Maid For Marriage

69

"Thandi. Thandi wake up. Thandi." Ma shook me violently. "Mbali is texting me. She said she'll bring the box but she doesn't know where it is." I sat up in my bed. "Why would she do that? I don't trust her. What if she only wants to know where it is so they can keep it from me? And if she does get it, how will she sneak it out?"

She typed on her phone, and we both waited for a reply. "She says she swears on her children's lives and that she owes you." I had to do it. I had to trust her. "Ask her how she will get it out." Just when I said that, Ma phone alerted. MaKhumalo sent a picture of a half packed suitcase. "She said she told them all Senzo's informal clothes were with you, so she's packing a bag for him, but she'll put the box in the bag." My heart's started racing. "She says to hurry up."

"Okay. At the bottom of the cupboard on the right-hand side, there's a space that's usually for shoes, but I put the box there. There might be blankets covering it." She typed as I spoke. It wasn't long before Mbali told us she had it and would deliver it tomorrow morning.

I didn't sleep. I was pacing around the whole night. I took a shower in the morning to kill time, but I was so anxious. "Thandi!" Ma called, and I ran. MaKhumalo was standing there with the box in her hand. I couldn't believe it. She really came.

"You really brought it. Why?" I was shocked. Why would she do this. There was a point when we all were on good terms before the hospital incident with Senzo, but I haven't even really spoken to any of them in a while. We weren't friends, we were hardly even family, and I didn't expect anything nice from any of them.

"Mostly guilt. This is the least I could do. You don't deserve anything that's happened to you, and keeping this would just be adding to it." She handed me the box and an envelope. "I found your birth certificate, drivers license, and some other documents." I thanked her. "I have to go, but I just wanted to let you know that Senzo will be away for about three months. We won't have contact with him for the first few weeks. I don't condone or excuse any of his behavior, but please don't give up on him. I have to go. Please, stay in touch?" I just nodded and walked her out.

I was grateful for what she did. I would not have guessed that she would be the one to show me kindness. I thought she would be on their side trying to keep all of this out of the news and making sure I kept quiet.

I decided to keep in touch with her. She agreed not to give my new number to any of them and to also not tell them she was contacting me.

A month went by, and I still had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. All I did was cook, clean, eat, and scroll through my phone, watching other people cook. "Thandi, I'm not trying to rush you or anything, but you can't just sit around here for the rest of your life. You need to do something. What do you like doing?" I just sighed. "You know what you like, Thandi. You like cooking. You're obsessed with it. Why not become a chef? You used to work for that catering company, remember?" I sighed again.

"You need to stop moping around and do something. Here's my laptop. Find a culinary school and decide what you want to do." I almost rolled my eyes at her because I was annoyed, but I didn't want to be disrespectful. I did as she said. The more I read up on the different things I could do, the more interested I was. I didn't think I could ever get into a program, so I didn't know what to do.

"Have you found something?" I shrugged. "You've been staring at the laptop for days. Something has caught your interest." I didn't know what to say. "There are different certificate and diploma programs, but I'm interested in the four year degree. But it's four years. I don't know if i would even be able to do a certificate." She just smiled.

"Thandi, have you met yourself? You can literally do anything you set your mind to under any circumstance. Four years might seem long now, but time flies. If you don't do it at the end of those four years, you'll regret it and have nothing to your name. If you do it by the end of those four years, you'll be a chef doing what you love. You literally have nothing to lose."