Missteps – Chapter Sixty Eight

Thozama Mqikela
@Mightyzama

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Did she say the police were looking for me? I had beaten up a wrong person? Assumption truly is a mother of all f&*k up’s. What were the chances, I mean the stupid woman walked in there like she knew the place and when she said Mthobisi’s room is where her baby was conceived I mean I was convinced that she was Katlego, shit I had beat up a wrong person, no wonder the poor woman thought that I was crazy. These kind of mistakes happen all the time, you get accused of cheating with a collegue or a friend or worse someone that you don’t even know, it goes to show how insecure we woman can be. I still had my mother in law on the phone yapping and yapping none-stop, I needed to think I went to She Rocks car and sat there, Mthobisi’s mother asked where I was because she wanted to send the Police to me, she said she was not going to assist a fugitive, I was now being called a fugitive by my own mother in law the way she was going on you would have sworn I had killed a person, I told her this was an honest mistake I thought that she was Katlego and that got her even more angrier “so if it was Katlego that gives you a right to hit her? Lesedi you deserve to go to jail, you are a danger to society, look at what you did to my car.” Was she really going to bring up the past now? And knowing what she does, was she seriously calling me a danger to society, talk about a pot calling a kettle black. I realised that there was no wining this argument so I hung up and called my husband, he said he was in hospital, Katlego’s kid wass extremely sick the doctors can’t figure out what is wrong with her all they knew was her life was hanging by the thread, I actually felt sorry for Katlego, I asked my husband if Katlego had come by the house in Daveyton, I wanted to make sure I couldn’t trust his mother he said no she didn’t, the baby had been sick from the night before so she couldn’t come to the house today because the child’s condition had just gotten worse.

Oh shit, that witch was not making up stories, I didn’t know if I should tell him then that I was now wanted by police he was already going through so much I didn’t want to add to his burdens. I told him I will be praying for Katlego’s baby and to stay strong, I also told him how much I loved him and how the child was going to pull through this, I was trying even though it was hard to be a supportive wife. I stayed in the car for some time waiting for the girls, I couldn’t exactly go inside at this stage, I was also not in the mood for tears I knew people in there were probably all just crying buckets and buckets of water, I had the police to worry about. I didn’t know if I should hand myself in or run, I could not imagine myself in jail, orange is soo not my colour. I had to come up with a plan, maybe if I go and apologise to the woman, or maybe in court I could claim insanity, already a lot of people were starting to think I’m mad, I could pay my therapist to testify and say I was not okay upstairs, shit all my ideas were stupid, why couldn’t I think like my husband. I needed him right now, but in the same breath I didn’t want to be selfish, he was facing a life and death situation and mine was not that urgent. After what felt like hours the girls finally came out and I still had not had any good plan to get myself out of the mess I had created. She Rocks said she would be staying over and if we wanted to go it was okay she understood. She didn’t have to tell me twice, I hugged her and told her that she will be in my thoughts and prayers, Cleo and Andiswa had actually wanted to stay but seeing me so jittery they knew something was up and they also said their goodbyes and we left I drove with Andiswa she asked what the hell was going on, I told her we should stop at the garage so we can check on Cleo, I called Cleo and told her to follow us to the garage, when we were there I told them that I had beat up a wrong person, Andiswa went on her high and mighty horse and told me how she told me so, I honestly did not need this right now, I told her to drop me off at my mother’s house, she said maybe I should go to her place since my mother in law didn’t know where she stayed and would not send police to her house, we agreed, Cleo said she was going home she was tired and tipsy, the whole time while they were inside Siyabonga’ s mother’s house Cleo had a water bottle filled with alcohol and was pumping herself with alcohol, people thought she was drinking water but she was in fact drinking alcohol. I told her to drive carefully and watch out for roadblocks especially in her condition, or we could end up being cellmates; she laughed and said I had a temper problem and need to work on it before I hurt someone real bad, this was the alcoholic friend telling me that I have a problem.

