When Two Elephants Fight

Part 2 unforgettable reunion

"Tracy Moyo, yu are wanted at the headmaster's office", these words brought me back from wonderland where l used to pay occasional visits during boring lessons with Mr Shumba. Besides being quiet, Mr Shumba spoke so slowly and so low that you would think he is narrating a sad story. Everyone would sleep in his lessons and l always took such opportunities to visit my own wonderland. I had created my own world where l was a princess. I had very loving parents there and my father would always lift me and threw me up and down whenever he comes back from work. In that world my mother was a teacher and my father was a doctor. I would go to school with my mother who taught at the same school where l attended and my father would always come home with a stethocope hanging around his neck. I was proud to have both of them and l loved them a lot. I liked my wonderland because that was the only place where l had a fancy life and everything l wanted. At times l was greedy enough to wish that the wonderworld would become a reality one day until l was called to the headmaster's office on that day.
"Tracy, l said the headmaster is calling for you", Mr Moyo repeated as l kept on glaring at him thinking l had misheard. By the way Tracy is my name. Tracy Moyo to be precise, so when l heard my name being called twice l stood up and went to the headmaster's office immediately. I was just wondering what l had done wrong. I asked myself wether l was too absent minded in Mr Shumba's lesson that he decided to send me to th headmaster to be punished. Of course he would send me there because the way he was quiet l bet he would even know how to beat a pupil. "But it's not like am the only one who wasn't paying attention, at least l wasnt sleeping like the rest of the class, I was wandering in wonderland yes but my eyes were still open", these were the words l was telling myself when l was going to the headmaster's office.
I knocked on the door and the headmaster called me in. He was sitting on his desk and as soon as l entered he looked me with questioning eyes. Those eyes that says, " You got lots of explaining to do young lady". At  the other chair there was a man sitting on a bench. That was the bench normally used by parents who came to the school to appeal with the headmaster to extend the fees payment due dates or those who came to attend their children's disciplinary hearings. I greeted the headmaster and the other man too. Though l didnt know him l just greeted him because my mother told me to greet my elders wether l know them or not. Honestly if it were up to me l wouldn't have greeted him. I mean whats the use of talking to someone you dont even know just for the sake of courtesy. Anyway that's  socially expected from every individual so l just do it for the sake of doing it. I sat on the chair opposite the headmaster's desk and told him that l was Tracy the learner je had summoned to his office. He looked at me, he then looked at the man on the bench. He repeated the same thing several times without saying a thing. At the same time the manon the bench was also looking at me. His gaze was different from that of the headmaster. The headmaster's gaze was familar. I had seenthis look before. This was the same look l always got when l went to the podium to collect my results, the same look that l got from the lady from UNICEF who was taking my measurements the day Mr Sithole decided to make that great revelation to me. The revelation that l was as good as opharned. I felt very weak. I was tired of this look and l wanted this to end, but it was like l was getting it from wherever lwent even in the headmaster's office. When l got in the headmaster was looking at me like a parent who is glaring at a child who has misbehaved. But when l got in and sat down it changed to giving me that pitiful look. I was so used to it but it was getting worse everyday. And then l asked myself why the man on the bench was looking me like a hawk ready to pounce. He head big round eyes, a long nose, big plump lips which were trembling while looking at me and he looked like a well built man in his 40s, pot bellied and looked like someone who was ready to commit murder and his face looked like....wait....l looked at him closely and the man looked familiar! His face was familar and looking at him like that seemed like we have met before. I was also looking at me but his gaze remained the same. I wanted to ask him if we had met somewhere and he beat me to it by standing up and shouted, " Where is my money going when my child is looking like this? She doesnt have a decent uniform and she looks like a streetkid while her mother is milking me dry. Thats  when l realised why his face looked familiar! The man was my father and l inherited most of his features. The eyes, the lips and even the shape of my head. At that moment l totally went blank. I felt like l was floating out of this world. Not to my usual wonderland but somewhere unpleasant. This is the man l had longed for all.ny life! He was right in front of me and I couldn't recognise him. Forget about recognizing, he was even throwing about insults about my mother and calling me a streetkid! Thats was an epic reunion! Can l even call it epic? Noo that was the most ugliest reunion l have have seen or heard. Even the books l have read had never mentioned such an awful reunion. I always read stories of children who were reunited with their real parents and then lived happily ever after. Like Rapunzel, wasnt she reunited with her parents after being rescued from that wicked witch? I read that she lived happily ever after as a princess. I wouldn't have minded if l had a reunion as Rapunzel's with my father. Who doesnt want to be a princess? I was at a loss of words, l didnt know how to react to eveything. I wished very hard that my mind took me back wonderland but it betrayed me right when l.I needed it the most. I was face to face with an grotesque reality. I was in front of my father whom l had for a long time loved to hate but hated to love. This was the same man l had registered at school as dead and secretly wishes for him to come back to me. This was a lot to take in but crying was not an option. Tears were threatening to stream down my cheeks but l fought with them tooth and nail so that they could stop betraying me too. I gathered the remaining strength l had and looked at him in the eyes." Why are you here?", I asked him. " Where is your mother? I want to see her right now! If she hasn't seen the worst of me she will see it all today, am not someone she can mess with. She will rue the day she ever met me,how dare she took all my money? My hard earned money!" The man was so angry he couldn't stop talking. He grabbed me by the arm and led me out of the office. " Lets go to your mother, I want to see her right now!". He was roaring like thunder demanding to see my father. The headmaster saw that things were spiraling out of control so he decided to intervene. He tried to calm my father down but he was clearly talking to the walls. He warned my father that disrupting my lessons by taking me home before school time is over was a criminal offence. My father then let go of my hand and turned to the headmaster. "This woman has been taking my money for a long time for this child's upkeep but she doesnt look like she is being maintained at all. Look at her uniform, and what is that on her feet. Can you even call those shoes? What type of shoes are those? For someone who takes my money every month she doesntecen have aything to show for it. She is spenting my money with her boyfriends and neglecting the child. Today she is going to see what lam made of". My father was very angry and the headmaster seemed to understand him. After all l wasn't also looking like a teacher's child. My uniform was short and torn and l had very funny shoes people were saying l was looking like a pair of stones is tied to my feet. The shoes were high l tell you. They had a very high flat sole. It was high from the heel to the toes and on top they looked like takkies. My mother said she bought them at Sakubva musika and they will last long since the sole will take long to be worn off considering how thick the sole was.