“Why don’t you wear those shorts that you always bounce around in every morning?” I ask Lulu as she steps out of our bedroom in a short-sleeved maxi-dress. 

“Because your parents are also here in the house. I can’t be walking around in shorts that have half my butt-cheek out.” 

“Why do you let people do this to us? First, we got bullied out of our own master bedroom. Now, you can’t wear what we want in our own house? It feels weird seeing you indoors and dressed like this.” 

She just rolls her eyes at me. 

She gets into the kitchen and starts getting breakfast started. I tried to convince her to get a chef to come and cook for us because I don’t my woman slaving around for anyone. But she insists on doing the cooking herself. Now I’m forced to help because I’m an arse if I don’t. I wish I could roll my eyes the way that she does. 

“What are your plans for today?” She asks me. 

“We are meeting up with the traditional healer again.” I tell her. 

She gives me a look. I can see that she wants to ask me what happened, but she doesn’t know how to phrase her question. 

“Are you going to ask me?” I ask her. 

“Are you prepared to tell me?” Her. 

“Put those things down so we can talk.” I say. 

“Everyone will be up and will have bathed in the next hour. I want to – “Dumelang“, my mom comes into the kitchen and greets us. 

She seems happy this morning. Lighter. 

Lulu walks towards her and gives her a hug as she says good morning. I love how warm Lulu is. I think my mom likes that the most about her. She is the warm one after a cold day on the streets. 

“I thought I’d come and help with breakfast”, my mom says. 

“Thank you. I was still prepping the ingredients.” 

“Please allow me to take over? It’s been a while since I’ve gone crazy in the kitchen all by myself.” 

“You actually enjoy it?” 

“When you get to my age and you have Khotso and Onaleruna calling you mother while Mohato calls you wife… it becomes therapeutic.” 

“Mah!” 

Lulu and my mom laugh. 

“Well, we were about to head out and take a walk anyway”, I say as I take Lulu’s hand and lead her outside. 

We are walking the quiet streets of this estate, holding hands and stealing looks and kisses. 

“My biological father is not happy”, I tell her. 

She nods her head as if she kind of figured it out.

“It’s not just him, a lot of them are enraged. We have too much blood on our hands. But the one that upsets them the most is the blood of Kefe and Pule.”

She stops walking and looks at me. 

“What exactly happened to Kefe and Pule?” 

I take a deep breath. I look at her. 

“They betrayed us and we played a key role in their lives reaching their final chapters.”

Her eyes widen. I look at her. She opens her mouth, but nothing comes out. 

“It’s just a lot of things that we have to slaughter and apologise for. So, to get to us and get us to understand the seriousness of their anger, we were attacked at the graveyard – which is considered to be their houses – and they got to Mohale as well. For now, the royal house has to be cleansed. But that’s where we have to go to slaughter and apologise. Until that is done properly, we can never really live there or rule from there. It could cost the life of either Ona or myself. Twins are not supposed to be in the royal house anyway and it seems that the accepting of Ona and me in the royal house is what is causing us to keep breaking the rules with no end.” 

Her hand suddenly feels cold.

“Khotso, I don’t want to lose you.” She says. 

The only three people who have ever said that to me are my parents and Ona. Hearing her say this makes me feel… I don’t know… that I’m exactly where I need to be. I’m home. 

I just hug her. 

She holds on extremely tightly onto me. I just kiss the top of her head and hold her tighter too. 

“Promise me that I’m not going to lose you”, she says. 

“I’m going to try my best, baby.” 

“You have to do more than your best. What are you expecting me to do without you?” 

I don’t know how to answer this. 

“I love you. Please make it for me.” She says.

I pull out of the hug and we stare at each other. We kiss.  

Breakfast is actually nice. Mohale has taken a beautiful liking to Lulu and he just thinks he can replace me. He doesn’t want to sit on his own feeding chair today. He is sitting on top of Lulu and Lulu is feeding him while she also eats. Morena and my mom are on both ends of the table, sitting and actually smiling as if they are happy and free from yesterday’s shit. I’m sitting next to Lulu and Mohale on the one side of the table. Dise and Ona sit on the other side of the table. 

“Lulu, that space and restroom outside… close to the pool… what do you use it for?” Morena is already starting.

“Nothing really. I haven’t had much use for it yet, so I just store some things I no longer want in the house in there.” Lulu says. 

“I’m going to turn it into my office”, he says. Not even “may I.” This is not his house.

