Keith and I are in Tholoana Kingdom. Senzi’s biological father is doing some sort of ritual for Senzi today. Senzi will be accepting the Maphumulo surname and divorcing the Twala surname. That’s how Wandi explained it to us. This has been quite the time for Wandi and Senzi. But Wandi says that since Senzi’s biological father extended the olive branch to him, he has been a lot more at peace. And I’m happy for him. He needs this and he deserves peace. 

We left Risuna with my mother. He cried when he left and that made Keith feel some type of way. But we can’t bring Risuna to these kinds of things. I’ve come here to support the Maphumulo family and help where I can. Risuna would have people thinking ke phuthile matsoho instead of helping out in the house. Maybe when he is a little bit older like Morafe’s kids, I’d be able to take him everywhere because he’d see other kids and just play. But right now, all he wants is Keith and me. And we will both be busy. 

We phoned my mom thirty minutes into our drive to Tholoana Kingdom from Sebokeng. She told me that Risuna stopped crying five minutes after we left. He’s now chilling and being busy in his playpen. Keith was relieved. We also know that when Risuna is with my mom, Keith’s mom can pop in and see him any time because she’s right next door. Risuna is very aware of both his grandmothers, and I actually think that it’s beautiful. 

We arrive at the location that Wandi sent us at about 9am. Apparently this mansion that we see before us is where Senzi’s biological father lives with his wife and other kids. Lady Laura doesn’t play hey. Have everything or she doesn’t want you at all. Yoh!

Keith and I get out of the car and make our way inside. Morafe finds us first. She and I hug and are super excited to see each other. Someone comes to take Keith. He introduces himself as Reahile. We both say that we are happy to meet him then he and Keith disappear. Morafe and I make our way into the house. Keith finds someone to help him offload all the things my mom made for us to bring with us: four buckets of ginger beer (i.e. gemere) six buckets of baked biscuits and scones, and three containers of amagwinya.  

I get into the kitchen and I’m introduced to so many people. Wandi’s mom hugs me as well. When she sees the stuff that we brought coming into the kitchen, she asks me why my mom didn’t come with us. 

“She’s looking after Risuna for us”, I tell her. 

The guys are already digging into the amagwinya and gemere.

“Heh bathung!” A lady named Letlali says. 

Apparently, people haven’t eaten. We are waiting for the rituals to be completed. 

“Mah, we are hungry. We’ve been here since 5am. Aowa”, a guy named Mnqobi says. Apparently, it’s her son. 

No but these men just finished a whole container. Then older men come – apparently husbands to the women in here. They box the second container… and the third. The wives complained then eventually let them be. When they left with amagwinya and two buckets of gemere, we women helped ourselves to baked scones and biscuits and gemere as well. Mama is definitely the MVP of the morning. 

Now people are in their squads. I’m chilling with Morafe. 

“Where are the kiddies?” I ask her.

“With my sister. I didn’t want to wake them up too early. Thabang will arrive with them around lunch time”. She says.

“Hai bo! Madam! Wena leThabang?”

She’s been keeping us updated on the WhatsApp group. These two… 

“He’s really great with my kids watsiba”, she says.

“And he’s great with you too”, I say.

“He is. I just don’t know if I’m ready. But I might just be forced to marry him”, she says. 

“What do you mean?” I ask her.

“Eish chomi. I’ll tell you and Wandi together a bit later on. Is Lady Laura coming?” She asks me. 

As the receptionist, I know and hear everything. I’m just professional about it so you’d never know that I know stuff.

“She wanted to shame. Apparently, Wandi’s mom encouraged her to come here and support her son. I mean, Senzi is her son. Yoh, bishop a re nix! He basically said that Lady Laura and Senzi have embarrassed him enough. If she attends this, they are done. She’s not here, so I guess she… you know…” 

“Ke sono watsiba. Senzi wabathu.”

“Eish wena”.

Senzi, Wandi and the Maphumulo family finally step into the kitchen where the women are. We hear ululating. We see by their smiles that it’s all peaches and cream. Plus, it’s raining and apparently that’s all related to luck for the ceremony. 

We greet Wandi and Senzi. Then we get to meet Senzi’s father, his two brothers – Ntuthuko and Akwande – as well his very nice stepmother, Mme Refiloe. Everyone here calls her Fifi. 

This rain is now pouring. Then Wandi has been tasked with washing animal insides. So Morafe and I are helping her. But we are being poured on. Morafe’s phone rings mid our chatter and laughter. 

“Thabang”, she answers her phone. 

…

“I’m worried about the rain, watsiba”. 

