For Better or For Worse.

8

The day was slowly coming to an end. I honestly had a good day. There were no fights, commotion, whatsoever, (here comes my overthinking.) I was so happy, everything was sorted, everyone was happy and now onto the traditional wedding.

Shaka

The day had ended and the guests were just mingling and we were walking around the yard thanking our guests for coming and celebrate the day with us, it was truly a pleasure. I could sense that my wife was getting tired of all the walking. "Babe, are you okay? You seem tired."
"My feet hurt that's it."

Whenever Mandisa was tired, she'd keep quiet, like literally be silent and no say a word. Considering that we're both thanking our guests for coming, it would look really rude if she didn't say anything to them.

"Okay babe. I understand that you're tired but we have to thank our guests for coming. So let's do this, take off your heels and walk barefoot, I'll hold them for you."

"That's better, at least I'll get one thing off, now let's do this and get it over and done with, not in a bad way babe, but I'm really tired of standing, I just want to sit down or lie down."

We walked to the furthest rondavel in the yard and it was small, "we're now in the rural areas." I reminded myself. Now I had to make myself even more tired. I had to go to the main house and boil my bath water, thank goodness I bought my bath salts with me. Shaka was outside, doing "god-knows-what", I wore my slippers, took the small bucket I was going to bath in and attempted to walk to the kitchen. Shaka saw me and ran up to me, "babe! He lowly shouted. "What are you doing?"

I want to take a bath before I nap, I can't sleep properly without a warm bath. "Okay, fine, go lie down on the bed and I will do it for you." He said. "What?" I asked. "Yes, I'll take care of you, go nap." Oooookay. I said. I went back to the room and threw myself on the bed, trying to nap, I smiled at what Shaka had just done. I knew I was in good hands over here.

I lied on my bed but I didn't attempt to sleep or nap, I was just lying down, staring at the little window, I could see some family members cleaning up the yard at this time it was getting darker, some were picking up those huge pots to put them in the main kitchen. I could hear Shaka coming closer to our room but someone stopped him in his tracks.

"Weeh Shaka, uphi uMakoti?" It sounded like his mother. "Ma, Mandisa is lying down, she's tired." "Tell her to get up and help us clean the kitchen."

She's joking right? uMa is joking. I know that I am now a wife but can't I get a few hours of rest and do everything tomorrow morning?

"Cha ma, uMfazi wam' ukhatele, uzok'yenza k'sasa loku, ngiyacela ma." My wife needs to rest please.

"K'sasa ngo 5 ekseni, uyavuka azo cleana la, siyazwana?"

Yebo ma.

I wanted to pretend as if I didn't hear anything but then I couldn't, so I was lying on the bed staring at the door. Shaka came in we stared at each other. He sighed, "you heard that didn't you?" I nodded my head and attempted to sit up. He put the bucket down and asked me to come closer to him, he dug out my toiletries from my suitcase and found my bath salts, he put them in the water and started mixing. He helped me take of my clothes and helped me inside, "try to relax okay?" He said. I nodded.
I grew up doing hard labour at home but then I sort of outgrew it as soon as I moved away for varsity, now I'm back to square one even though I saw it coming, I didn't think it was going to be this hard.  "If I may ask, why did you do that?" I asked him out of curiosity. He looked at me then back at the water, then he answered: "because you're my wife and now that I have made you my wife, my job is to make you as comfortable as I can, as long as I am with you, you're going going to be comfortable." I looked at him and kept quiet.