The Two Of Us

Chapter 11

THE TWO OF US

CHAPTER 11

BHEKA KHUMALO

He's not bad as everyone claims him to be. He's just a victim of life's ups and downs and turned out like this. All he wants is control over his life. Something he never had growing up, something he had longed for since he was a teenager. It's a pity that he's in his late thirties but still dream of it. All his dreams came true. Well, maybe not all of them but he's the CEO of the biggest holding company. It doesn't matter if he inherited it from his late father because moving to Durban and opening a new branch of Mntungwa Holding while in his lowest was not an easy task. He had just lost his wife but he managed to buy new shares and grew the company.

Some think that he's the typical heartless, selfish businessman that probably owns a snake that vomit stacks of money but he's not. He's actually driven by his twenty-one-year-old weak self that failed to protect anything that belonged to him. He's been living with that regret for seventeen years now. Even as married man, he was not happy, it'd haunt him from time to time, it was an arranged marriage after all. Like who would enjoy getting married with a random girl at the age of twenty-one, even worse, to pay off his father's debt and maintain good relationship between the two families. Couldn't his father just pay the damn money back than to gamble with his life?

He thought he'd divorce after a few years but it was one bad decision that was going to affect the 'business'. So he had to get used to it and be a good husband to his chosen wife, build a stable and  happy family and whatsoever you can think of. It was hard at first but the pain of losing their first child, their daughter, brought them together. He also fell in love with the way she treated his son like her own. Nathi even grew up not knowing that MaButhelezi was not his biological mother. It was a life he wished for and his parents wanted them—him and his wife—to have from the start but with a different person.
He was so sure that Nokukhanya was the love of his life but the universe didn't favor them. He had to cut ties with her once and for all and that included not granting her even the slightest access to their son like she was nothing that his parents said she was. At least she was not there to witness him making vows to MaButhelezi, his late wife. It was going to break him even more. He was not going to stand seeing her hurt face. Not that he's happy about what happened to Nokukhanya's father but he's grateful she moved to another place to start over unlike him. Khanyo's family had to move, her father was shot right in front of them. He had enemies, he owned a big tarven in the area and after adding a shisanyama as well? It was game over for him.

Even though their arranged marriage seemed to work out over the years sometimes he'd find himself wondering how life would be if he was married to the another woman, Khanyo to be precise. Or maybe if his parents didn't give him MaButhelezi, who was he going to end up with? If his relationship with Nokukhanya would have worked out and reached a marriage level or it was going to end in the first place. He didn't know it was affecting his marriage until his wife walked out on him and their children three years ago. She said she was tired of him comparing her to his ex, she was tired of not being enough. She was going to come back, they wet going to fix things, they had to. He was probably going to call the next morning and make it right. He's the man after all and his family was the one owing the Buthelezi' so how he treated their daughter was the definition of the relationship between the two families.
Unfortunately, the universe had other plans for both of them. She was involved in a car accident and died in the scene. The car was damaged beyond recognition, she was not going to make it even by luck. That was another person, another thing he failed to protect. Another regret to carry for a lifetime. He was given a good wife and failed to love and protect her.

He really wished it was the end of it all but no. After that, his children started keeping a distance one by one. Thando said she wanted to go to  boarding school. He was not going to deny her to go to school so he had to make that tough decision and let her go. At the same time, Nathi told him that he was not interested in business, he wanted to be a Physiotherapist. When he refused and made him enroll for a business course at UKZN, he joined some stupid football team. He had let him play football when he was still in high school just for fun but after matric? It was another story, he's a heir for what's worth and has to focus of protecting the Khumalo legacy than going around kicking balls hoping to get paid. He was totally going to lose focus on his studies. So, he had to do something we a father, he had to use his power to get him out of it. He simply bribed the coach.
Does that kid even understand how hard he worked for this company 'he's not interested' in? Not at all, not to mention his image and dignity. Nathi then sold the BMW X3 he bought for him when he passed matric and bought an apartment and another car, a VW Polo for God's sake. This kid have such a way of embarrassing him. And just like that, he moved out and he's out there enjoying his youth. He's only left with Amahle, only because she's six and know nothing otherwise, it would be him and Mam' MaMdluli, the helper.

His life is more complicated than it seems but maybe the universe has better plans for him this time. It cannot be a coincidence that Khanyo is back in his life but he doesn't want to get ahead of himself.

He just got out of the restaurant he was meeting James, an old friend, at. He had called and said he was in town for business and since his day is dragging by and not busy despite being a Monday today, he came over his lunch time. He's just pulling the door handle when a voice behind him asks, "Why is your house so empty while you have so many children?"

He looks around, there's no one but the two of them and cars in the parking area. So this woman is definitely talking to him. She's probably a seer, she has blue and white beads around her wrists.

"Ma?" he says like he didn't hear what she said because he doesn't know how to answer the question.

Before he could open his mouth and ramble about his kids being away from home because of school she asks, "Where are your daughters?"

What kind of a question is that? Thando is away at school and Amahle...

"Your other two daughters, where are they?" She's reading his mind as well. Yoh! That's an invasion of privacy but then... What the hell is she talking about?

"It's about time you drown in the river of their tears."

That sounds like a threat.

"It's a warning from the ancestors," the woman say before turning her back on him and walk away. He's left in an empty parking area dumbfounded. He was never the type to have multiple partners. So tell him how the hell did he have those unknown daughters? This is bullshit! That's why he stopped believing in these traditional doctors a long time ago. But this sounds serious, maybe he'll look into it. But how? "I'm looking for my two daughters whom I don't know by names" This is funnier than Nathi's football career.

But then...something tells him to believe it.

                 ____________________

NATHI KHUMALO

He's having the best time of his life. He didn't know he could still feel like this. Sometimes fear can deprive you happiness. If he didn't face his fears and went for this girl he would be sitting in this very moment.

"Yes!" she says in celebration raising her hand with a joystick.

"Don't be too happy, I let you win."

"Are you jealous Mr Captain?" she scoffs.

"From babe to Mr Captain?..."

"Don't change the topic, I kicked your ass. Admit it!"

He doesn't say anything, he stares down at her, she's sitting between his legs and wrapped in his arms. The two of them don't need to say a word because their eyes have this whole thing under control. It's crazy how things just go so smoothly when you finally find the one. Yes, he believes that she's the one. He feels her lips against his and it's starts out light and slow but escalates. He pulls away and take the control the stick out of her hand. She turns around and sit on his lap with her legs around him. She looks at him with those drowsy eyes before leaning in. A moan escape her lips as he kisses her neck.
She begins to shake, her breath getting even more uneven. It cannot be an orgasm, no one has ever climaxed of a mere neck kiss. She's hyperventilating. What's happening?

"Babe! Khona! Khona!" he says shaking her her trying to check if she's still conscious. He has to get her to the hospital before something goes wrong.

By the time he reaches the hospital, she has already lost her consciousness. They take her and tell him to remain in the waiting area. He has to call a family member, probably her mother.

"Hey baby! I'm still working, if you want me to buy you something on my way home please just send me a text message, I'll get back to you in ten," a woman's loving voice says. She reminds her of his late mother. She was a loving mother like this one.

"Baby?"

Oh! He's probably went silent. "Sorry Ma, it's not Ukhona. She passed out, we're at the hospital right now."

The woman on the line goes silent before saying, "Okay, thank you so much, I'll be there."

She cannot believe that this moment has visited, again.