…

“Okay. There are some kids here. It’s just… ke bana. They’ll want to play in the rain.” 

…

“Okay cool. Ke tla le bona when you get here”. 

…

“Shup”. 

She hangs up. 

Wandi and I both look at her. 

“He was asking if he should still bring the kids with the rain and all”, she says.

“You said you might need to marry him. Why?” I ask.

“What?!” Wandi.

Morafe seems a bit down.

“Bryan found me.” She says.

“WHAT?!” Wandi and I both say.

“Yeah. He kept trying to break into our house. Then I asked Thabang to just look after the house while I went home with the kids. Thabang found him. He was taken to a prison and I had to go identify him because he came into the kingdom with a fake ID”, she says.

“Bathung wena!” Me.

“So, when I identified him, the government dealt with him. The next thing, his family comes to my mom’s house and states that now that Bryan is dead, I have to marry his brother so the kids can still be raised in their family. And they want me to go back to Zim with them.” 

“MORAFE!” Wandi and I say.

“I obviously said no. I’m not going to Zim and I want nothing to do with that family. Then they said they’d take Tshenolo and Mosetsana because they are their children. My mom told them where to get off because Bryan didn’t even bring a chicken to acknowledge those kids. Those kids are Letuka kids and that’s that. They said they’d fight us. Legally, in Tholoana Kingdom, they can’t touch us. We are protected. Thabang suggested that we get married. If we get married, he will acknowledge my kids and they’ll have his surname. Then he has recourse to actually protect us and fight that family for us.” She says.

“So, what’s your reservation about marrying him?” Wandi.

“He’s married. To two women.” Morafe.

“If you don’t love him, why do you care?” Me.

“I’m worried about how my kids would be received in his family.” Morafe.

“What is he saying about that?” I ask her. 

“He says I have nothing to worry about. I just can’t help but worry.” Morafe. 

“I say go for it. One, I think you really like him more than you are letting on. Two, you and the kids will have a senatla who has your back. And three, clearly with his influence and position in this country, you’ll be more than untouchable. And four, you’ll get some on a regular basis without the abuse.” Me.

We look at each other. We burst into laughter.

“I’m with Bassie on this one”, Wandi.

Morafe just laughs.

“Ladies”, Mme Refiloe says. I think she came to check on us.

“Hi mme.” we say.

“Nama ishup?” She asks us.

We are actually done washing it. She inspects it then she takes it to go and start cooking it. Then she gives us tasks in the kitchen, the biggest one being that we must mingle with the other girls that are here.

We don’t mind. And we would have done so eventually. We just needed to catch up as well. We haven’t been together like this in a very long time. 

…

It’s about 6pm now and we see our women walking towards us with food. Yoh, we are super grateful. We’ve been working in the rain all day surviving on biscuits and scones. We are super exhausted. We actually look around us to see if there are vacant chairs where our women will sit. Negative. But no one is prepared to stand up and get more chairs. These women get here and just sit on top of us, holding plates for us to eat. It seems like they’ve already eaten. Okay… this also works.

“Keith, how are you?” Wandi greets me. 

I greet her, hugging her. Bassie is chatting to Senzi as well. Then Morafe greets us as well, introducing us to a man named Thabang. We met as we were all in hard labour together. But now we know whose plus one he is. 

It’s just loud here. And everyone is chatting away. I’m just eating. I’m starving. So is Senzi.

“Mama says Risuna has discovered her cupboards now”, Bassie tells me.

I actually just start laughing. He’s a very curious kid and I’m always too scared to leave him unattended. 

“So, we could be in shit if he breaks anything because apparently, he likes opening cupboards and chilling in them now.” 

I’m just laughing. 

“When do you guys head back to South Africa?” Senzi asks me.

“Tomorrow. Then next week we will meet up with everyone in Mtubatuba”. I answer him.

“Why don’t you stay another day? Then we can chill tomorrow without the noise?” Senzi.

“Work. Things have been a bit tricky since…”

I cannot finish my sentence.

“I understand”, Senzi says as he nods his head at me.

“How is she? My moth – … Lady Laura. How is she? Is she okay?” Senzi asks me.

Bassie and I look at each other. Wandi and Senzi look at us. Morafe is also looking in our direction.

I take a deep breath then say, “she’s not coping. She misses you. She asks Bassie and I about you all the time. She asked me if you’d ever forgive her and love her again.” 

“And the bishop? He’s not there for her?” Senzi.

