Missteps – Chapter One Hundred & Thirty Five

At first I was a bit confused what was it that I was being instructed to drop in Yeoville? Then I remembered Mthobisi had said I would have to do the drop-of myself I wondered what the hell would I be dropping off. Andiswa and Cleo were interrogating She Rocks about what John had said my mind was not even there anymore she said something about John saying he was joking when he said he was HIV positive, he didn’t think She Rocks would react the way she reacted, how the hell did he expect her to react. So She Rocks said if he really isn’t HIV positive then why did he refuse to do those rapid HIV tests that you buy at Pharmacy with her when she suggested they buy them and test and he said he felt that she didn’t believe him when he said he was negative and didn’t want to test because he was forced to, I was now getting angry on her behalf. John was playing stupid games, if he knew he was not HIV positive then why not test and get this over and done with, I just don’t get men sometimes. She Rocks took out her pills and said she was going to start drinking them now because the sooner she started the lesser were her chances of getting infected, as she was about to drink, she saw the instructions and they said “Avoid Alcohol.” And she had already drank half a bottle of wine so she said she will start on them the next day but the ARV’s she will drink them in the evening before she goes to sleep. Then she started crying “I have survived soo many things, I have had so many close calls with death and this, this is just another level of fear, I am so scared, I know that one day we are all going to die but I don’t want to be killed by HIV, I know it sound silly but that’s the one thing that I don’t want to die from, I have been careful all these years and then some idiot just comes out of nowhere, oh God this is the worst punishment ever.” We all were quiet, I was too busy thinking about the sms to actually focusing on what was going on here I blurted out “Honestly Rock Star I don’t understand why you are being so overly-dramatic, you got the meds, you are fine, you are going to be fine, can we move on from this already?” She Rocks stared at me in disbelief “I’m sorry Lesedi if my life means that little to you. You are more than welcomed to leave. You know there is still a chance that I could contract the virus even after taking all these pills and ARV’s right? And to you that’s not a big deal? If this was you in my shoes you would have expected us to do and say the right things but you just can’t hold yourself for just 30 minutes that’s just asking too much of you. Some friend you are.” Eish the last part really hit home, I tried apologizing but she wouldn’t hear none of that, “I didn’t mean it that way, I’m sorry, of course you are allowed to vent for as long as you like.” I regretted saying the last part because that’s all she did for the next hour, she spoke our ears off. I made a vow to self that next time She Rocks gets a boyfriend, we are drugging him and doing HIV tests on him while he’s passed out, my ears were ready to bleed from the tiredness of hearing her go on none-stop about this.

My phone rang it was Mthobisi he was his sweet loving self “Honey are you in Yeoville?” I cleared my throat “errrr, why would I be in Yeoville?” I acted dumb and asked. “The guys said they sent you a message with directions. Honey I’m on the way to Mafikeng, I won’t be able to do the drop of, please baby, I know it’s asking a lot but I need you to do this for me, for us.” Haaibo, this drop-of business was becoming serious. I said I would do it, I decided that I will just not ask any more questions because that was not going to help with anything.

