, even by dream or vision. This was a first and Thokozani felt so overwhelmed. “Anti…”

Futhy scoffed. “ANTI MY FOOT. I DON’T WANT THIS BOY HERE OR ANYWHERE NEAR MY GRANDCHILD. IF HE GOES AGAINST MY WISHES, I WILL END HIM!” She stepped on Busi’s husband’s ankle who cried out in pain. She then walked to Ndosi and smirked at him. “HE IS YOURS TO DEAL WITH, NOW. DON’T DISAPPOINT ME!” instead of going back to the bedroom upstairs, she walked out of the palace and headed to the kraal.

Back inside the house, everyone was shocked by what had happened. Busi’s husband groaned and sat up. “What the hell just happened?” he murmured. Ndosi glanced at him for a few moments before turning to his eldest daughter.

“Busisiwe, mind explaining what just happened?” he asked Busi who was glued to the doorway like a statue. She couldn’t believe what just happened. She got to witness firsthand just how powerful her sister was and how intense her power can get. She blinked a few moments before turning her focus to her father. She swallowed hard. The time had come for Ndosi to know everything and there was no way of dodging this.