Zithulele is something else. How could he just hang up on me like that after swearing at me and frightening me all at the same time? What’s wrong with this guy?! 

I’ve already changed into a tracksuit and sneakers. I’ve already spilled the money into my laptop bag and my handbag. I know that I’m not allowed in his study, but this is a desperate situation. I don’t know what’s going on, but whatever it is, I don’t want my man going down for the sins of the church. 

I barge into his office with one of those massive travel bags that you only get at Chinese shops. As I pack everything that I see in this office into this bag, I pray from my soul that nothing makes me love my husband any less. If this does not make me leave him, I don’t know what will. I went to bed safe and now the riots that I used to be part of when I still lived in a shack are threatening my life and my husband’s freedom. Honestly, this is one hell of a jump into the other side of the economic barrier. 

It takes me about fifteen minutes to pack everything that is in here. There are loads of money, tons of guns and multiple clothing items that look like overalls and other thug like outfits. When I’m done, I sit on the bag and zip it closed. I go through his drawers and find memory sticks and paperwork. Yho! 
I go back to our room and get another bag. I pack the paperwork and memory sticks in this bag. Then I pack some of my clothes (old clothes that I’ve been meaning to give away for a long time as they no longer fit into my cupboard) into this bag and close it. I grab my toiletry bag and pack essentials and wet wipes. 

I have three traveling bags with me that I pack into the boot. I then pack my laptop and handbag loaded with cash into the front seat. I grab my cell phone, cell phone charger and Power Bank. I get into the car after I have locked up the house, plug my cell phone into the car cell phone charger, lock the doors of the car, put on my seat belts and open my garage. As I close the garage and gate, setting the alarm while in the driveway outside of the gate, I see my mom, Atisang and my dad at the gate. 
“And then?” I ask as my window is rolled down.
“We got dropped here by some men who said they were sent by Zithulele.” Atisang tells me. 
I unlock my doors and tell them to get in. 
They hop in and I just drive. Atisang is sitting in the front passenger seat and my parents are in the backseat. My mom has three fleece blankets with her. She’s obviously prepared. 

It’s difficult to drive through the streets of Tholoana Kingdom. But I drive as fast as I can before the protests leave the township and get into the suburbs. I honestly have nowhere to go in Tholoana Kingdom. I’m going to drive through South Africa and leave my parents in Lesotho. I’ll get them something small that will accommodate them until I know what to do. 

“What’s going on, Letlali?” My mother asks me. 
“I don’t know, mama.” 
“Where’s our son-in-law?” My dad asks me. 
“At the royal house.” I say. 
“Why isn’t he on the road with us? You can’t even drive properly. We are in a panic. Why are you driving like a tortoise?” My dad. 
I’m not a perfect driver. And he must shut up because he just opens his mouth and he annoys me. 
“I don’t even have beer-nyana for this nonsense”, my dad is really annoying. He wants beer in such a situation?! Agh! 
“Beer, hle Letlali?” 
“Papa, please. Where am I getting beer from? Hai man!” I say.

We drive in silence until we get to the border gate. The people here at the border gate are not even concerned with anything else except these protests. Getting into South Africa is very quick. We get in and I just drive through the country. My parents eventually sleep because my dad still doesn’t understand why he doesn’t have beer. Atisang is the one who is still awake. He has headsets on and isn’t really speaking to me. I’m just really stressed at this point. I haven’t heard anything from Zithulele and that’s stressing me out even more. I don’t know what to do and it’s upsetting me. I hope I got everything that I should have taken from the house. 

I’m about ten minutes away from Lesotho’s border when my phone rings. It’s a private number. I just become hopeful that it’s maybe Zee. I handhold my cell phone because we cannot exactly have a handsfree connection call. 
“Hello”. 
“Tlali, it’s Regodise. I know where you are. I’m tracking your cell phone. You are safe. When you get to Lesotho, I’ve organised a house for your family. Drop them off at the Maseru border gate. Where are you going to go after that? You can’t stay with them for now.” 
“Probably a hotel in Johannesburg.” 
“I’ll send you details of which specific one to go to. Don’t move until I call you again. Your house is being raided. Depending on what they find, you might need to be away for some time. But you are safe.” 
“Regodise, please ask Zithulele to phone me urgently. Please. It’s important.” 
“Okay. He will phone you back in thirty minutes. Make sure you are back in South Africa by then. Someone will meet you at the border gate. I’ll send you his picture. He will take your parents to the designated house in Maseru. Make sure you are within the South African network in thirty minutes.”
“Okay.” 
“We need to end the call now. Tlali, do not spend more than thirty seconds on a call. Please.” 
“Okay.” 
The line goes dead. 

