Missteps – Chapter One Hundred and Five

I wanted to scream, shout, no scrap that I wanted to punch Andiswa in the face, how on earth could she be so stupid, so careless. She Rocks looked at me and said “the hell Lee, are you trying to get us killed?” I mumbled a sorry she continued “I can’t deal with this, this is too much. Andiswa do you realise that you have just signed our ticket to jail?” Andiswa wanted to know what we meant, we were approaching a garage, I went in the garage so I could park and calm my nerves, we explained to her what the investigating officer had said about the body and the ring, only then did it sink in her that her stupid promise ring was about to get our asses behind bars, who still gives promise rings at this age and time anyway, no wonder she didn’t tell us about it, she was probably embarrassed that her boyfriend was still doing high school nonsense. I got out of the car I needed fresh air, I couldn’t think straight and Andiswa was just pissing me off more and more.

I walked around the car with my hands on my head, just when I thought our lives would get back to normal now this. Why? Why could things just be normal? Why did my life have to be so bloody messed up? I went inside the garage shop and bought 2 bottles of water and some disprins, I had a headache after that call. I went back to the car and found She Rocks chilling playing hip hop like our lives had just not turned from a hundred to a zero in less than 5 minutes. I gave her the water and drank my disprins, I told her we should go visit my mom and her brothers since we were in the south, she said she won’t see her brothers until she has recovered a bit, so I drove to my mom’s house, I needed to see my son and spend the few days I had as a free woman with him. We were now on a waiting game, waiting for the day the cops come and collect us one by one all thanks to Andiswa’s stupid doctor boyfriend’s ring.

We arrived my mom was not there but Victor and the nanny were there, I had missed them so much I hugged Victor as soon as he opened the door I held him for longer than I had intended, he asked if everything was okay and I just started crying, he knew once I start I don’t stop so he told me that I shouldn’t let Neo see me like that he will be upset, that got me to pull myself together the last thing I wanted was for Neo to see me falling apart, every parent tries their best to hide the hurt and pain they are going through from their children. Neo came in running and almost knocked She Rocks off her crutches which she was struggling to use as she was still not used to them. I hugged him and told him how much I missed him. We sat with Victor and She Rocks told him about the accident and how it happened, she kept saying how she wished that she was driving instead of Andiswa because Andiswa is a terrible driver. Victor told her not to think of the what if’s and just focus on getting better, I told him about the nightmares she was having and how she now was scared to be in the car, Victor suggested a friend of his who is a councillor he said She Rocks should see him immediately because she has been through so much and has never dealt with everything and the accident on top of everything else was just too much for her to bear. She Rocks agreed but I knew that agreement was just to shut Victor up and I think he saw it too because he took out his phone and called the guy, I could see the annoyance on She Rocks face, he went outside to speak to him while he was gone She Rocks complained “eish, uyalibona letaima lakho sending me to therapy sessions, I just need a message session, can we book one for tomorrow just to relieve the stress.” I said I would check if they are not too hectic and see if we can book it out the entire place for the following day and check with our other friends if they wanted to come. We had this massage parlour that we would go to in Midrand, on weekends they close at 13:00 so we would book the place out from 13:00 till late and have a girls pamper day, all our other friends would come, we would have massages, foot scrubs, manicure and pedicures with wine on the other hand, just a nice fun, clean girls pamper day with lots of catching up, gossip and laughs. The place was owned, by a friend of a friend of a friend, you know those long distant connections but it’s still a connection and you use it to the max that was the case. Victor came back and said he’s friend is on the way to speak to She Rocks about the trauma that she went through, Victor is really an amazing guy, he treated my friends like they were his own kids. She Rocks thanked him with tears in her eyes and said Victor always looks out for her and she really appreciates him. Victor wanted to watch the news, he watches news channel only, so we went to go sit by the pool so we don’t make a noise while his focused on his news. I called Maxwell the guy who runs the massage parlour and he said we could come the following day and asked if he should organise us drinks I told him not to worry we will bring our own, the last time he organised us drinks he bought Savannah’s and Hunters Dry’s and lots of boxed wine which none of us drink but we didn’t want to offend him so we pretended to drink it and one of the girls was running late so we asked her to stock up on alcohol before she comes which was what saved us.

We decided to call Cleo to check on her, Vusi answered and said they were at the physiotherapist and he would ask Cleo to call us when her session was over, I asked if she slept okay and no nightmares he said she slept like a baby. I played with Neo who kept asking for his dad, so I called Mthobisi and told him we were at my mom’s place he said he would drop by later when he was done, I told him to speak to Neo and they spoke for a few minutes. A while later Victor’s friend arrived, Victor introduced him as Joseph and he and She Rocks went to Victor’s study to talk, I was just glad that she was finally getting some help, the nice thing about knowing friends in high places is you don’t even have to go to their offices to get counselling they come to you, le good life, for how long were we going to have this life that was my worry, everything felt like it was borrowed.