“Okay. I’ll clean it up for you during the day.” Lulu is over accommodative. I don’t know why this bothers me so much. It just makes me feel as if she’s letting people take over her space and things. 

“I’ll help you”, Dise says. 

“Thank you.” Morena says. 

“I’ll order the office furniture to be delivered then”, my mom says. 

Something tells me that when Lulu moves into the royal house, this house will be one of our offices for the church. Maybe I need to talk to her about the church before anyone else beats me to it. I’m surprised that Tebza hasn’t said anything to her about the church. I must also admit that a part of me respects Tebza for respecting me like that. I say respect because I know that Tebza is not scared of me. She never has been. 

“Lala, are we having our movie night today?” My mom says to morena.

He wants to blush and smile, but he resists doing it in front of us. My mom is smiling at him in a sly way. He is looking at my mom trying very hard not to smile. 

“Yes! I want a movie!” Mohale says.

“Papa, it’s a movie day for me and grandpa. You are going to go with your mommies and your daddies to have fun somewhere else.” My mom says. Okay, she’s indirectly telling us that she wants to have sex and it’s actually grose! 

Olu and Dise are chuckling. Ona and I are annoyed. I mean, what in the actual fuck? Why do they even still have sex? They are too old for that shit. 

“But I want to stay with you and gwam-pa!” Mohale says. Good boy! Disturb this whole nonsense. 

“But why Mini-O? You don’t want to hang out with us today?” Lulu says. What’s Mini-O and why is she supporting such behaviour? 

“Mini-O?” My mom enquires. 

“Mini-Ona to the core this one.” Lulu says and the entire table is filled with laughter. 

Even Dise laughs and she has been quiet and pissed off since we got here from the hospital. She only speaks when spoken to, but will engage in conversation and laughter with Lulu and only Lulu.

“I actually like that.” Ona says, still laughing. 

My mom and morena are giving each other eyes.

“The two of you are actually grose.” I say. 

“And it’s beginning to get very disturbing”, Ona.

“Do you think you are the only ones that have private parts that work?” Why would morena say that? Why? 

Lulu and Dise are in stitches. My mom is also laughing at us. 

“Can you at least not make us think about you guys having sex. Please!” Ona says. 

“They should stop all together”, I say. 

“You are mad. Don’t you know that when you don’t release that shit it gets to your head? A man must ejaculate once a day – minimum”, morena says. 

Lulu has already blocked Mohale’s ears. She has put headsets over his ears and is playing something for him on her cellphone. 

“Thank you”, Dise says to Lulu. 

“Morena, you can’t do that. We don’t want to think about you throwing mom’s ass in the air”, Ona says. 

“Is that what you do to Regodise?” Morena says. 

Regodise chokes on her food and we all laugh. 

I was also about to say something, but Lulu pinched my thigh because she did not want to be put on the spot. 

“Besides, who’s to say that she doesn’t throw my dick around in bed?” Morena needs to stop this now. 

“But love, I do things to you that make you blush in public every time I call you Lala… I mean, only you and I both know where that comes from”, my mom says this and both Ona and I get up from the table with our plates to go eat somewhere else. 

We just hear laughter coming from the table. 

Nonsense!

Ona and I are sitting on the patio and eating there. 

“Morena le mama don’t respect us”, Ona says. 

I laugh. He laughs too. 

“I can’t imagine them doing that shit… can you imagine mom sucking dick?” I say. 

Ona laughs and says, “She’s too beautiful to be imagined that way. Come on now.” 

“That old man clearly still has game”, I say. 

“He still has mom blushing. Imagine! In their old age. These things should have an age restriction”, he says. 

We laugh but we also shake our heads. 

Kak mahn!

“How are things with Regodise?” I ask him.

“She’s really pissed off. I’m pissed off. I thought that Reahile cat was our father. Why would he touch our son like that? I don’t care what the reasoning is. That fucken ancestor crossed a line!” 

“We crossed a line and killed his kids. It’s like what the ngaka was saying… by accepting a life that morena leads us in, we turn our backs on being his son.” 

“No fuck that! Do you see him around? Is he here to show us the way that he wants us to live? Is he here to deal with the shit that morena has been dealing with in raising us? He decided to die, didn’t he? Yes, morena pumped bullets in him, but many people have survived bullets. 50cent has survived nine bullets and Reahile Mohale decided to die from one bullet without even giving us something that will work as a compass to lead us to where he wants us to be. We’ve had to respect his ass our whole lives and we’ve never even met him. We can’t even call the man who raised us father because we keep saying that we are respecting him. Then he comes for my son’s life? MY FUCKEN SON? He’s a selfish son-of-a-bitch because he clearly ignored what it was like growing up without him and with a broken mother. He chooses to focus on the bad things – bad because he doesn’t agree with it – and my son must pay for it with his life. He’s fucken lucky that he’s dead. Or else I’d kill him myself”. 

