Missteps – Chapter Sixty Seven

Thozama Mqikela
@Mightyzama

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Katlego had no chance I jumped her from behind and started throwing punches, the ladies who were with her didn’t know what to do, I also don’t know what had gotten over me I am not like that, I am well behaved and always together well not always but most of the times, okay maybe not even most of the time but this thing deserved to be put in her place and sometimes words just don’t have as much of an impact as a beat-down. You can talk until you are blue in the face and the person you talking to might not even have a conscious some people are heartless and the only language they understand is a proper beating, note this only applies from one woman to another, not man, the only time a man should lift a hand to a woman is to hand her money or his credit card but that’s a story for another day, back to the situation at hand which was not one of my proudest moments but it had to be done, neke kgalemela lenyatso, direct translation stopping the looking down on other people. How dare she come into my home, I know it was not my home but my in-laws but it’ the same as my home, I’m married into that home so it’s mine dammit, did she say her baby was conceived in my husband’s bedroom, I punched even harder and the thought of that, as the 2 ladies she was with were about to come and stop the fight, Koketso jumped in front of them and closed the door, this also caught me by surprised and she stood there just watching the fight, Katlego tried throwing her arms around hoping she would hit me but I made sure that she does touch me at all.

I was pulling her weave out which must have hurt but I didn’t care, I was taking out all my stress and frustrations on her. Andiswa and Cleo came to try and stop me, they pulled me off her as I let go she slapped me across the face soo hard that my ears were buzzing, I tried going back to her but my friends were holding me back. Koketso also held her hands trying to stop her from slapping me again; she started screaming “what is your problem, are you insane? How dare you attack me like that.”, the door opened and She Rocks and the ladies Katlego had come with entered, I screamed back “that’s for sleeping with my husband you bitch” one of the ladies looked at her and with shock in her face asked “you slept with her husband” Katlego replied, “she’s mad, I don’t even know who her husband is” She Rocks interrupted and asked what was going on, everybody was just talking all at once. Katlego took her friends and they left with me standing there holding a few pieces of her weave in my hand, I don’t condone violence but that felt good, I felt like jumping up and down, it was small victory but it felt great.

The victory was short lived though as soon as we had all calmed down from the fight I had to tell She Rocks about the call, I didn’t know whether to tell her now or after the ceremony, this ceremony to me was a joke, I could not wait to have it over and done with. Koketso looked at me and said “damn Lee, when did you become so ghetto? I didn’t know you had it in you” I looked at her and asked what was the closing of the door all about she said she wanted to make sure that I beat the shit out of her without any interruptions, She Rocks was on the floor laughing she said “Lee each time you come to Daveyton you create chaos, I think you are cursed with this place, maybe you should stop coming here” she was laughing so hard she couldn’t even finish her sentences. Andiswa and Cleo on the other hand were not amused at all, they kept asking why did I do that, and I should have taken the higher ground and just ignored her, Koketso was arguing that I did the right thing and She Rocks just thought the whole thing was to funny she could not stop laughing it broke my heart knowing what I knew so I decided to let her have a bit of fun and I would tell her after the ceremony.

Koketso said she would go out and see if things were in order outside and if people had heard about the fight. She came back and told us the ceremony had not started and they saying they waiting for Katlego, we all figured that she must have gone back home to fix herself up after that fight, why the hell was her head not covered anyway I thought. A few minutes later Mthobisi came into the room and said that Katlego had just called his mom and her kid had relapsed and she was rushing the kid to hospital, he said we should go too. I looked at him and said “excuse you?” I was in no mood for round two with Katlego I told him if he wants to go he can go to his “other family” I was not going anywhere near another hospital anytime soon, dammit I had had it with hospital. My friends gave me the “go” look but I was serious, I was not going there. My husband realising that my friends were listening to this conversation asked if we could speak outside. We went outside and he told me that this might be his only chance of seeing his daughter alive but if I felt so strongly against him going to the hospital then he won’t go. Damn this man was good, how do you refuse after being hit with such a line, I agreed but told him he could go on his own I will not be going, I told him that Katlego and I got off on a wrong start he asked what I meant by that I said I’m sure she will tell you when you see her, he looked confused but he had to rush to the hospital and couldn’t ask any further questions which suited me just fine.

Mthobisi’s mom made an announcement that the ceremony will have to be postponed due to the baby being sick and in hospital, people were disappointed especially since most were just there for the food and someone in the crowd asked what about the food, she told them they can stay and eat the food and there was happy noises all around, forget that the child whom the ceremony was being made for was in hospital, all they cared about was their stomach not that I blamed them. Since there was no point in staying in Daveyton the girls and I decided to go out for brunch I didn’t have a car so I drove with Andiswa and She Rocks and Cleo followed behind us, on the way Andiswa and I were planning on how to break the news to She Rocks about Siyabonga, and we both decided the sooner we tell her the better for all we know the person they found was probably not even Siyabonga. Andiswa had taken the details of where we were supposed to go and identify the body; it was in Midrand so we drove to News Café in Midrand, the one in San Ridge Square.