Indeed, we are met by a man and bodyguards at the gate. My parents get into their V300 and the car drives off. I saw Dise’s mother in there as well, so I’m relieved.
I get back into the Velar and drive back into South Africa. Now, I’m driving to Johannesburg. I feel so hungry and tired. My phone rings and it’s a private number again. 
“Hello?”
“Baby, it’s me.”
“Zee, we don’t have much time to talk. I cleaned the study. I took everything that was in there.”
“What?”
“If whatever the cops are looking for are in the study, they won’t find it. The study is clean. So, don’t let them corner you into anything. There’s nothing to find in there. I took everything.”
He is silent. 
“Baby?” 
“Thank you, Tlali. Seriously, thank you.”
“It’s fine. I need someone to meet me at the hotel. I am too scared to be driving with all of these things in this car. I won’t feel comfortable leaving this car in the base parking or any parking for that matter if it’s still loaded.” 
“Okay, baby. Pope will organise something.”
“Send someone I know. I’m not handing the car over to an unknown”, I say.
“I’ll try my best”. 

I drive until I get to a hotel in Houghton. As I park the car in front of the concierge located at the hotel’s entrance, Uncle Qaphela stands in front of me. Okay, someone I know. 
“You did great. You really did”, he says. 
I nod my head. 
“Hop into the car behind me. My family and I will host you until you can head back to Tholoana Kingdom.” He says. 
“Thank you, Uncle Q”. 
I grab the laptop bag, handbag and one of the fleece blankets that my mom left for me. I get into the Mercedes Benz S600 that he points me too. I cuddle into the backseat and sleep. 

I wake up as the car parks outside a beautiful mansion. I don’t see the Velar anymore. I guess Uncle Q did something with it. 
I’m driven to the front door. I climb off the car and walk in. Aunt Pearl receives me in the kitchen. 
“Hello sisi”, she greets me. 
“Hi Aunt Pearl”, me. 
“Please have something to eat”, she says.
“I’m honestly exhausted. Can I please just shower and get some sleep.” 
“You are pregnant, baby. Eat something then I’ll be off your case. Gcina, take these bags upstairs into the guest bedroom”. 

By the way, I’m pregnant. I honestly forgot. Too much has been happening. I touch my stomach and just rub my belly. I still love my baby and he or she must just know that. 
Gcina takes my bags and heads upstairs with them. I just noticed that she didn’t even greet me. Whatever! 

After I have eaten, I head upstairs. My guest bedroom has a bathroom attached to it. There are also all my products in here. They really made an effort in making sure that I am comfortable. I really am grateful. I shower, lotion myself then get into a bathrobe. What I do not have is a pair of pyjamas. I guess I will sleep in this bathrobe. I walk into the bedroom and find Gcina sitting on the bed that I’m supposed to sleep in. 
I’m really not in the mood to talk. I just want to sleep. 
“Hey.” 
“Hey. I’ll let you sleep, I promise. Just tell me one thing”. What does this girl want to know when I’m this exhausted? 
“Is Khotso seeing someone? Like seriously seeing someone?” Am I really expected to talk about Khotso’s sex life when I’m this exhausted? 
“I really don’t know. We are not close like that.” 
“Surely, you’ve heard something. Please Tlali, I need to know.”
“Gcina, I really don’t know. And it’s unfair of you to ask me such things. You should have this conversation with Khotso. Please just let me sleep. I’m begging you. Please.” 
She just nods her head then leaves my room to let me sleep. 

…

I’m going to buy my wife the planet and everything in it for what she has done. Pope and I are now at my house with bishop. We boldly walk into my house mid-search. These idiots have turned my house upside down and are extremely frustrated. 
“Get the fuck out of my house!” I yell at them. 
“We have a warrant to search this place. So, don’t piss me off.” An arrogant search cop says.
“You’ve been in here for more than four hours. Now leave my house”, I say. 
“Boss, there’s nothing in here.” Some other search cop comes into my living room saying. 
Bishop and pope are already laughing at these idiots. 

