S.O.S

Chapter 6 | For what its worth.

Lunga

The scan beeps everytime she passes my stuff past it.

She chews her gum so wide mouthed and loudly .

She could have done a better job with her eyebrows.  

She runs her eyes all over me. Slowly, and her eyes land on my arms, that are folded across my chest before she asks "plastic ?"

No thank you I will be  carrying my stuff with a wheel Barrow. Of course i need a plastic how else am I supposed to carry this stuff.

I nod "yes" politely.

And her friend at the end of the till pulls it out and start packing my stuff. I pay for my stuff. And push my Cart to the car.

Today was a very long day for me, I just lost a patient as Old as Mel on the table.  At that moment i just Wanted my daughter next to me.  If I was in that's kids parents position I was going to lose it more than they did and then further go into to a psychiatric ward.

Lorna fetched Mel from school, said she wanted to spend the evening with her.

When I get home I get out of my scrubs and i Freshen up before I prepare a quick meal for myself and I grab a beer.

Fifteen minutes later sizwe barges into the house with Mel in his arms and no Lorna in sight. She crashes me into as soon as she sees me and I squeeze her into a hug and I kiss her cheek.

"Hy princess"
She squeezes me further.

"Hello"
She replies, still wrapped around me.

"I missed you"
I tell, still keeping her in my embrace.

"I missed you more"
She says with that tiny voice of hers.

"That's a first"

She starts to giggle.

"Hey"
Sizwe greets as he walks straight to the fridge and helps himself with my beers.

"Don't you have your own beers to drink ?"

"I do but forbidden fruits taste better"
He says as he starts helping himself to my food as well. He comes and joins us on the couch as soon as he is done dishing up for himself.

"Where's Lorna ?

"Ohh, she went to pelos, when Mel and I drove here, said she had an emergency"

"What kind of emergency ?"

"I don't know"
He says disinterested as he sips his beer.

"What if it's something big and she needs more help"

"Relax she's fine, I think its an emergency for something else, which is nothing big, I would know if it was"
I nod my head at him.

"How is she ?"

He stops drinking his beers slowly, before he squint his eye at me.

"She's  good, she has an art walk next week Saturday"

"Oh that's good"

Mel is already starting to fall asleep, I hear it in the change of her breathing pattern.

"what's the deal with you and pelo, if you don't mind me asking ?"

"What deal ?"
I ask as I turn my head towards his direction.

"You know what im talking about "

"There's nothing happening between her and I "

"Okay let me put it to this way. Mel who is a very reserved child, happened to get acquainted very quickly with pelo, but she didn't want me and Lorna anywhere near her when we first met, now that wouldn't have happened if you both didn't know her from some place else or haven't met her before, and also your body language did have  a lot to say"

"You've read too much into"

"Mmmm, I think I read just enough, to know that I'm right."

There's no point in hiding it right ?

"Yeah we met at a comestics store one time and we also happened to have lunch together, all those happend long before I learnt that she is Lornas best friend"

He smiles widely before he puts a spoon full of rice into his mouth.
"This wasn't meant to be a prosecution or anything  I just wanted to know if I'm right"

"I know"
I say as I chuckle a little and he does to and I go back to the game I was watching.

"She's a good girl you know"
He says after a very long while.

I look at him and I don't say anything.

"Amazing actually, has a lot to give. And the men she's been with haven't exactly been the best."

I don't know where he's going with this conversation.

"I saw it in the way you looked at her, the other day.

you ask about her every chance you get, those are pretty obvious signs to me, that there's something ,something that she definitely has for you as well . And its something that you don't want to persue yet. I don't know if it's out of  fear or what ,but for what it's worth, don't go and punish her for your exes mistakes or deprive yourself something that great because of your past"

He says before he takes a sip of his beer and he watches the game too.

One thing that I've learned about sizwe is that he's smart and very observant, and I'm not surprised that this didn't get past him. To some extent he is right. But I don't tell him that instead I keep quiet and I soak in what he's just said.

"You know you can be a very wise person sometimes"

"But you know I'm right lunga"
He smiles at me.

For the rest of the night we continue watching the game and we hangout.

It's really refreshing to just sit and have a conversation with sizwe. He doesn't judge, he's very open minded but also equally funny. He's the type of person that I would befriend, but also because he's understanding, he doesn't push.

A few hours later, I offer to walk him out when he leaves but insists i stay inside because Mel was Still clinging on to me and he apparently he doesn't want her to catch a cold.

He also mentions that next weekend he and Lorna are taking Mel for the weekend. Her brother rented a beach house so their coming over with the kids and they also want Mel to meet her cousins.

I think its really nice, that she would get to hangout with other children her age, just so she can get better at her social skills.

What Sizwe mentioned earlier got me reevaluating a few things,  he is right but in my defense I have evey reason to build this protective barrier, and off late I've come to realise that it's proving to be a difficult task to maintain that same barrier with when it comes to a certain Tswana girl.