I just take a deep breath. 

“Bashimane“, morena calls us. He’s standing at the sliding door that leads to the patio where we are sitting.

We look at him. 

“We don’t speak like that about people who have passed.” Morena says. 

Ona and I are quiet. 

He walks onto the patio and finds a chair. He sits on the chair opposite us and looks at us. 

“Reahile was a good man. He was an arrogant son-of-a-bitch, but he was a good man. He believed in fairness and social justice was very close to his heart. A lot of the programs around socio-economic development in Tholoana Kingdom were initiated by him. He would have been an ethical leader. The church would have never existed under him. He had a lot going for him and be could start a life outside of this throne for himself – unlike me. I’ve moved and operated the way that I have because this truly is and always has been my only option. I need more than just three back-up plans to make sure that this throne is saved. I didn’t grow up with the luxury of a mother who made sure that I get an education and that I have options. As you both got to see, my mother is who she was and the throne was worth dying for to her. Reahile had a mother who gave him so much more. She had him seeing the world and he knew that Tholoana Kingdom wasn’t the beginning and end of life. Kea wanted that for you guys. I just couldn’t provide it because I don’t know it. I could only do my best with what was before me and I hoped it would be enough for you boys. Kea has hated me. She’s wanted to steal you two at the middle of the night and just run as far away from me as possible. It’s what Reahile would’ve wanted. She even taught you to not see me as your father.”

Morena is really hurt. 

We are also getting extremely emotional now. 

“But the point is, Reahile was a good man.” 

We see him hide his eyes behind his hands. I think he’s crying. 

Ona and I stand up and go sit next to him. We actually hug him. Then I start…

“Morena, you are our father. Let’s just make that very clear.” 

He actually cries aloud when I say this. It’s as if he didn’t expect me to say that and for Ona to agree with me. 

My mom, Dise and Lulu are at the sliding door leading to the patio now and are staring at us. Dise has Mohale in her arms. Eish, I’m not ready for Lulu to hear about the church. But at the same time, I feel like this is the best time and only opportunity I’ll ever have to come clean to her about it. 

I continue, “Morena, you are the only father that we have ever known. You may not have shown us the world, but you’ve shown us your world in its entirety. You may not have given us options with education and getting out of Tholoana Kingdom, but you’ve given us Tholoana Kingdom and have trained us on how to look after this country even when you are no longer here. You’ve given us more than just an inheritance. You’ve given us a lifeline. Everybody we’ve murdered. Every pest we’ve tortured. And every soldier who has stood by us knows us by name and would take a bullet for us. That’s what you’ve given us. As human beings, we are not untouchable. But what you’ve equipped us with… morena, rea leboha.” 

I’m not even going to look at Lulu. Her face will discourage me. 

Ona then says, “I still think Reahile is a bitch-ass for attacking our wives and child instead of at least coming to us in a dream and whipping us with a belt.” 

The three of us laugh. Good. Because we all don’t know what to do with morena when he is like this. 

“Morena, you killed your mother for us. We know how that must have felt for you. But you did it. Because she, like Reahile, put Mohale’s life on the line. To me, papa, you are my father. The love that you have shown us over all these is that of sacrifice. You’ve shown us multiple times that you would die for us and that’s how I know that I am also prepared to die for you. Re a ho rata, morena. I don’t care that you’ve put a gun in our hands and taught us to take a life. It was with a purpose. We don’t just kill for sport. I don’t care that we are being judged about how we live. You’ve taught us that the only thing we should give a fuck about is family. Everything else is replaceable. And we live by that. You’ve shown us that we are your family even to a point where your mother was electrocuted to death because she threatened us. Old man – our old man – the only time I’ve ever seen you be soft is in the presence of Mohale.” 

Then I say, “The only time I’ve ever seen you blush is with your mofomahadi.”

The three of us laugh again. 

“You are our father. You are the only father we know. You are the only father we recognise. You’ve created what you’ve created out of us and it’s fine. But where you go, we go. What you do, we do. And even when the day comes where you’ll be forced out of your chair – as the prophet has prophesised – we will be here and you will still have us. All of us. And we will still hold you down, old man.” 

