Thy Will, Not Mine

Chapter {17} Destiny 𝙲𝚑𝚛𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚖𝚊𝚜 𝙴𝚍𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗

Two months later ...

In front of us stood a long mahogany finish door that belonged to my parents. Yes, you guessed right we were at home, in South Africa, Pretoria. My home was a contrast to the smaller looking houses in the neighbourhood, standing tall and bright in a white dove paint colour, not to boast but the architect had done an excellent job when he designed the double storey.

"Knock!" Thato instructed beside me after the long seconds we had froze at my parent's doorstep, both with heavy bags weighing down on us whilst the sun shone at its brightest and hottest, something I had not missed since I preferred a cold climate to a hot one.

"Okay," I softly knocked my right fist against the brown door.

In no time we heard the thud of flip flops against the tiled floors before the door flew open and before us stood a woman full of melanin, she glowed under the sun's gaze, her chocolate brown eyes widening in surprise before her pink lips slowly lifted into a wide grin. She pulled her pear-shaped body against both Thato's and mine as she lifted her hands into a breathless hug.

"M-mom, you are suffocating us," I wheezed out from the lack of air I was receiving.

"Oh, sorry," she said in her prominent Venda accent before immediately letting go of us.

"Ndo vha ndi sa ḓivhi uri ni khoyo vhuya ṋamusi!" She exclaimed in my mother tongue which I understood and fortunately Thato understood as she spoke Setswana.

"We wanted to surprise you!" Thato said joy in her every word.

"Well, I am certainly surprised," she replied, smiling at the both of us, taking in our appearances "You guys are glowing, Italy has been treating you well, hey?"

"Too well, but how have you been?" I asked taking a look at the neatly kept yard with roses and sunflowers, trimmed lawns and a vegetable garden, something I had truly missed, my dad and I would wake up early each morning to work on it, something I had groaned upon but a few months later it was something I held pride towards as my dad and I had reaped what we had sowed. Today it looked clean, with a tomato tree with ripe tomatoes, and two pumpkins stuck out like sore thumbs, I'm sure had my dad been here, he would not want to wait for the harvest season.

"Fine but now I am great because my beautiful babies are right in front of me," she beamed before looking at us or rather our bags; frowning. "How rude of me, you are standing with heavy bags under the blazing sun." She ushered us in calling Sharon, the housekeeper to help us with our bags.

We walked into our home, seeing that nothing had changed except that the kitchen wall had been knocked door, giving the house an open feel. Grey-painted walls surrounded us from all directions, as it was my dad's favourite colour. Only the bedrooms and cabinets were coated in different colours. Soon, Sharon came from upstairs in her black and white uniform, in a chippy mood, as usual, she was in her early thirties, making her a friend of ours. She greeted us, giving the both of us a warm hug before taking our bags upstairs, leaving us in the middle of the living room.

Thato and I reminisced as we looked at the pictures covering the wall, all in order from when we had performed in a concert in grade five, to when we had gone on a week-long excursion in Durban for our primary school farewell.

"Remember, you cried, 'I do not want to wear a pantie-like swimming costume, it is too revealing, I don't want boys turning their eyes where they do not need to be,'" she did a bad imitation of my voice as I remembered the memory.

"And we swapped out swimming costumes," I completed, her mom had bought her a tankini swimming costume with a short being the religious woman of God she was but Thato wanted more freedom so she didn't mind swapping with me.