Maid For Marriage

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Arrangements were made immediately. My grandmother was over the moon. That Sunday, I skipped lunch and somehow convinced Senzo to still go. I had to go to my apartment, but senzo made me go with a bodyguard. I packed a suitcase and cleaned up a little before returning to the big house.

Senzo arranged an SUV for us to drive in. I was going with Ma and Bhut'Thabo. Senzo was staying because the girls were coming from boarding school this week but he would join us once we confirmed the remains we found was my mother and then we would start the official process of bringing her home.

Early Monday morning, we were on our way to my grandmother's house. We got there in the afternoon and spent the night. Early the next morning, we were all off to my father's village. My uncle and his wife took their car, and Gogo drove with us. The driving was killing me. We needed to stop multiple times for me to stretch.

We got to their local police station and they briefed us and then we needed to drive out of the village to a neighboring town to find a clinic equiped to take a DNA sample and send to wherever it needed to go. The clinic line was long, but Bhut'Thabo bribed the security guard and the nurse at the front desk to help us quickly. With Senzo connections, we had all samples sent to the best lab in South Africa. Even with his connections, we had to wait five to seven business days. I stayed with my grandmother for those days until we got the email. It was a match. It was my mother.

A local sangomas helped us with the process. Before we could bring my mother's spirit back home to be with the rest of the ancestors, we had to dissolve her marriage spiritually. We would then be able to bring her spirit home and do a proper burial. Senzo could finally join us, and I was so happy to see him. I didn't know why I was feeling the way I was feeling. My mother was dead. I knew that my whole life, but it felt like the grieving process was starting all over again.

Senzo drove Gogo and I into town to pick out a coffin. I let Gogo pick it out because it meant a lot more to her than it did to me. She cried when choosing one. Prepping for all the different things that needed to take place was a lot, but we got it done. We started early Friday morning. My father's wives stood at a distance as we went through the process of dissolving their marriage. The only family left on my mother's side was her mother and siblings, so that's all that was here. My aunt joined, and her uncle's joined us. This was the least those men could do.

When that was completed, we accompanied my mom's spirit and her remains back to her ancestral home and held a funeral. I cried like a fucking baby. I couldn't keep it in. I was overwhelmed by emotion but at the same time I felt lighter. I spent a couple more days there and then I went home.

I was away for so long the wives had already gone home. The press had even left me alone and gone onto their next story so I was enjoying my apartment. I even got someone to help me clean because the place was too big for me to try and do it myself.

I was busy packing a bag because Senzo and I were going to the village to do a cleansing ritual. It would just be the two of us and that was it. "Do you need help?" Senzo asked.  "Not yet. I just need to pack a few more things and then you can take my bag. I made scones and muffins to take with us. They're on the counter. You can take those to the car while I finish packing." I packed all my medication and equipment safely in my bag. I took a look in the mirror. Was wearing a long casual dress, sneakers because winter is almost here, and doek around my head and a scarf around my shoulders.

I slept through most of the drive and when I woke up I was shocked. We were entering the farming village and I could tell without a doubt where Senzo's homestead was. MaCele's house was always big but most house around here weren't that bad. The people did good for themselves.

But now there stood three identical double story houses at the top of the hill. Two of the houses were on the right and there was one on the left. I could see construction was still going on at the highest point of the hill and I could see huts and other structures. From what I could tell all the houses would eventually form a circle around what I assumed was the ancestral hut in the middle of it all.