Missteps – Chapter Thirty Six

Thozama Mqikela

@Mightyzama

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I didn’t want to hear any more of this I just dropped the phone and started crying, not crying walling, the hihihihihiihi kind of crying that you hear at funerals or when someone has just died, Andiswa asked if that was the hospital that just called I didn’t know how to respond, I shook my head and continued crying. We got to the hospital, the girls tried to calm me down and told me that Mthobisi will not like to see me like that. I hate hospitals, they remind me of death, and the only time I was ever hospitalized was when I was giving birth to my son even then I only stayed for 2 days. I avoid doing hospital visits by all means necessary; I would rather go see a person after they had been discharged from hospital. One of my uncles was hospitalized when I was 15 years old and we used to go visit him and the last time we went to go see him he died in front of me, he just started losing his breath and couldn’t breathe and my mom rushed to go call the nurses I was standing there all by myself didn’t know what to do I watched him die and it was the most traumatic experience of my life and from that day on each time I went to a hospital I would have anxiety attacks my mom took me for counseling which helped a bit but I still avoid hospitals. We walked into Sunning Hill Hospital and went to reception to go ask where Mthobisi was, they told us which way to go. We got to the ward and found Mthobisi arguing with a nurse, I cannot explain how relieved I was to see my husband alive, I walked up to him with tears running down my face and hugged him, the nurse walked away, my friends also came and hugged him, so we had this weird group hug situation going on, Mthobisi said he was fine and asked how did we know he was here, I told him the nurse had called they must have got my details from the medical aid. She Rocks asked what had happened, who shot him and Mthobisi said it was an accident, he was helping a friend clean his gun and it went off by mistake and shot himself in the hand he did not realise that the safe of the gun was off. I did not buy that story but for my friends sakes I pretended to believe it. She Rocks started preaching to Mthobisi about the dangers of guns and how people die every day with guns, she was scolding him like he was a small naughty boy, this was too cute and funny really and Mthobisi kept nodding and agreeing to everything she was saying. He explained that it was a small graze and the bullet did not even go in so we had nothing to stress about he was fine. We stayed and chatted a bit, the nurse came back and said since my husband was insisting he be discharged she brought forms for him to sign. I asked if was he okay to go home the nurse said he’s very stubborn they had been trying to convince him to stay for a while but he didn’t want to, I didn’t blame him for not wanting to stay in fact I was relieved that he was not staying the last thing I wanted was to be doing hospital visits. Andiswa and She Rocks said they will go and give us some time to catch up, I told Andiswa I will pick up my car from her place the following day, and they left.
As we were walking out passing the waiting room, Thomas was in the waiting room I was in such a hurry to go see my husband I didn’t know if he had been there before or had just arrived, Mthobisi went up to him, we greeted each other, he asked Mthobisi how the hand was he said it was fine, but he was going to finish what had been started. He then took Thomas to the side and asked me to go collect the prescription of pills from the pharmacy that the doctor had given him, thank goodness private hospitals have pharmacies in the hospital, I went to the pharmacy and paid with the medical aid card, my money was very little couldn’t afford to buy all those pills, I was like most people counting the days to pay-day, all thanks to my husband. Mthobisi came and meet me at the pharmacy and said we should leave, he said I should drive coz his hand was all was in pains, he drank some of the painkillers that I had gotten for him. As we were leaving, he said we needed to go past somewhere, oh Lawyd Lord, I was seriously not in the mood for Mthobisi’s wars I knew for a fact that he was going to fight. I told him that violence will not solve anything and we need to go home and rest, Mthobisi told me that we were going to Daveyton to go visit his brother. I was relieved, family is important and maybe some time with his brother was exactly what he needed. I drove and he put on a jazz cd, I cannot stand jazz music, it makes me sleep, I asked if he wanted me to sleep while driving him, he laughed and said he needed it to calm himself down, I could not argue with that I kept quiet and drove. I wanted to ask him about Mfundo but I couldn’t because he would know that he must have called me, I decided to ask him about Ausi Maria and the nanny story and his response was “we need to all stay together as a family, I miss my son and can’t drive to your mom’s every day to go see him, I want him with us every day, he’s old enough now” old enough my ass, he’s only a year old. I had not prepared for this argument, I should not have brought up this topic, always prepare when going to war of words, that’s what I have learnt from my husband so I quickly changed the subject coz I was going to lose.