“You are not going to get away with this. We know that you were behind the unrest currently going on right now and I know there’s something bigger that you’ve been doing. I know this is a front. And I’m going to find the missing link alongside everything you’ve ever done, and I’ll lock you up in the isolation section where you will have absolutely no one to speak to or eat with. All of this shit will come to an end”, the search cop leader tells pope. 
Pope laughs and says, “You’ve spent your entire career trying to take me down. The only reason that I haven’t had you removed from the government is because is I enjoy seeing you disappointed every single time you learn that I’m always going to be bigger than you, better than you and smarter than you.” 
The guy is getting upset. He then loosely says, “I have someone who is helping me gun you down – someone who hates you far much more than I do. I’m going to hit you soon, pope. I promise you that your days are numbered and the best part of all of this is that you don’t even know who your weakest link is.” 
“Well, keep coming for me. One day, the only thing that will come from your fruitless goal of putting me behind bars is a body of yours that your family has to bury – and that’s me being nice. I can perhaps send you on wilder goose chases just to distract you from me because you annoy me as much as a fly annoys the average person. Maybe if your wife disappears with the next batch of girls who need to go and supply sex work internationally… or should it rather be your three children who will go and work in some firms all day just to go to bed with two slices of dry bed and water… at least they’ll have each other to keep each other company. If I really wanted to be ruthless, I’d send them to different countries then make them write you ‘I am alive letters’ with their broken and tired fingers. It may be sad for you, but it will achieve my goal of keeping you off my ass.” 
This man is officially shit scared. If he could, he’d phone his wife right now and demand that she runs away. 
“I’m getting sick of you. And my only medication in such situations is getting rid of the problem. My favourite antibiotic is the one where a body pays for my family’s discomfort. Now shut this shit down and go do what I pay you to do! Go make sure those hooligans protesting for a free meal don’t burn this country into a state that won’t afford to give them all the free shit that they are demanding from the state. Sixty-seven percent of this country does not pay tax. Where do you think the money to run this damn country and pay your salary comes from? Who do you think paid for the warrant you flash in my face and tell me it allows you to investigate me? Who?! The thirty-five percent that actually pays tax? How far can that money realistically take us? How far?! That’s the problem with this fucken country full of entitled shits. You don’t think! All you know is to demand shit. My kids cannot even go to a university and have jobs that will make them look down on the scum of this country the same way that you look down on me and what I do to keep this country going. You think I don’t want my kids to be better than all of you? To be better than the people I lead? You think I want my kids to be stuck here when they can more than afford to leave this damn country and actually do jobs that they would be proud of? I want all of that for my kids. My wife wants that for my kids and my grandkids. All these men that work with me want that for their kids. But we do the work that nobody chooses to do, sacrificing our children into this life so that the brats you have in my schooling system can have better – just like all these entitled shits of this country. I’m sorry if it’s not noble enough for you. But it puts food on your table, affords your wife to teach and earn a salary and bonuses and puts your kids through schools. If memory serves me correctly, all the fruits of your useless semen are on my wife’s scholarship programme. Where do you think that money came from? Tax payers?”

Silence.
“Get the fuck out of my face and be sure to tell your source that their days are numbered, so they must start preparing their family for life after his or her death… and that’s if I let the family live.” 
This man seriously wants to cry. Yho! 

The lead cop instructs his men to leave the house. As he follows them out, pope says to him, “Next time you want to vandalise property that belongs to me or my team, bring your wife with you because I will make her clean the entire house naked in front of my team and I. Do you understand me?” Pope is not even laughing and this man looks like he wants to throw a punch at pope. I don’t blame him. If anyone said that about my wife, I’d kill them. 

It takes about an hour for the cleaning team to tidy up my house. When they are done, pope tells me once again that Tlali did great. She really did. My car is back at the royal house and Uncle Q is there with it. I know I’ve married a real one. I know. I’m not letting her go no matter what. 

“I want my fucken diamonds!” Kabila shouts as we enter into the royal house. I was planning to head to Johannesburg and fetch my wife. Now Kabila has Nothile in his arms and a gun against her head. I’m not even thinking straight at this point. Khotso has lost all of his senses. You can just see that he is ready to murder someone. The diamonds must just come out. My sister cannot die for this. 
“We don’t have your fucken diamonds”, pope says. Really?!
“I have it on good authority that you do. A very reliable source has even provided me with proof that you have these diamonds.” 

Kanti who is this source that wants to see us burn so much? When we find this source, I will happily participate in his or her murder.

“I don’t have your diamonds, Kabila. And if your source is so informative, why didn’t he or she tell you where to find them? Why are you still asking me for them if your source is accurate?” Pope says. 
“Give me my diamonds!” Kabila says. His men have guns pointed at each and every one of us. I don’t see Regodise in here. Where is she? And where is Mohale? Why is my sister the fiancé that is at Kabila’s mercy? 
“Kabila, listen to me. I don’t have your diamonds.” Pope insists. 
One of his men viciously undresses Nothile. 
“Pope, please.” I beg him. 
Nothile is shaking and is crying. 
The man starts undressing himself. 
“Pope, my diamonds”, Kabila. 
“Kabila, I- 
“Snakes, have the girl. She’s yours tonight. Here’s my gift to you so fresh out of prison. It’s fresh and beautiful, just as you like your women.”
“Thank you, my lord.” 
“Pope! Please! Give this man his damn diamonds!” I’m yelling now. I’ve been loyal to these men and this church for years. Pope cannot do this to me. 