He cries and pulls us into a hug. 

Then the women are here, including Lulu, and they are hugging us too.

Shoo! At least my fiancé is still with me. 

…

Morena told Ona and I that it’s just him and my mom that are needed today with the traditional healer. So, we stayed behind with the ladies and Mohale. 

Lulu and Dise have been cleaning the outside space for it to be used as morena’s office. I have never actually thought about going there. But when the furniture arrived, Ona and I went to assist the delivery guys in unboxing the furniture and locating it adequately. That room has a kitchen – which we filled a fridge with beer and put in there. There is also a microwave in there. The kitchen then leads to an open area that has now been turned into a living room. My mom ordered black and grey couches as well as a glass coffee table positioned on a grey rug. Then there is a room – it was probably a bedroom – but it is now morena’s office. He has a black desk, black office chair, animal skin rug and a 75inch screen to conduct meetings and monitor areas where he has put cameras. There is also a toilet around here. The space is actually nice. 

I’m lying on the bed and facing the ceiling when Lulu walks into the bedroom. She looks like she has been crying and she has her cellphone in her hands, so she was clearly on a phone call. I really hope that nothing has happened to her parents. By the way, we got them a temporary place to live in because they wanted to be back in Sebokeng. 

I look at her and watch her make her way to the bed. She sits on her side of the bed. We actually have a bed now. I didn’t enjoy that inflatable shit at all. She starts playing with her fingers. 

“Baby?” I try. 

She looks at me. 

“What’s going on?” I ask her.

She takes a deep breath. She looks at me. Then she starts crying again. 

Heh bathung! 

I sit up and sit next to her. I pull her into a hug then I rub her back. 

She finally calms down then she lies her head on my thighs. 

“Lulu, what’s going on?” I ask.

“T and I went to see a gynae. T was really going for a check-up because she had some pains that she had been dealing with since she birthed Ruri. So, it was mostly for her. Then while we were there, we started asking questions about the fertility window – especially for me because I don’t have any children and I’ve never been pregnant before.” 

Why do women do shit like that? You will not find men holding hands to a fertility clinic to go measure sperm count unless it’s a bet about who has the strongest soldiers.

“Anyway, because of my age, the doctor said I’m still within a good time to fall pregnant naturally, but he also wanted to just make sure that everything was okay.” 

“Lulu, we just got engaged. You already want children?” 

“No, but I want to know if I have to take any actions to make sure that when we do want children, we don’t have issues. We’ve never really spoken about the children thing and that’s why I was so relaxed about this. But when I was there and looking at that fertility chart, I got curious about how much body is cooperating with me.” 

I don’t even know what this means. 

“So, what did the gynae say?” 

“He put this machine thing inside of me to have a full view because a scan can be a bit limiting.”

“He?” 

“He’s a gynae, Khotso.”

“Who was all up in your vagina?” 

She looks at me like I’m being silly. Are there no female gynaes? 

“Why are you concerned about the wrong shit here?” She’s suddenly getting upset. 

“I’ll ask my mom for her gynae’s number”, I say.

“Fuck off, Khotso!” She says and climbs off the bed. 

“What have I done now?” I genuinely don’t know why she’s whiling out like this. 

“It’s fine. Nevermind. I’ll just ask my doctor to sit and listen to me talk because my fiancé is a fucken asshole that cannot listen to me talk.” 

“Oluremi!” 

“No, Khotso. I’ve just received devastating news about my fertility and your fucken concern is that my gynae is a male? Two years from now you’ll be wanting babies to crawl out of me and I want you to not give a shit about why I can’t give birth then just like you don’t give a shit about my fertility now.” 

With this, she storms out of the bedroom and slams the door. 

I genuinely don’t know what to do. 

I’m downstairs now with Mohale and Ona. Dise went out to shop for some ingredients to make dinner tonight. 

“What did you do?” Ona asks me. 

“Honestly, I don’t know.” I say. 

Ona laughs at me. 

“Well, I think she just went for a walk because her car is still here and she didn’t leave with Regodise.” He tells me.

I shake my head. 

“That’s my way of telling you to at least start walking around this complex and go find your woman. You can’t just sit here and behave like you don’t care that you just fought.” He says.

“I’m not doing that.” 

“Then you clearly don’t want to get married.” 

“What?!” 

“Khotso –

The door opens and he stops talking. We both look up and we see Lulu walking in. She gives me a side-eye then she walks upstairs without saying a word to us. 