My sister arrived with her kids I was so happy to see them I had missed them dearly, she said she and Lwazi were going to Bela-Bela and wanted mom to baby-sit for the weekend, I told her I would take them, plus I was taking Neo too so it would be fun to have all the kids around. She thanked me and said she was not staying for long she still had to go buy a new bikini for her trip and left. I played with the kids chasing each other up and down. Mthobisi arrived and joined us, my husband and I both love kids, we were rolling on the floor with them and just having a good time. After what seemed like hours She Rocks came out, Joseph said he was leaving he went inside and spoke to Victor who walked him to his car. We also decided to leave my mom was in her stokvel gatherings and was not going to be back anytime soon, so we left I put the kids in She Rocks car and we made our way home, Mthobisi had to make a detour somewhere, these days he was hardly around but I could not worry about that I had way too much on plate as it was. We decided to cancel the spa day for the following day, we had the kids and Andiswa and Cleo were probably not going to make it. On the way home we bought burgers, fries and milkshakes for everyone I knew how much the kids loved junk food and how my sister deprived them of any junk food and always cooked them veggies, well when they were with their aunty they could eat as much junk as they wanted and I would always tell them if their mom asks we had carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and spinach for supper.

When we got home the kids wanted to play so we sat outside playing with them for some time, later on we had burgers, I fixed up rooms for them upstairs to sleep on. I asked She Rocks if I should sleep with her downstairs she laughed and said she would be fine she was going to take sleeping tablets if she struggled to fall asleep and the talk she had with Joseph had helped so she was feeling a whole lot better. Mthobisi arrived while we were preparing for bed, I was a bit annoyed with him and demanded to know what the hell was going on with him lately he was hardly around, he said he had things to take care of and that was it, no further explanation, I shook my head and faced the opposite direction away from him. He started reminding me about what the marriage councillor had said before we got married about not going to be angry with each other, I was surprised that he still even remembered that I said “okay fine, I won’t be angry if you tell me where you go to these days.” He said “remember my Russian friend? Well he’s been having a bit of problems with the law enforcement and we’ve all just been trying to help him out, I’m not out there hitting on other woman Honey I promise, I love you too much I would never do anything to mess our marriage up, I promise my love, you are the only woman for me” every woman needs to hear this every once in a while, I smiled and we kissed and as we were about to make love Neo started crying, I had to go to his room and check on him when I got back my husband had passed out.

The following morning Mthobisi said he would not go anywhere and spend time with his family we played with the kids She Rocks and I shopped online, Mthobisi went to buy a few groceries with the kids when they came back I cooked lunch we just had a very nice relaxed Sunday with no drama. The following day which was Monday I had to go back to work, I was still in holiday mode so it was hard getting up but I had to, She Rocks said I could use her car since Mthobisi would be using his during the day, he was still not back at work.

I got to work nice and early because there were hardly any cars on the road, when I got there Cindy was there, we hugged and said the compliments of the new year nonsense, in all honesty I didn’t want to be at work I wished I was still at home with my husband, she told me about how adventurous her holiday was, I told her about mine and about my friends accident she said she was glad I was not in the car when it happened. We got back to business. She told me we had a strategy meeting with Mfundo’ s company at 11:00 for the plans for the year ahead, we had already worked on this last year so we just added a few touch-ups had breakfast and got ready to go to their offices. We got to their offices 15 minutes earlier and went to the boardroom to go set-up to prepare for our presentation, as we were setting up through the corner of my eye I saw someone that I thought I recognised, I looked again and tried placing her face but it just wouldn’t come. The company directors came and we presented they asked a couple of questions and in two hours we were done. We still hung around and chatted with everyone as they had snacks and cold drinks for everyone. I went to the toilet while everyone was still chatting and eating when I got there I ran into the lady that I had seen earlier and I thought I recognised, as I was going in she was going out we almost bumped each other I apologised and she gave me a death stare and walked back inside, that’s when it hit me, this was Mfundo’ s stupid wife, Ngwako, talk about awkward, we had beef from varsity and I had never liked her back then I still didn’t like her now, she turned to me and said “I’ve been looking for you, I even came to your place but I was told you had moved. Did you and Mthobisi get divorced?” How dare she ask me such question I looked at her and decided I was not going to answer her. I walked inside a stall, did number one and came out she was still standing there looking at me as if she was challenging me, I washed my hands and asked her “Ngwako, what exactly do you want from me.” she angrily replied “listen here you stupid whore, I know about the affair between you and my husband, now tell me where the hell he is so he can sign the bloody divorce papers.”

I choked.