“Can you guys accompany me to Yeoville please, I need to drop something off for my husband.” I asked after I had hung up the phone. She Rocks gave me a funny look and said “what business does Mthobisi have in Yeoville?” I looked at her and said “I have no idea, I took his car to come to you without telling him so apparently there is stuff in the car that needed to be delivered to Yeoville and now he’s on his way to Mafikeng so I have to deliver.” She Rocks said she needs to take a quick shower first and Andiswa told her to feel free to raid her wadrobe and wear whatever she wanted. After she was done showering we left in Mthobisi’s car on the way Cleo called her husband I guess to check his movement but to her disappointment he answered and told her how much he loved her. Andiswa said “your husband should be Xhosa he’s just too good at this lying business to be Zulu, not once had he ever slipped up, it takes a pro to be this good. He should open his own school of how not to get caught.” I wanted to laugh but the silence in the car meant Cleo wasn’t happy with that comment so I acted like I was focused on the road while trying very hard to hold the laughter inside. Cleo said “Go and ahead and make joke Andiswa, you will get married one day and we’ll see how funny this will be when this happens to you.” She Rocks rolled her eyes and said “can we go to Tandoor when we get to Yoeville? Remember how crazy we used to be about Yeoville when we were in High School? The weed in that place was out of this world.” We all laughed remembering how we would save our lunch monies just to go clubbing at the end of the month in Yeoville. “I don’t think they opened this time of the day.” I said, I knew once we get there they will not want to leave. “Okay let’s go to the car wash, the one that has an African Restaurant next to it, I haven’t eaten all day.” Said She Rocks, “the one in Rocky Street? They sell Nigerian food man there, I’m hungry but eyy, the last time I ate that food my stomach was upset, I’m getting Nando’s.” She Rocks said not that one. I exclaimed “You mean Malalaituka? Hell no, Mthobisi once sent me there to go pay off some cop.” That had come out unintentionally, they all looked at me and I knew I had just over-shared, Cleo broke the silence and said “so you think the cop is still there up to this day waiting for you, please man Lee, do you know how many times I’ve had to pay off cops for bribes but still drive in the same spot without fear.” She did make a point, so we all agreed that we would go to Malalaituka for lunch since we were hungry. I drove there and Andiswa suggested I take the car to the car wash I declined since there were things that belonged to my husband and could be in any corner of the car and the last thing I wanted or needed was the car wash guys stealing that.

We went inside Malalaituka, and placed our order, She Rocks ordered pap, chakalaka and steak, my friends don’t really like eating pap they say it makes them pick up weight but screw it we were having a rough day so we all decided pap and steak would do us good. And we ordered a couple of ciders, we ate and were soo full that all we wanted to do was sleep, that’s the boring thing about eating pap during the day it feels you up so much that you just want to sleep. We continued drinking and chatting till my phone rang, I answered “my sister, we are ready for you.” the voice said “Sorry?” I said “Bring the staff my sister.” Only then did it click that these were my husband’s people. I said “okay, so where in Raleigh street should I meet you?” “Go to Becker Street look for a bright yellow building and park there.” Before I could ask any questions he hung up. “Ladies finish up your drinks we need to go.” I told the girls. They gulped their drinks with no questions asked at this stage we were all a bit tipsy, I asked She Rocks where Becker Street was she didn’t remember but put it on her phone gps, we got to Becker Street and I told them to be on the look out for a yellow building Cleo spotted it and we went and parked next to it. I called the number that had called earlier and and it went to voicemail. We sat there for about 5 minutes when I decided I should call Mthobisi, I exaggerated and told him we’ve been waiting for 20 minutes and no one has showed up. He said he will call them, within a minute they were calling me again with a different number, I told the guy I was parked outside the yellow building, “I see you, stay on the phone with me I will tell you where to go.” I started the car. “Where we going now?” Andiswa asked “whose there with you?” was the question from the guy at the end of the phone, I told him it was my friends. Then he whispered something to someone he was with and said he will call me back. Okay this was getting stranger by the second and I didn’t want to show the girls that I was irritated so on the inside I counted to 10 on the inside. The guy called back and told me to stay on the phone he will direct me where to go, he told me to turn left on the next street, I did as I was told I made a couple of turns and found myself in Berea I kept looking to see if there was a car following us but this was during the day there were lots of cars around and it was hard to tell which one was following us. When we got close to Barnato High School the guy told me to stop there. I stopped and the girls asked if we were done touring Joburg, I laughed and whispered I hope so. The guy at the end of phone said “call MT and ask him to tell you where he stashed the stuff in the car.” and he hung up. I called my husband who told me to look in the dashboard there is a money bag with crumped out papers I just need to put those in a dustbin and leave. “wait, dustbin?” he hung up. I told She Rocks to grab the money bag and throw it in the bin a few feet from us. She grabbed it and went to the bin and threw it in within seconds a police car came out of nowhere and stop in front of her, they removed the money bag and cuffed her and told her she was under arrest.

“What the fuck is going on?” Exclaimed Cleo