SIMPHIWE SHANDU THE HUSBAND
CHAPTER 3
SIMPHIWE
I haven't slept a wink and it hurts. I should be the one protecting her but I pushed her to the edge and opened a wound that I did not mean to peal on. I sigh standing up. My whole body is numb and hurting. The fear of finding her dead somewhere…I feel my body shiver in cold.
Sharing a bed is almost the kiss of death, to us, for us. No matter how mad we are at each other it has never come to this extent. That means my words hurt her more than they should. It was just a slip of tongue which I regret at the moment.
I try her numbers again and still it takes me straight to voicemail. I sit on the couch and a call comes through thinking that maybe it's her requesting for me to come pick her up but it's this useless Bagqibile.
“What!” I snap. I'm angry at myself and everything. I am the last person who she expected this from.
“I am craving for…”
“Please, it so early in the morning. Try your sister or something. My wife is missing and it is all because you exaggerated what happened yesterday. I was so stupid to believe that my wife would hurt you intentionally.” I hiss.
“But she did hurt not only me but our child, your baby as well.”
“Which she did not do on purpose. She does not even know you for crying out loud. You are just a hidden carpet remember!”
“Wow,’
Good thing she dropped the line. I cannot deal with her stupid mood swings at the moment – honestly, she is beginning to annoy me. It's the baby that has me become so attached to her sending wrong signals.
“Still no luck?” One of the police men asks standing beside the door. They searched the whole entire neighborhood with no luck. I had no other option but to call for the cops to intervene. My mother will be coming later on. I am even afraid to call her father. What will I say to him?
“Are you sure there was no fight quarreled between you two before she disappeared.” Even if we did it is none of their business. I am worried sick; she does not know anyone - she is always indoors.
Before I could even answer the door fully opens and there, she is looking all fresh. I was up all night and she was out and about God knows doing what!
She frowns looking at us and takes off her shoes off going upstairs without even greeting.
“Is that her?”
I nod my head praying that they do not get to ask any further questions.
Thankfully they leave without being persistent in asking questions. I lock the doors downstairs and rush upstairs…
The shower is running. The clothes she was wearing were on the bed and the weirdest thing in me does the unthinkable. I pull them and begin sniffing. I know how dry semen smells. They just have that foul smell I cannot explain. Surprisingly it's clean, just a man's smell scattered all over her clothes which means she was with a man all night. My wife has some explanation to do. I throw her clothes on the floor and march to the bathroom. I find her leaning against the bathroom wall with her eyes closed. I clear my throat – she opens her eyes and looks at me. Her eyes are bloody red shot.
“Mkami, where have you been?”
“Out.”
She closes her eyes again.
“The water is going to get cold.” I speak. I was here to investigate her and now I am here feeling like shit. Maybe I should find another way of approaching the matter.
“My mother…”
The doorbell rings. I am sure that that might be her. I step out of the bathroom to open the door. To my surprise I found Masindi standing outside with a baby in her hands wrapped in a pink blanket.
“Masindi, what are you doing here?”
Masindi and I have had a few sexual encounters in the hospital. We broke things off after my wife caught me. But it did not stop there, we continued numerous times until she was involved in a serious relationship. I look back at the stairs praying that I she doesn’t come down…
“Simphiwe, I am not here to cause havoc in your life. But I am here to speak to your wife woman to woman. I know she will understand better. “
“Understand what better?”
What is this girl on about. She doesn’t even know my wife in person.
She pushes me aside an walks in with a woman I presume it is her mother. They both sit down and I am still off-course. Sighs, closing the door…the footsteps acceding down the stairs have my heart pumping in between my rib cages.
She stands there and looks at everyone squandered.
“Babe,” I fake a smile and she looks even more charlatan. I have never seen this smile before that is fakery wide on her face.
“Mrs Shandu,” greets the devil, she stands up and offers a handshake. With my confused wife she gives in. “Can you please sit down so we can talk.” she says and sits. Nozimanga sits opposite them. The woman Masindi came with is awfully quite observing everything. I sat next to her, making sure to put my hand around her neck.
“I am so sorry for disrespecting you in your home.” She takes a deep breath with the baby still held against her chest.
“I rueful everything that happened. Even after you caught us, we still continued behind your back until I fell pregnant. I did not tell Simphiwe because I thought it was the right thing to do.”
I swear God does not want to see me happy. I swear that he enjoys blowing things right back at my face. I slowly supplanted my arm that was around her shoulders. Her face is tranquil and it scares me a lot. How do you explain a motionless face. I did suspect that the baby was mine but she never told me anything so I just assumed it was not mine.
“Then why are you here?”
she asks with her arms crossed against her breast's chest area. I have never been so afraid of my wife the way I am today. I feel like shitting on my pants right this minute!
I shit uncomfortably running out of words to utter. If I were to defend myself, what would I say? Where will I even begin.
Masindi takes a deep breath before letting out a long sigh. “I am leaving to the states, I found a better opportunity there. I do not want my child to grow up in a foreign world without her family close to her. So, I decided that it is best if she gets to come and live with her own family.” She drops her head realizing what she has just spewed is complete nonsense.
“Babe, I can explain…”
She slowly turns her head to look at me and her eyes have no emotions, her face is blank as a white drawing paper.
“Explain what Simphiwe? How much of an incompetent woman I am. A failure that is unable to give her husband children. Explain what to me Simphiwe. I have long told you that if you no longer need me let me go and let me find happiness where I will be loved and appreciated. Let me free.”
I gasped at her outburst. That is not true at all and she knows it.
“No babe. You are not a failure…” she raises her hand indicating for me to shut up. I do as told and the room is silent.
The door opens and I just know that it is my mother. I have spoken to her countless times that she needs to knock before entering.
“Did someone die? Why are you all quiet?” she asks, placing her ukhonzekaya on top of the glass table. She throws herself on the couch and takes a deep breath.
“Makoti, is this how I taught you? To starve your visitors?”
Without saying a word, she stands and goes to the kitchen - I assume to make tea for the so-called visitors.
