Dark coffee

Chapter Forty

As soon as I stepped into the house, I saw Malik walk by me with a brownie and a glass of milk in his hand. When he saw me, he stopped walking and asked me, "What's going on with you and Darell?"

"Nothing that concerns you," I coldly said to him.

Instead of not caring and getting upset at the way I had spoken to him he remained surprisingly calm and told me kindly, "I'm not like Lens, I ain't gonna lie but you know you can talk to me too."

"It's over between us," I said to him.

"What the hell! Since when y'all not together anymore?"He asked surprised

"Why are you so surprised?"

"Because Darell genuinely loves you, but why exactly are you two not together anymore?"He asked concerned.

"It's so complicated. I wouldn't know where to start," I said desperately.

"Aight, don't worry I get it. I hope that even if  you not with him anymore you'll help him because right now he's living some messed up things, but you probably already know."

Malik's sentence surprised me. I had no idea what he was talking about. I was tempted to ask him what kind of problems Darell was having, but I didn't. I just fake smiled at him to pretend that I knew about it. Then I went up to my room and fell asleep.

The following week, I avoided Darell all week and deleted him from my social networks, because it was too much for me to see his name in my cell phone notifications. So, all week long, I avoided him.

When Friday arrived, I was excited, because the plane from Lens and Jamal would arrive at noon. They were back in Toronto since they had a long weekend off. My mother decided to organize a family supper since all of her children were in Toronto. She invited them over at 6pm.

At 17:52 p.m. Jamal, Estephania and their baby arrived. For the first half hour, we all discussed together in the living room. My mother's attention was on Katalehya. The next half hour, Estephania and I went to help my mother finish the cooking and set the table while Katalehya was in her lullaby. The meals were served around 7 pm. It was a nice family evening that did me a lot of good.

We had been sitting at the table for a while when Jamal made an announcement to our parents. He showed them a brochure with pictures of a beautiful house 5 minutes from our house. Our parents liked it very much. They thought it was modern and warm. After looking at the pictures, our father asked Jamal if he was planning to buy a second house. Our father knew that Jamal made a lot of money and he didn't want him to throw his money.

Before our father could finish his moral lesson, Jamal took out keys from his pocket and handed them to our parents, saying "This house is yours, not mine ubaba."

After that, I saw our father on the verge of tears. It was the first time in my life that I saw him in such a state. As for our mother, she cried with joy and went to give a million kisses on Jamal's forehead.

"Umama, don't embarrass me by treating me like a baby. I have a wife now," Jamal said with a big smile on his face.

"Wife or not you're still umntwana yami, umfana wami."
Zulu translation: My baby, my son.

"Umamezala is right amor. I'm a mother now I know her feeling, "said Estephania. My family and I were shocked to hear her actually pronounce it right.
Zulu translation:  Mother in law.

"I see my brother is teaching you Isizulu." I said to Estephania.

While I was talking,  our mother called our relatives in South Africa to show off. Our father then nodded desperately. Her reaction made Jamal, Malik, Lens, Estephania and I laugh.