Beckoned Through The Dark

60 // Abigail // Nostalgia

I felt sorry for Lesego, hopefully whatever she ran into in there wasn’t as bad as she anticipated.

As for me, I knew this was just the beginning, things were about to get worse, and I was more than prepared to do anything at all to put an end to this.

I had to make sure that Lesego got the picture clear that if things got out of control, she should always be open to putting an end to Karabelo for good. But she was too emotionally involved, she was not as strong as she was supposed be, and soon she’d realise that her sister was not up for games; Karabelo wasn’t the one for happily-ever-afters.

I watched her enter the house after a bit of hesitation, it must have had to do with the unnatural energy around the house. Luckily, Bridgette would take care of that too.

I stepped out of the car and went to Bridgette’s house, strangely, the gate was locked, and the lights were off even though Claudia’s car was parked inside.

That girl never went anywhere without her car, and whenever she was around, she left the gate unlocked.

It was almost 6p.m., and normally around this time the lights were on. What if Bridgette took Claudia with her? I mean, the girl was always sucking up to her mother, especially since my arrive, it’s as if she felt threatened.

I took out my phone and called her even though I knew she probably wouldn’t answer, fortunately, she answered on the sixth ring; for someone who’s addicted to her phone, that was quick.

“What do you want?” She asked.

Damn, I love my sister! I rolled my eyes and stood against wall with my arms folded. “Hey, baby sis, I’m actually outside your house right now. I was wondering if we could actually hang out,” I said sweetly.

There was a long silence on the other end before she broke out into a hollow laughter. “Did you just say hanging out? Like, me and you, chilling and hanging out?”

I shrugged. “I don’t see why not.”

“Ah, yeah. No, thanks.”

“What the-” I stared at the screen in shock as the line went dead. I dialled the number below hers immediately, and Bridgette did not take long to answer. “Where’s Claudia?”

“At home, why?” She asked, sounding surprised.

“I’m standing outside your house right now,” I paused, “your daughter is not here.”

She remained quiet for some time as if contemplating what to say next. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“This child.” She sighed. “She has been talking about this party for a week now, and I used to let her go, but clearly she did not listen.” That got my attention, Claudia was many things, but she did not strike me as the rebellious type.

“A party?”

“Yes, a friend of her from university is throwing a party.” She sounded frustrated. “If it’s not too much to ask, could you please go and get her for me?” She enquired.

“Me?” I asked, dumbfounded. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“No, it’s fine. I’ll just call one of her friends and ask them to keep an eye on her. It’s fine.”

“No!” I quickly objected, “send me the address, and I’ll go and get her. It is not safe for her to be out there, especially with everything going on.”

Bridgette sighed in relief. “Thank you so much, baby! I will forward you the address in a sec.”

I needed to make sure that no one else got entangled in this mess, there were already a lot of people involved, and the last thing I needed was to find myself babysitting my sister all the time.

Bridgette sent me the address, the placed was in the city. As much as I hated driving at night, at this point I had no choice, I had to make sure that Claudia was safe and out of our mother’s clutches. If she got involved in things she’s not supposed to be doing, there will be dire consequences; I just hoped for her own sake, she wasn’t that stupid.

I knew parties were not a miss here, because this part of the city was populated by students; if I didn’t have a written address, I would have most likely went from house to house looking for this girl.

The downside to this was that this place was probably the most unsafe place in the country; every single day a girl was reported missing and a student was raped or murdered. I didn’t understand how Claudia could be so irresponsible.

It took me about an hour to locate her, and she was drunk out of her mind, worst case scenario - some guy was all over her.

Getting her to the car was a task, and as expected, she was throwing insults at me. On top of that Ryan was busy calling me, I sent him a text telling him that I was out with Claudia, which wasn’t completely a lie.

The ride back home was the scariest, and the silence was not helping, neither was the stench of Claudia’s vomit. I was literally leaving my fate in the hands of my ancestors. When we arrived, Bridgette was still not back, I helped Claudia to her room and got her changed into a new set of clothes since her previous set was covered in vomit. The smell was disturbing, but something else caught my attention, there was a distinctive smell that couldn’t be brought about just anything; it was an exotic smell and something about it felt familiar.

She smelt of impepho (incense), herbs we used when practicing or performing a ceremony. Was Claudia doing something dodgy for her friends at the party?

I brought the denim jacket to my nose just to be sure, and it was indeed incense. “Claudia?”

“What?” She grunted.

I threw the jacket at her. “What were you doing?” I asked with my hands on my hips.

She shrugged. “Drinking, dancing, making out…partying,” she answered as if she had practiced that in her sleep.

“Your clothes smell like impepho, what were you doing?”

She chuckled and waved me off. “I was just having a little fun, what’s the use of having this gift if I can’t use it?”

I crossed my arms and huffed, it was no use arguing with her about it, she wasn’t that stupid, she knew there were lines not to be crossed.

A framed photo on the headboard caught my attention, it was a picture of Bridgette with a young Claudia, probably around the age of two or three. They looked so happy, but what caught my attention was the chocolate-skinned hand wrapped around Bridgette’s waist, the picture looked cropped.

I picked up the photograph and stared at it for the longest time, the man in that picture was my father, but I didn’t even know what he looked like. Bridgette never spoke about him, and every time I brought him up, she cut the topic short. I looked at Claudia, and from the look in her eyes, he was a no-go area.

I placed the frame back in its place and plopped down next to her.

“I don’t even remember what he looks like,” she said quietly while staring into space, “Mom made sure she completely erased every trace of him in this house; she literally cut him out of all the pictures.” She sounded pained, and I knew exactly how she felt. “There’s one picture though.”

She opened her drawer and took out an old photo and handed it to me. I was a picture of a heavily pregnant Bridgette in a yellow maternity dress, she was leaning against a car bonnet with her hand on her stomach. She looked so beautiful and radiant, but that was not close to the reason Claudia held on to the photo; a shadow of a man holding a camera reflected on the windscreen.

My breath caught in my throat as I stared at the blurry image, wishing I could zoom in to get a clear look at the man who helped bring me into this world. “Where did you get this?”  I asked.

She snorted. “Where do you think? I stole it from mom.”

“The car in the picture, what happened to it?”

Claudia sucked her teeth and shook her head at me in unhidden disappointment. “You still don’t get it, do you?” I looked at her in question, but she scowled at me. “He left,” she spat venomously, “he walked out on my mother and I when I was three, and do you know why he left? Take a careful look at that picture.”

I frowned as I searched for the mysterious piece to the puzzle, and when I finally spotted it, I felt like my heart was bleeding. It was there in a tiny white font, and one wouldn’t see if you didn’t pay enough attention. 21-02-1990.

My grip tightened on the photo as my hands shook, the picture was taken approximately two months before I was born.

“That’s right, daddy dearest left because of you, and you can follow right after him, because I don’t need neither you, nor him in my life.” I wish I could say that didn’t sting, but damn my heart was in stitches right now. Now I understood why she hated me so much; our father left them because of me. “Three years after your birth, now even my arrival could numb the pain of losing you; the thought of you being out there with another family killed him, and not even I could numb his pain, because no one could ever take your place.” I couldn’t even look her in the eye. “You know, a part of me has always wondered, since he left because of you, would he ever consider coming back if he heard of your return? That’s if he’s still alive of course.” I couldn’t listen to her anymore, I dropped the photo and rushed out of her room in hot tears, but she wasn’t having it, she followed me outside and threw the picture in my car as I drove off.