Ona and I look at each other. 

“Khotso, go and speak to her”. He keeps saying. 

“I’ll speak to her tonight.” 

We are thirty minutes into watching our soccer game when Oluremi Mokoena, my fiancé, walks down the stairs dressed in a tight and short red dress. She is wearing black heels and she has on a weave that is super long. She looks so sexy! Where the fuck is she going? 

Ona looks at me and pulls a face. 

“Giiiiiirrrrlll! What a flame you are.” Regodise walks in and says. 

“Thanks babe.” Lulu says.

“Lulu, and then?” Me. 

She gives me a side look then stands in front of a mirror and applies lipstick. 

Regodise starts laughing.

“I bought that lingerie body suit that we saw the other day at Temptations. It’s shaping my body so nicely and hugging me right.” Lulu says. 

I really don’t understand what’s happening. 

“It’s doing the damn things!” Regodise says. 

I’m actually on my feet now. She’s not leaving the house looking like that. 

“I bought you one as well.” Lulu tells Dise. 

“You are the best. Let me quickly get dressed and then we can bounce.” Dise says. 

“Wait! What?! Where the hell are you going?” Ona says. Now he is also on his feet. 

Regodise walks past him and goes upstairs. 

Ona follows her upstairs. Mohale is sleeping on the couch, so I go to Lulu. 

“Lulu, you are not leaving the house looking like that.” 

“Or what, Khotso?” 

“Where are you even going?” 

“I don’t owe you an explanation about shit.”

“Yes, you do. I’m your fiancé.” 

“Had you taken that title seriously, I wouldn’t need to be going on blind dates just to have a man listen to me.”

“Are you being serious right now? A blind date?” 

“Yes! My parents know of no cows strolling into their kraal from the Mohales, so it’s still fair game. And not being able to listen to me is a deal breaker.” 

“Oluremi!” I grab her hand and she pushes me saying, “Don’t fucken man-handle me. Are you crazy?!” 

Now Dise and Ona are downstairs and they are standing between Lulu and I. 

“Khotso, keng?” Ona says. 

Lulu and I stare at each other and we breath heavily as we stare at each other. 

She grabs a small handbag and makes her way to the door. I follow her, but I reach the door first and I lock it. I take the key out of the keyhole. She looks at me like she wants to punch me. 

“Oluremi, this is ridiculous. Why are you doing this? Because I said that your gynae is a male and I think you should see my mom’s gynae?” 

“So, I come into the bedroom crying, trying to tell you about what I found out about my fertility, and the only thing you took from that is that my gynae is a man?” 

I look at her. 

“He told me I have PCOS. He said that I have to try a little bit harder to prepare my body to carry a child. He has put me on medication, instructed me to lose five percent of my weight through exercise and diet and I have to go and test if my tubes are not blocked. And then you want to stand there and annoy me about him being a man.” 

Okay, now I do feel like shit. I don’t even know what PCOS is, but it sounds like it is the cause of her losing her mind right now. 

“Baby, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be insensitive. I had no idea – 

“You were not prepared to listen. It took me three minutes to tell Dise and she already went out to get new ingredients for us to eat in this house and promised to run with me every morning and afternoon to help me lose weight. You are just too concerned about the sex of my gynae.” 

I was actually uncomfortable with a man seeing and handling that part of my woman’s body. But clearly, I can’t say that now. 

I try to hug her and she pushes me away saying, “Don’t fucken touch me.”

Then she makes her way upstairs. At least she’s not leaving the house looking a snack.

“Make sure you are both up at 5am because we are all going to help her lose this weight. Or else I’ll personally hook her up with that gynae. He clearly knows how to handle her. Wouldn’t you say?” Regodise threatens us then she also goes upstairs – probably to console Oluremi. 

“I hope this is not Reahile’s many ways of punishing us from the grave”, Ona says. 

“She’s going to carry the next king. It seems to be a culture in this family to always have fertility challenges when the time for a king to be conceived arrives.” I say. 

“Maybe you should also consider getting your sperm count checked, monna. I wouldn’t want to be the one tapping Lulu on your behalf for a child the way that Reahile did for morena.” 

“I’ll fucken punch you”. 

“I can’t help it if I’m a charming motherfucker. She might just fall for me too.” 

Ona and I look at each other then we laugh. 

“You going to be okay, monna. Just also be responsible a bit and do your part. It’s not just her job to make sure that the baby comes eventually.” Ona says. 

“Yeah. Thanks man.” I say as we hug.