I'm more than just the second wife

32

I woke up today and decided today , this Friday was my last day at home. I'm ready to face my reality now but for today I'd stay in the comfort of my sanctuary and I'd cook up a feast for my family but mama surely didn't have all I'd need. Her cooking was delicious my grumbling tummy and the watering of my mouth can attest to it but she didn't use all the spices I did so off I was early in the morning. I was hoping not to run into any of my mothers nosy peers who masked their envy and invasive questions with smiles and lectures. You'd have to be daft to miss the barbs of bitterness in their words of 'wisdom'. I really could do without them but this was a small town and I knew just the sight of me would spark all kinds of probable causes of my visit at home and at the top of that list would be a failed marriage and so as hopeful as I was I braced myself for the prospect of running into at least three of our villages gossips and have them pry into my business.

I consoled myself with the fact that I knew they preferred to shop at shoprite which happened to be on the other side of our one street town and not the pick n' pay in the single storey mall that comprised of a single grocery shop, two fast food joints a Spur and the Nando's mimic, Pedros , a Mr Price , a Spec savers, a cafè with a name that doesn't come to mind, one of those pharmacies all our grandmothers line up at to get over the counter pain killers for all their illnesses because it's more affordable and a clicks if my memory serves me well and a few others. It seemed stiflingly small to me as I preferred the big malls in the big cities that had a map, and directory at every turn but for my home town it was an improvement and it afforded many of my people jobs so I shouldn't complain.

And as if someone had paid all my neighbours to come out on this here day I ran into five of them just as I entered the mall but they thankfully didn't stop me to chat but again they were my peers . We'd gone to school together. They unfortunately hadn't made it out of this town, presumptuous of me to assume they'd want to leave because at some point I hadn't either aside from going away to study. My dream was to come back and build a clinic for my people and spend my days tending to their health. What I mean is they hadn't pursued any dreams or furthered their education and somehow had engraved it into their heads that I thought myself better than them so they kept the greetings short, well the guys did. The ladies fixed their faces into stoic frowns so I wouldn't even attempt to greet but I was grateful for that. I didn't want to exchange pleasantries with peers we had nothing in common with any more aside from that I didn't have the strength to partake in society just yet which begs the question of why I left my house at all today but I thought the fresh air would do me good and I came early as not to encounter that many people.

I was now in the snacks isle grabbing several bags of peanuts for my father, he loved them, when MamMazibuko came up to me. "My eyes must deceive me! Is that you Zonke?" She asked putting her hand over her eyes as someone would do to see better under the gaze of the sun. She looked older, the wrinkles around her eyes and mouth more defined and her complexion several shades darker from the years of ploughing her fields without the proper protection of her skin against the sun.
"Sanibona Mam-Mazibuko. How are you?" I asked praying the smile i had on display seemed polite. "I'm fine child just the aches of old age. How are your parents? I saw your car's been in the yard for sometime now. Aren't you married? Why are you dressed like this? You head, it's uncovered!" She said incredulously. I thought there was nothing wrong with my gym tights and my top didn't stick to my body as so to outline my body and it went over my butt and I was home, why would I cover my head even in my father's homestead? "Where's umkhwenyana? I hope you didn't flee at the first sight of trouble. All men cheat. You just turn a blind eye mntanami. Do you think we'd be married to your fathers for as long as we have if we fled with every harlot they rolled around in the grass with?" It'd be the day pigs fly when I let a man cheat on me or mistreat me and I stayed and she lives on the other side of the hill so my house is hidden from hers and with the walking stick in her hand I doubt she's walking over the hill anymore to sniff out the whole village's business but over the years it's somehow just found it's way to her so despite her limitations she's got her knees deep in whose husband is sleeping with which widow, whose child isn't their husband's and whose daughter came back from her marriage and who is and isn't a witch.