We hear Mohale mumbling something in baby language and just as we search for where he could possibly be hiding, there is a red laser light on Kabila’s chest. In two seconds, Kabila is silently shot. We didn’t even hear the gun go off. His men are now scared. The laser light is now on the guy who was about to rape Nothile. In a hot second, he is also down. While the others are frantic about their two leaders being down, we take out our guns and start shooting. Khotso takes Nothile and runs out with her. I’m very thankful for that. We hear Mohale crying and I know that Dise had something to do with saving us tonight. 

The bodies of Kabila and his men are transported to the protesters who are now reaching the royal house. We plant these dead bodies amongst the protestors and they will be counted as “dead protestors” reported. 

Dise has Mohale on her back and she gives Nothile water with sugar. 
“I’m so sorry I didn’t get there any sooner. I was searching for a weapon I could use. I found the laser gun in morena’s things. I need to take it back before he realizes that it’s gone”, Dise says. 
Nothile gets up and hugs her, saying, “You saved my life. Thank you, Regodise.” 
She saved all our lives. Clearly my sister is in good hands here. 
“Ona is still shocked. I’m not sure if he’s shocked about his wife’s intelligence or that we got ambushed in the royal house of all places.
“Makoti“, morena walks in and says. 
Regodise looks shit scared. 
“I’ll put the gun back, morena. I promise”, as she snitches on herself. 
“You did well. Thank you”, pope says. 
There is utter silence. 

The protesting approaches the royal house. The singing is getting louder and the stones that they are throwing sound like they are falling closer and closer. I still need to phone my wife, but I’m so glad she is not around all of this chaos. My brothers all ran away and the fact that they didn’t even offer to run with my wife, at least, while leaving me behind is making me not care if they are alive or not wherever they are. They just looked out for themselves and I’ll never forget this. 

“Stay next to me”, I hear Regodise tell Nothile. 

Regodise puts Mohale in a kangaroo like wrap thingy around her chest. 
“But he was on your back”, Nothile says.
“I want to see him. I don’t want him shot on my back and I only see him when it’s too late”, she says. 
Dise will murder you for even thinking about killing her son. 
She grabs two bags and keys. This girl is clearly prepared for everything. 
As we head out to see morena address the protestors, we see the police firing live ammunition at the protestors. The protestors are throwing stones and lit bottles covered with socks. They seem to be wanting to burn the royal house down. They’ve surrounded the royal house and we cannot leave in any way. Dise covers Mohale’s face with a light blanket because there is smoke everywhere from the fire and we cannot see anything. She grabs Nothile’s hand and runs with her. I see Khotso and Ona following her, so I follow her too. 
We are now jumping some fence that leads to outside of the royal house. We see staff, pope, the queen, Uncle Shaka, Aunt Nosi and some other bodyguards follow us as well. 

We just all run in whatever direction Regodise is running in. We have all put our trust in her instincts to purely save Mohale. We know she will lead us somewhere constructive because Mohale will never die under her watch. After about a 5km run, we see a Quantum and we all dive into it. Dise is in the driver’s seat. Nothile grabs Mohale from Dise and sits with him. Mohale is screaming now, not just crying. We are all still shocked at what has just happened. Dise is the only solutions-based one here right now. She just drives this Quantum as fast as the car will allow her to drive it. She just drives and we find ourselves in Mohase within three and a half hours. But this is not her parents’ home. It’s a standard house. It’s no double-story, but it’s big and it will accommodate us. We climb off the car after she has opened the doors to the house. There are no surrounding houses. It’s a farm like house and it’s away from everything. It’s almost dark and if you are not at the protest itself, you are watching it. So, no one saw us coming in. 

The guards cover the Quantum with a black cloth and follow us into the house. Some stay outside, hiding in the Wendy houses spread out across the yard surrounding the house. 

We all breathe as Dise tries to calm Mohale down. Nothile is so scared. She is shaking.
“Thule… Phendu and Jabu are – 
“I don’t care. I’m sure they are fine.” I say.
“We need to take turns sleeping. We have to be alert at all times”, Dise says. 
“The bodyguards are – 
“They accessed us with them on duty. We don’t know if one of them is the mole. And until we find out, we guard ourselves”, Dise says, cutting Aunt Nosi short. 
“I agree le makoti. All the women can go sleep. We will take it from here.” Pope says.
“Are you sure?” Dise. 
“Yes makoti. Trust us.”
She doesn’t trust us. You can just see it. 
“Hold this phone”, she says as she hands Ona some device.
“I’ve put censors thirty kilometres from here.” 
Oh, that’s what she was doing when she kept stopping along the way. We were all too traumatized to ask. 
“As soon as anyone is within thirty kilometres from us, it will buzz. Wake everyone up and we get in the car and leave.” 

Dise is a trained genius! We need her leadership in this church and I think pope can see it too.