She Rocks kept calling us asking where we were going and why we were going to Midrand when there are so many restaurant’s in East Rand where we can have this bloody brunch, we kept telling her we haven’t been to Midrand in ages and we needed a change of scenery, she followed behind us moaning, sending us voice notes every chance she got shouting at us. Cleo didn’t care; she stayed in Pretoria so this was close to home for her. We arrived at News café and before we could even sit down Cleo was already ordering a drink, we all turned and looked at her she said “what? It was a long drive, and too much drama for me to handle, I need to calm myself down” we all laughed. We ordered drinks and for some reason She Rocks wanted a virgin cocktail, Andiswa ordered for her a whisky, She Rocks asked why are we trying to get her drunk, we said there is something we need to tell her but she has to drink something alcoholic first, that got her very curious, as soon as our drinks arrived, she down the whisky in one go and said “okay, now tell me” Andiswa looked at me and said I should speak I rolled my eyes at her and gave her the I hate you look and said to She Rocks, “when you went to the bathroom in Daveyton a call came in on your phone, it was the police, they found a body and think it might be Siyabonga.” Tears just started flowing out of She Rocks face, she was even shaking, she demanded to know where the body was, we told her we have the mortuary address it’s somewhere here in Midrand and that is why we had decided to come here, the waitress came and asked if we were ready to order food, we asked for the bill Andiswa paid and we left, I had to drive She Rock’s car as she was heavily shaken, we drove to the address Andiswa had taken, arrived there and we told them who we were, I had never been to a mortuary before and this was going to be one scary experience, looking through dead bodies, I don’t know how the people who work there do it.

We were told to go to some office and wait there, while waiting Cleo said “we should have gone pass a bottle store before coming here” no one said a word we were all silent, a man came and we asked if he was going to take us to the room where all the bodies were, he said no, they have pictures and we can identify him in pictures we don’t have to go through that trauma of walking around bodies, thank goodness for technology. He showed us the pictures of 3 guys they looked nothing like Siyabonga, he said they had not been identified we were all so relieved that it was not him and then a lady came in carrying a big brown envelope and whispered something in his ear and left, he opened the envelope and said we should also look at this picture too, as soon as he put it on the table we all knew without a doubt that was Siyabonga, Cleo screamed out the loudest and started crying, She Rocks was in so much shock she just kept nodding and didn’t say a word, there was a small fridge in there, the guy saw our shock and took out water and gave us cold water and said he will give us some privacy, we sat there for maybe 15 minutes all in silence Cleo sobbing like a child She Rocks just nodding her head like a crazy person. They say grief occurs in 5 Stages, first its denial and I figured She Rocks was in denial and disbelief. Second stage is Anger, third stage is Bargaining forth Depression and the last stage is Acceptance. Andiswa and I were just sitting there trying to figure out what to say, what do you say in such a situation, sorry just didn’t feel like the right word to say, condolences also didn’t feel right.

This man was She Rocks life she had put all her hopes and dreams on him and their future looked soo bright but now within minutes her whole world had just crumbled down right in front of her eyes and the worst part about it there was not a single thing any of us could do to reverse it. This girl had suffered so much in her life and for this to happen, this just made one realise how unfair life was. Her parents had died tragically and now her future husband, what’s one supposed to do when life just throws you disaster after disaster, I truly felt her pain it was as if this was happening to me that’s how much I loved my friend. Eventually She Rocks stood up and said we should leave, we all followed behind her in silence not sure exactly of where we were going when we got to the parking lot she said we need to go tell Siyabonga’ s family. I was a bit hesitant but since I was her driver I didn’t have much of a choice on the way Cleo said we should pass by the taxi rank she needs to get something she made us park on the side of the road, I knew there was a bottle store just before the taxi rank and Cleo had gone there to get booze, she is such an alcoholic, she came out with 2 plastic bags, I didn’t even want to ask what she had bought. We drove from Midrand to Soweto and all the way She Rocks was silent, not a single word. When we got to Soweto she directed me to Siyabonga’ s mother’s house then looked at me and said “it’s my fault that he’s dead, I couldn’t be happy with the fact that he was a mechanic I had to push him to do more, I looked at all of you and all your husbands are making money, Mthobisi has a decent job, Andiswa is dating a doctor, Cleo’s husband makes lots of money and I just wanted Siyabonga to also be successful, I pushed him into this transport business and look where that got him, why couldn’t I just be happy with what he had and what he was? Why did I have to try and change him into something that he was not? Why Lee, Why?” and she broke down and started crying, I didn’t know she felt that way and I had no words to respond to that I just held her in my arms and told her everything was going to be okay, even though I didn’t believe that but saying it felt like the right thing to say and that moment, Cleo came to the car and had mixed up something I don’t know what it was but it had vodka in it, she gave it to She Rocks to drink and said it will calm down her nerves, She Rocks drank it in one go, then she gave her a gum and said that should cover the smell of alcohol, damn Cleo is a pro-drinker.

As we were about to enter Siyabonga’ s mother’s house my phone rang, I had forgotten to put it on silence which actually reminded everyone to put their phones on silent, it was Mthobisi’ s mother, what did the witch want, I dropped the call as I was about to turn it on silent she called again, damn this woman, I dropped again. Andiswa asked if we were ready we said yes as we were standing outside knocking at the door an sms from my mother in law came in “Answer your bloody phone this is important”. She can’t even fake being nice on an sms, mean machine. I told the girls to go in and I decided to call her back there was not even a Hello “Lesedi, what the hell is wrong with you?” I knew she was referring to the fight but I decided to amuse myself and act dumb, I asked her what she was talking about she shouted and said she’s talking about the woman that I had beat up in her house, I snorted back and said “you mean your other daughter in law, Katlego?” she asked what was I talking about because Katlego had not even come to the house she said “the woman you beat up you stupid girl was not Katlego it’s the woman I bought the house from she used to stay here before I moved here, how stupid can you be going around beating up people, she has opened a case of assault against you and now the police are here looking for you.”

What had I done?