Ziphozethu

60

That night we were served greasy slop for dinner. "Baba, I don't know if I can eat this." I said looking at my plate. "Me either. Doesn't MaDlamini still have snacks with her? This might just poison us." I went to Gogo's hut and when I walked in they quickly started hiding stuff under the blanket. I heard a lot of plastics rustling. 

"Can we help you." I looked at Nozipho suspiciously. "What's under the blanket?" Her eyes darted to Gogo who seemed to have a mouth full of food but her plate was off to one side. "MaDlamini if you have proper please share. We're starving." She rolled her eye. "Fine. I just know Moses sent you. Call him in here." I poked my head out the hut and signaled for Moses to come and he didn't waist any time.

They had two lunch boxes full of food hidden in a plastic bag. "Gogo." Moses sounded shocked. "What? I'm not eating their food. It's terrible. One of my neighbors sneaked this in for me. Have some." We ate and they spoke about their grandfather.

Moses's father died in a car accident when he was young. MaRadebe sent both Noah and Moses to live with their grandparents. Back then they had moved to the city because they worked in a hospital. Moses's grandfather as a doctor and and Gogo as a nurse. They moved to this village when their grandfather received the calling to become a traditional healer.

They put all six of their sons AKA the elders, through university and then they put Moses and Noah through university. That's probably why they feel like they owe them.

"Oh here she is. As lazy as ever. You're the youngest and newest wife here and you think chores are above you?" MaRadebe just knew how to ruin a moment. "Ma you said I shouldn't touch any of the food." She looked like she was enjoying every minute of this. "That doesn't mean your exempt from everything else. You can still collect wood and water and clean around here."

"Ma! You do not want to get on my nerves this week! Not this week!" Moses yelled at her. "Do you see what they put me through Gogo? Do you see what I have to deal with?" She started fake crying. "This woman is crazy." Nozipho said under her breath. "Crazy? I'm crazy? If I'm crazy then the two of you are useless. The one can't give birth to a son and the other can't even stay pregnant long enough for us to find out what the child is!" What the hell was wrong with this woman.

"Get out! Out!" Gogo threw a slipper at her. "Moses, look what they're doing to your mother." She said 'crying' again. "Ma, I'm only saying this once. If you don't stop talking to my wives the way you do you can stop counting on my money hitting your bank account every month." She started crying dramatically and the she ran out.

The mood was ruined and it felt like I was going back into that dark place again. Everytime I thought things were getting better I would be back at square one.

"MaZulu, are you still awake?" Moses asked in the middle of the night and I hummed in response. "I'm worried about you. You haven't said anything since my mother's tantrum." I sighed an held him tighter. "I'm fine. She just knows which buttons to press. Can we leave early tomorrow morning?" I was clinging onto him for dear life. "No problem. Gogo asked me to ask you to wear black because our family is in mourning. I hope it's not a problem." I shook my head. "No it's fine. I can wear black."

I woke up early the next morning. I got dress in a form fitting black dress. The sleeves were long because I didn't want to deal with any of the elders but I threw a black scarf around my shoulders anyway. I tied a black scarf around my head and tied it as nice as I could. I decided to put on some light makeup while Moses was getting ready. I finished the outfit off with my black red bottom pumps.

I had to admit I was trying to make a few people jealous. I packed a million black outfits but I chose this one on purpose. "MaZulu, what are you trying to do to me?" Moses hugged me from behind. "You look breathtakingly beautiful." I blushed and thanked him.