Maid For Marriage

58

I pulled up to the main house and the staff took my bags. I thanked them and joined Baba, MaKhumalo, and MaCele at dinner. "We just wanted something light to eat but the chef can prepare whatever you want." MaKhumalo said. It looked like they had just  finished dinner and I didn't want to eat anyway. "I want alcohol. Anything with alcohol in it." A glass of wine was put in front of me immediately and I downed it. Another appeared and I downed it again.

"Is everything okay?" I nodded. "Perfect." I did not care if I looked crazy. I just got kicked out of my house. Yes, Senzo was rich and could just buy me another one but that wasn't the point. That was my home. It wasn't as fancy as the one I was sitting in but I loved it there. I was close to the two women I considered my mothers and now I have to live on the other side of town. I was not happy. Yes, I wanted to be comfortable and being wined and dined was amazing. But most of all I wanted to be home. Where my people are.

That night I watched movies and drank wine until I fell asleep.

I felt kisses on my face and tried opening my eyes but the light was too bright. I groaned at the pain in my head. "Wake up sleepyhead." I know he was talking softly but in that moment it felt like he was screaming into my ear. I turned around and covered my head with my blanket.

"Okay then." He chuckled to himself. "You'll join us for lunch later on I guess. I left some pain medication and water on your night stand for your hangover." I slept again and I heard my door open. "Baby you need to get up. It'll be lunch soon. You need to eat." I groaned when he pulled the blanket off me. I gave in and got up. I took a shower and made myself presentable. I even put on makeup. They chose the absolute worst place to have lunch. Outside in the sun.

"Here she is! How's the hangover?" MaKhumalo asked loudly. I sat down and put my sunglasses on. "You're very loud. Calm down." She just laughed. "How much did you drink last night?" The pain medication was doing nothing. "I don't know." I ate silently while baba explained to them how we got kicked out of our home.

"So, are you going back? You can't just leave it like that. She's your mother." MaKhumalo asked. "To be honest with you I don't know. I'll see where this thing leads. Both of them need to take DNA tests. All of a sudden children are dropping out of thin air and I'm supposed to just accept it." I was getting very annoyed by him and could no longer shut my mouth.

"They didn't drop out of thin air. Your father had an affair years ago that resulted in children. Why you're blaming your mother for that I will never know." MaKhumalo and MaCele shifted awkwardly in their seats. "Are you still drunk?" Was he serious? Did he really ask me that? "Okay, let's all just calm down. Before this goes any further I think we all should think before we speak and choose our words wisely." MaKhumalo advised.

"MaBhengu, you do realize that she kicked you out of your house for these two strangers right?" What was he trying to say? Was he really trying to get me on his side. "Yes I do. You were extremely rude and disrespectful. I don't blame her." He got so angry a muscle in his face twitched.

"Are you saying this is my fault?" I kept a straight face but his deathly tone was scaring me. "No. I'm saying your anger is misdirected and you could've handled it differently." I stayed as calm as possible. I did not want to fight with my husband in front of his other wives. He stayed quiet.

"Okay." MaKhumalo broke the silence. "MaCele and I are going baby shopping and sorting out a few things for the baby shower. Would you like to join us?" She asked me and it was like the question triggered all my memories but like always I was good at hiding my emotions. "I think I'll stay. I need more sleep." They just nodded and left.

"You're supposed to be on my side." He sounded so hurt and that was not my intention. "I am on your side. I'll always be on your side. If I weren't I would not be here right now. I would be back home. Your mother has been my mother longer than we've even known eachother. You said some hurtful things to her and I was just trying to make you see that. Deep down you know that this had nothing to do with her."

He cleared his throat and his eye got glossy. Was he about to cry? "That is just it. My 'mother' has been your mother, your aunt's mother, the communities mother, and now a mother to siblings they've been hiding from everyone. She's been a mother to everyone. Everyone besides me. Her son." I didn't know he felt like that.

"Baba." He shook his head and I knew that now wasn't the time to speak. When I get overwhelmed by emotion I don't want to say anything or hear anything. So I knew how he felt. I held his hand and sat with him until he was ready to get up.

MaKhumalo and MaCele were out for the whole day. So Baba and I spent the day cuddling. He would not let me go. Even when he took work calls. I was not complaining though. I loved every moment of it.

"I've got to take a shower." I said trying to get out of his clasps. "MaKhumalo and MaCele are on their way back. We're going to have dinner now." I kissed his cheek. "I don't feel like eating. We've been snacking the whole day. I'll just call ma to check on her and then take a shower and go to bed." He stuck his lip out like a spoilt child. "Fine. Maybe I'll join you for that shower." I rolled my eyes at him. "No you won't. You have a pregnant wife to take care of and it's not my night. I don't want to fight with anyone. Please don't cause another fight." He sighed but agreed.

I went up to my room to take a shower but when I looked at the huge bath I changed my mind and took a relaxing bubble bath. "MaBhengu!" MaKhumalo was banging on my room door. "I'm in the bath!" I shouted back and to my surprise they barged in. "Would you please tell her we're not fighting and you're not hungry?"

"Don't feed her lines. I know you did something or said something stupid."

"No I didn't. She just doesn't want to eat because we've been eating all day."

"Senzo, don't lie to me."

They could not be serious right now.

"Okay! Both of you! Out!" They looked at me shocked as if I was the weird one. Thank God for bubbles or else I would be naked in front of them. "Don't look at me like that! Out!" They continued fighting under their breath as they left. They were like teenagers.

My relaxing bath was cut short and I had to get dressed to deal with my husband and his wife. I threw on a random dress and slippers and went downstairs to straighten this thing out. They were sitting in the living room as if we were about to have a meeting.

"Finally because this is ridiculous." Senzo said and I took a seat. "All of this just because I skipped dinner?" I asked jokingly but they didn't seem to want to laugh. "We left this morning and there was a lot of tension and when we came back you refused to have dinner with everyone. What are we supposed to think? All of us have worked really hard to get to a good place in this marriage. Having it ruined by our husbands father having an affair years ago is not an option."

I get why she was worried but it was a tad bit dramatic. I still appreciated it. "Okay, Baba and I had a disagreement about how he handled the situation with Ma but we're fine now. We spoke and we're resolving it. All the tension from this morning is no more and we've moved past that. I didn't have dinner because I wasn't hungry and I wanted to go to bed early."

She just hummed in response. "Okay. I know we're finally becoming close as a family but let's not get too close that it becomes weird." I said and MaCele almost choked on her laughter. "We're getting way too comfortable with eachother."

I had a good night's rest and woke up the next morning refreshed. The wives were going over baby shower preparations and I was avoiding them at all costs. I did not want to have any part in it. I was just not strong enough. I checked up on Ma and it seemed like she was doing  well. I missed being home.

That night we all had dinner and afterwards they watched a show together while I went to bath. When I went back into the tv room my whole world came crumbling down. There I was on the screen kicking and screaming. My face was blurred out but it was obviously me being dragged out of that clinic by the nurse.

"What the hell is this?" They all turned around with tears running down the faces. "Mamakhe..." I didn't even give him a chance to speak. "Put it off! Put it off now!" MaCele grabbed the remote and turned off the tv. "Thandi we didn't know. We just always watch this journalism program every Thursday night.  We really didn't know it would be you." MaCele tried to explain the situation but I felt so numb that I just walked off.

By now the whole country has seen me at my worst and I knew it would be a topic of discussion for days on end.