We arrived at Tshepang’s house and no one was there, hubby called him and he said he was doing over-time at work but his wife Koketso should be around, he said he would call her to come open for us. A few minutes later Koketso arrived she said she was at a friend’s house, looked very happy to see us, maybe the alcohol also added to her happiness, she reeked of booze, it was only after 16:00 and already Koketso had been drinking “Watermelon”. We went inside and Mthobisi went straight to their bedroom, I don’t know why but I followed behind him and so did Koketso, he went straight to the bed and removed the blankets and sheets of the bed, Koketso asked him what he was doing, Mthobisi turned back and looked at Koketso and his response was “this is not the bed that I bought for you and my brother as a wedding gift”. Did we just drive all the way from Sunning Hill for my husband to check on a gift he had bought, this was beyond ridiculous, this man was seriously insane. Koketso cockily replied that the bed was not comfortable so she sold it and bought this one. My husband exploded, he asked her how the hell could she do such a thing, if she didn’t like the bed she should have just told him and he would have exchanged it and go them a different one, which is basically almost the same thing as what Koketso had done, I honestly didn’t see why he was fighting about this. I screamed at Mthobisi and told him he was being unreasonable, it was a gift for crying out loud he gave it to them which means they could do whatever they wanted with it. Mthobisi simply ignored my shouting and asked Koketso who she had sold the bed to, Koketso said some guy who stays a few streets away, and Mthobisi said she must take us to the guy. I was now furious, I asked if are we just going to burst into someone’s house and demand a bloody bed? Mthobisi dragged Koketso out of the house, I had no choice but to follow, the way he was so upset I think he forgot about the pains in his hand coz he got into the driver’s seat and started driving, my husband is the strangest person I have ever meet and lately he had just become even more stranger but this, this took the cake of all the crazy stunts that he had pulled, driving around for a bed was just insane. We arrived at this guy house, the guy was renting a backroom and when we got there the neighbours said he was at a Shabeen which is just down the road, Mthobisi said we are going to get him, he drove, Koketso was actually becoming sober, I was sitting at the back seat, up to the roof gatvol with this bed nonsense. Koketso said she will go in the shabeen and get the guy and we should wait in the car. 15 minutes later Koketso was still not out, Mthobisi went inside a few minutes later Mthobisi came out dragging Koketso who was carrying a beer bottle drinking with a guy following behind them shaking in his socks, I wanted to laugh, my husband is such a bully, he threw Koketso in the backseat with me and the guy sat in front, he introduced himself as Joseph. Koketso apologized and said she saw an old friend who offered to buy her a drink and she could not refuse coz she was going to seem rude, Mthobisi told her to shut up he was not interested in her stories.
As soon as we arrived at Joseph’s room, Mthobisi told him to opened the door, we were here for the bed, Joseph went on about how he knew the bad was an original coz he could not even carry it by himself and he is a strong man he had to ask 4 people to help him carry it, that’s how heavy the bed was and that’s how he knows it’s an original and not some Fong Kong bed. As soon as the door was opened Mthobisi went to the bed, removing the blankets and sheets, as Joseph was still asking what is going on, my husband started feeling the base of the bed and said “it’s here” Koketso and I both asked “what”, he ignored us and took out a knife from his pocket, Joseph exclaimed and asked what he was doing, hubby cool as a cucumber started cutting the base of the bed, now I was interested in seeing what this was all about, after hubby had cut a hole on the base of the bed, he pulled out a big-ass camping bag from the bed, all our eyes popped wide open. While we were still trying to process what the hell had just happened, Mthobisi opened the bag; we all stepped closer to see what’s inside. Koketso fainted.

****The End****

Mikeatdiary
Michael Nkululeko Maphoto
@diaryofazulugal