Zulu (3/3) Book 2

Chapter 5: Katlego Macuacua

N X U M A L O

You'd think that putting a ring on someone means now settling down and starting, if not expanding your family, and putting all the crazy shit you used to do in your past.

Yea. Not my wife and I (laughs).

Phiwe was on vacation with her sisters, Nobuhle and Khumo.

I love my baby to death, but she was now at the asking questions stage, and believe me, I could use the break.

The first thing Hailee wanted to do was get to the closest cocktail bar and forget about being a mother for a couple of hours. That was yesterday.

Today, we decided to hit the club.

Yeah I know. Believe me when I say, we aren't parents this whole week.

When you're too busy running multiple businesses, being a husband, and everything else in between, you need days like these once in a while.

When Hailee and I enter the club, our body guards guide us to our VIP area. Not too far from us, I notice a group of people accompanied by body guards as well.

After we sit, Thomas comes to speak in my ear above the music.

"That's Macuacua." he says after quickly gathering information about who the other person is.

Immediately, my mood changes at the mention of this asshole's name.

Katlego Macuacua is his full name. A name that was supposed to make me smile and remind me that I'm not alone.

I always asked myself where it went wrong, how we got to where we are right now.

I remember my first day in the 5th grade. It was very clear that my classmates had developed friendships amongst themselves from the first grade already. But because my family always traveling, I often changed schools a lot. So I never had stable friends, not until met him.

I got stares, a lot of them. I had no identity there, because everytime I was referred to, I'd be called "Nkosinathi Zulu's son."

I remember how I'd often sit alone during break, and when it came to group work, I'd always work alone because the other kids were either scared of me, envied me, or felt intimidated by me.

One day, a kid came up to me and started speaking, just talking non-stop. I wasn't really paying attention because the only thing I kept asking myself was, how could they make school pants into shorts? And how he didn't realise how stupid he looked with those grey socks pulled up to his knees.

He wasn't scared of me, I didn't intimidate him, nor did I speak much because he did that for the both of us. It worked for me.

As the year progressed, I realized that he had grown on me and I had found a best friend in him.

We did everything together. We went to vacations together, we'd do sleepovers, and each time I moved, he'd never fail to follow me wherever I was.

I turned him from a boy who were school shorts, to a man who wore Rolex watches. He is who he is today, because of me. Be it how to talk to girls, to kiss, to fuck, knowing luxurious places, how to make money, how to steal, hack, everything. I did that.

He was like my little brother, my little dare devil. He and Khaya were about the same age, yet I would have never done any of these things with Khaya because Khaya was mine to protect. Khaya was my little golden boy. I made sure he grew up to be like nothing like I am. I was hell burnt on that. Even though I couldn't stop him from joining the "family business", I made sure he is as less involved as possible, which is why IT is his only department. Only!