Simbongile Princess Ntabeni: The Called (S2)

Chapter Hundred

SEASON FINALE

-Simbongile Princess Ntabeni-

*TWO YEARS LATER*

MY bags were packed, I was ready for the December holidays.

Yes, you guessed right. I was a freshman at the UKZN. Contrary to what my mother, and maybe entire family thought I would choose as my first choice, I chose to study Bachelor of Speech-Language Therapy. I no longer wanted to be just a doctor, or anything else for that matter. Siya stayed behind, he applied at UCT, CPUT, and Stellenbosch but ended up studying Bachelor of Medicine at UCT because he wanted to be closer to home, and he had been picked to play for the Stormers under 19s which needed him to be within the Western Cape anyway.

I sat on the edge of the bed and called mom, she was supposed to pick me up at the Cape Town international airport the following day. Her phone rang two times and the call got cut. I frowned, and dialed Siya. He answered his phone on the first ring...

Siya: Princess?

Me: Man of the House, are you at home?

Siya: Yup, what's up?

Me: I tried calling umamakho and she didn't answer her phone, well, she cut my call. Do you know where she is?

Siya: She's out with her boyfriend, call her after five.

Me: After five? Bayephi?

Siya: I didn't ask Sim... she has booked your flight, mailed you your reference and she has set an alarm to wake her up in time. So relax, she will be at the airport when you get here.

Me: Mnkq, okay. Why do you sound agitated? Did I disturb you?

Siya: I'm just tired fam... it was a tough day at practice, and I have to help these two brats with homework before ndibuyele eres.

Me: Umama wabo yena uzobasathini?

Siya: I got paid to help out.

Me: Ooh... okay ke, see you tomorrow then.

Siya: Shap shap.

I hung up and sighed.

He sounded so distant... but I understood very well why. It was our very first time being so far from each other for that long, since birth. We both had some sort of "withdrawal" symptoms, for the first four months we would spend every night in two-hour long video calls. Six months into it the call duration went from two to one, and now a year later, we would call each other every other day even though we texted every day. I understood that he was busy with school and mostly sport... but it was kind of difficult on my side having to accept that he actually had a life outside our own life. Umama had raised us in a form of interdependency. We only knew each other, we only trusted each other, we only felt safe around each other... having to leave home for another province altogether was a wakeup call, not only for me. For all of us. I worried about oo Musa, my roommate had to remind me every now and again that they were with their mom, so they were fine. Like, it took a stranger to bring me back to my senses, that I was only a child, I had my own life to live. A life outside the life I was used to. Amongst all of that, we no longer had u MamKhulu back home in the rurals. That knocked me down. She was the only person who made going home pleasant. We obviously attended her funeral, and mom allowed us to spend the December holidays zalanyaka phaya because bekuzochithwa impahla but I knew ba I would never set foot again unless it was compulsory. Another thing that made me take that decision was because I had burnt yonk'into enobugqirha phakathi, ndangxengxeza and told 'them' ukuba mabeze ngenye i-angle if abonelenga yile sendiyenzile because there was no way I was going back. It was either I go back or die, and I knew I would choose death than experiencing what I experienced kwa Mam'Sonto all over again.