Shrivelled Roses 2: Iyana Kleinbooi

22

𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑷𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑻𝑾𝑬𝑵𝑻𝒀-𝑻𝑾𝑶

-Iyana-

She stood on that same position and dialed Uyabukwa, the phone rang until it went straight to voicemail. She tried again, same result. Uyabukwa always spoke sense to all of them, and Sanda... Sanda was just Sanda. Iyana wanted to speak to Uya, not to Sanda and not being able to reach her irritated her even more but she knew never to leave more than two missed calls on Uyabukwa's phone. She hated that.

She decided to set the plates, and would later dish out when her father had returned from his garden. After putting out the plates she went to sit down, and went onto Instagram looking for Buhle Mzimela. She had a private account, so Iyana couldn't see anything. While on Instagram, she looked up Phathuxolo. She kind of knew she wouldn't find him, not many chiefs were on social media anyway. She scrolled through many Phathuxolo's but none of them had the same surname, she knew the surname from the newspapers. As she was about to exit, she found what seemed like an old account that may have belonged to the young chief. It had two pictures only... the display picture and one more. She clicked on the second one and her heart stopped beating for a second as she saw the caption:

"Royalty recognizes royalty... friends since we could crawl"

She looked at the picture... it was her. That was Buhle.

She knew that the chief didn't owe her anything, but that still didn't change the fact that she felt betrayed by him. She wondered why he told her about the marriage, she wondered if he was jealous or he was genuinely concerned. Her wonders remained unanswered...

"Ah, uvukile" her father asked as he dried his hands, finding a seat.

"Yho tata, awudubeke umzimba wam"

"You must be exhausted from all the working and studying you're doing. I'm actually glad you came home, it has been a while"

She smiled, and asked if she should dish up. He said yes.

She returned with his food, and coffee. Then she went to fetch her own food and returned to her seat.

"What's bothering you Iya?" her dad asked, halfway through the meal. She sighed... the biggest issue was the pregnancy, everything else was not worth discussing.

"You know you can trust me, right?" he asked again, looking worried. She nodded.

"Ey tata... inzima lento but I think its best I tell you now" she started off, putting her plate down and taking the hot cup into her hands instead.

"Thetha ke sisi, what is going on?" he asked, looking straight into her eyes.

"I uhm... I am pregnant tata..."

"Okay"

"That's all you're going to say? Just okay?" she asked surprised that his reaction was actually not what she had anticipated.

"You're pregnant, and that's okay. Ungumntwana o right Iyana, iintanga zakho inoba zileqa abantwana besithathu ngoku. You have a good job, you're also studying on the side, we cannot condemn you for falling pregnant at your age mntanam noko."

She looked down, gulping down a lump that had suddenly formed in her throat.

She only wished her mother would feel the same.

"Uphi utata womntwana? Does he know? Is he supportive?" her father asked and she chuckled, trying to think of a way to answer those questions without raising more questions.

"He is supportive tata, we are just shocked sobabini"

"Shocked?"

"I don't know if shocked is the right word since we could have prevented this, but ke we had been very careful since we started engaging in the sexual act. I guess that's why ndisithi we are just shocked tata."