“He’s making her pay for what she did… guilt-tripping her every chance he gets… making it seem as if she should make a choice between you and him. And if she chooses you, to him it means that she’s not sorry for what she did. And that you come first over him.” Me.

“The bishop?” Senzi. He’s genuinely shocked.

“Yeah. Like he’s changed. We all don’t recognise him anymore. Their relationship has changed. We don’t recognise it anymore. It’s actually coming across as an abusive relationship now. And since the bishop’s sisters and mother have arrived, it’s worse.” Bassie.

“What?! His family has arrived? Living where? And to do what?” Senzi.

“It’s insane. They’ve taken over the church. They seem to have taken over Lady Laura’s house. And they threaten to send her back to Ghana every chance they get”, Bassie needs to stop over sharing this information.

Senzi is seriously disturbed. 

“Why is Lady Laura allowing all of this to happen?” Wandi enquires.

“Yeah… I mean this is completely unlike her”, Morafe says. The Thabang guy looks extremely uncomfortable with this entire conversation.

“Maybe she wants to leave or fight or something, but if the bishop rejects her, she’s scared she might not even have Senzi to comfort her”, Bassie.

Senzi’s jaws tighten. 

“Love, please walk me to the restroom”, Wandi says. 

We know she’s saying that they need to talk.

Senzi nods his head. They both stand up then walk away. 

…

We are back at our hotel now. We are literally walking into our hotel room at 6am. That event was lit. After eating, people were drinking and dancing… in the rain!

I feel very drunk. Bassie is more than tired. She heads to the bathroom but doesn’t say what she is going there to do. I just hear the shower water go off and I know she’s showering before bed. I decide to undress and join her. 

I get into the shower and she receives me well. She first hides her c-section scar. Why would she hide that from me? She gave me my son through that scar.

“You are so sexy. That scar is the sexiest thing about you”, I tell her.

She smiles at me then says, “But it’s so ugly”.

“It’s stunning. It’s the most beautiful mark on your body”, I say.

I walk towards her. She wraps her legs around me. I’m instantly hard. The thing is, I’m drunk. And if we slip and fall in this shower, one of us could come out extremely injured. 

So I decide to shut the water then carry her out of the shower. 

I lead her to our bed then I lay her down like the queen that she is. She starts playing with herself, making me watch her. I can feel myself getting hard, about to go crazy actually.

She starts making noises of pleasure. 

I can’t hold back anymore. I enter her. And I ride her like a drunk bull. I actually cum so quickly, I feel like I’ve left her unsatisfied. As I catch my breath, she climbs on top of me, ready to make sure that she is equally satisfied before we go to sleep. And fuck she rides me. She comes for everything I have that’s left within my drunk and tired body. She rides me, touching herself and using her finger to help my penis pleasure herself. I’ve never seen her like this. I’m the one who’s about to have a second cuming. And when she shakes, I’m so thankful because I know that my penis had finished a job that my drunk state couldn’t allow me to finish. 

She climbs off me, says goodnight then sleeps. I hold her. She lets me. We sleep.

I wake up first the morning after. My penis still feels quite painful. This girl worked on me last night. Clearly. 

I stretch a bit then reach for my phone. I see a few missed calls from my mother. I quickly call her back. 

“Keith, hello”. She answers her phone.

“Mme, hi.” 

“Why haven’t you been answering your phone? And you sound like you are still asleep? At this time, Keith? It’s after 1pm.” 

Why is she shitting on me exactly? 

“Mme, what do you need?” I ask her. 

“I wanted to know if you were back in South Africa yet. Your father and I want to talk to you boys about something important and we will be having an intervention for Michael and Masingita. Masingita says that Michael moved out and is now living with a love child and its mother. She says she doesn’t want a divorce, so she’s asked the family to intervene.” 

So much drama? I just woke up.

“Mme, I’m still in Tholoana Kingdom. We will probably only be back that side tonight. Bassie is still sleeping. We will come see you when we come to pick up Risuna then we can talk about this properly. We will probably have to meet another day.” I say.

“Okay. I understand. But tonight, can we at least all discuss what your father and I need to discuss with you?” She says.

“We could be back quite late, Mme.” Me.

“Bathung Keith, please try to make it back at least by 8pm hle.” She says. 

“Mme, we will talk. Let me wake up and start my day.” 

She sounds hacked but I’m not going to break road rules just so she can tell me that she’s having sex with my dad again. 

I check my messages and I see something from Noria. What now?!

I open the message. 

It reads, “I miss you. I still cannot believe that she stole you from me.”

I literally delete it with immediate effect and block her. I look at Bassie peacefully sleeping. No one is coming between us. No one.