I told her she had a drinking problem and AA was waiting for her, we all laughed. Andiswa and I drove to Fourways and Cleo drove home. When we arrived Andiswa opened a bottle of wine and we drank all our problems okay maybe not all our problems but most of our problems and just talked nonsense the whole time. My husband called to ask where I was, I told him I was in the North of Joburg with Andiswa, he screamed and told me that it was not safe for me to be anywhere near Fourways, he said he was on his way to pick me up, didn’t even give me a chance to explain myself. I told Andiswa that hubby was on the way and I will be leaving soon she was disappointed but said if anyone could keep me safe it was my husband. In less than half an hour Mthobisi was calling saying he’s outside, he didn’t even want to get inside, Andiswa walked me out, Mthobisi waved at her and I got in the car and we left. The first thing I got when I went inside the car was “Lesedi, how many times do I have to tell you the same thing?” he went on about how he had told me to stay away from this side of town but I never listen to him I always do what I want when I want, the man was obviously stressed over other things and taking it out on me but as a good wife I had to be silent and let him take it all out, in the middle of the freeway I told him to stop the car, he looked at me and said I don’t need to be dramatic just because he’s shouting at me there is no need for me to want to get off in the freeway, how will I get home and what will he say to my parents, I screamed “Mthobisi stop the fucken car I need to throw up” with hearing that he swerved the car to the left almost missing another car by inches and hit dead-break and came out to my side, by then I was already out throwing up like crazy, he asked what had I been drinking I told him wine, he said that’s it, he’s taking me to a doctor tomorrow I have been sick like this for days, I need to get medication before things gets out of control. I agreed that we will go and see a doctor tomorrow because I was also starting to get worried now. He had water and gave me some to rinse my mouth then we drove home to my mother’s house.
When we got home my mom and Victor were watching old boring movies so we decided to go sit in the pool with Neo, the sun had already gone down but it wasn’t dark. I asked him about Katlego’s baby he said she’s not doing too well and things are not looking good and he is angry at Katlego for not telling him about the baby sooner and was even having doubts of whether this really is his baby but he couldn’t exactly ask her to do a DNA test not with the baby being sick like that, I actually felt sorry for my husband he was going through so much. He told me that the only people that mattered in the world and the only people that he cared most about was me and Neo we were his number one priority. He was teaching Neo how to swim and they kept splashing me with water, this was such a beautiful sight, my family together. After playing around with Neo for some time he was tired so my husband took him to his nanny for a bath. We went inside the house to have dinner, to our surprise my sister and her husband had just arrived for dinner. My sister was very happy to see us, as for Lwazi her husband he couldn’t even look at us in the eyes, not that I blame him after our last interaction, I went and hugged my sister and looked her over looking for any signs of bruises and there were none, I even realised that she was not wearing any make-up so things must have been good at home, at least my husband did one thing right, Lwazi now knew not to mess with my sister or his ass would be buried. We sat down and ate dinner, Mthobisi spoke to Lwazi as if nothing had ever happened between the two of them he spoke as if they were the best of friends he was even inviting Lwazi to go play golf with him, I wanted to laugh but I managed to hold it in, Lwazi of course came up with every excuse in the book not to go play golf with my husband, not that I blamed him, who knew what could happen if he won against my husband, I’m sure that is what he thought, Mthobisi would bury him for wining against him.

We all had a good diner my mom had gone all out, it was like the last supper, there was starters, main course and desert, by the time we got to desert my stomach was so full I felt like I was about to burst. After dinner Naledi and her husband left they said their nanny will give them hell if they get home too late. We walked them out and they said our goodbyes, we went back to the house and Victor and my mom said they would be going to bed, we said we will stay up and watch some Tv. We watched a bit of tv, then there was a knock at the door, I thought it was Naledi and that she had maybe forgotten something, I told Mthobisi to go open the door, he opened and then closed it immediately then looked at me and said “shit Lee it’s the cops” my heart almost came out of my mouth I knew they were here for me, I said “oh God Mthobisi they here for me” they knocked harder and threatened to break the door down if we don’t open. Victor and my mom had now been woken up by the loud noise and they came to see what was going on, Mthobisi was still standing by the door my mom asked why is he not letting them in and he should open the door before they break it. Mthobisi opened the door and the policeman said “we are here for Lesedi Hlatshwayo Jumbe” Victor stepped up and asked what the hell was going on and why were they looking for me in the middle of the night, the policeman said they have been looking for me all day, and they were here to arrest me on charges of assault. My mother looked at me and asked “Lesedi, what have you done?” she looked at Mthobisi who was as clueless as she was.

Mthobisi asked “who did you assault Lee? When? How?” he was so confused, the police explained that I had beaten up a woman who used to stay at my mother-in laws house and accused her of sleeping with my husband. My mother looked at me and I could see the disappointment in her eyes she simply said “I did not raise you like that” and walked off to her room, the police took out hand cuff and read me my rights, I didn’t even know that in South Africa people get told their rights I only thought it happened in the movies, there were 2 cops the female and a male, the female police took out handcuff and was getting ready to cuff me, Mthobisi told her there was no need for that, she insisted that it was procedure and they have to cuff me, I was numb, I couldn’t even speak. They cuffed me and took me outside and there was a van waiting for me, I couldn’t get in with those stupid cold handcuffs in my hand she untied me and told me to get in. Mthobisi said he will follow the van to the police station and I shouldn’t worry he will get everything sorted, he will call his lawyer. The police van drove off with me sitting at the back crying my eyes out. What the hell have I done?