Yibanathi

🧡Part 15🧡

Avuyile

Yibanathi comes and takes the groceries and we get into the house. Sandile is fast asleep on the bed.

Today I went to collect my SASSA old age grant. It is not much yet it makes a huge difference in my life as I depend on it. The day after tomorrow I will be going to collect the child grant. I take a seat on the couch which is now old as it was still new when I was still in my old house. Yibanathi unpacks the groceries in the kitchen.

We currently live in Umbumbulu in a 3 room house all thanks to Kayise. I hate that woman with every fibre in me. I don't know whether she is alive not that I care because as far as I am concerned I don't want any Chiliza relative near me.

I always ask myself what happened to myself from 6 room to 3 room. From being employed to being a pension collector. What a life.

"Gogo ngisapheka."
[Granny I am cooking.]

Yibanathi shouts from across the room. Yes I am sitting on the couch in what I call a living room and on the far end of the room I turned it into a kitchen. So you can see the person working in the kitchen from where I am.

"Okay let me go and rest in my room."

I tell her and I take a walk to my bedroom. I may be in my sixties but I am still strong and I can walk on my own. I get to my bedroom and close the door and I remove my sandals and climb on the bed to try and get some sleep. In the morning I did not even have breakfast so you can imagine how hungry I am. I just left to go to Enkanyisweni with an empty stomach. The little bread we had I left it so Yibanathi and Sandile could have breakfast.

My bed is old, it is older than Yibanathi herself. I am sleeping on my matrimonal bed and Yibanathi uses Sthandiwe's bed. Sandile uses Muzikayise's bed. All the furniture I have is from my old house where as I sold some of it so we can get money.

I never thought I would be poor. A whole Avuyile Chiliza poor it seemed like a dream at first but 4 years of poverty is not a dream but a reality I have overcome. I call my state poor but I know for sure that out there people are much worse.

Oh Mdunge left me in such a mess and now I am suffering all alone. Okay so after my supposed last born Sthandiwe died a few weeks after she was buried Mdunge started acting strange like really really strange. He went back to the bottle and blamed himself for not protecting his daughter and now his younger brother impregnated her. We buried Sthandiwe alongside her siblings at the family home in Richards Bay.

The day we buried her I felt like I was burying a piece of me that day maybe it was because I never prepared myself for her death. It all came too soon. Mdunge blamed me for our daughter's death. It was not better because Sizakele's son, Khonzani Junior was so heartbroken that he even wanted to jump in just after they lowered her coffin. He took care of her funeral benefits as a way to get closure I guess but he helped my case because Sthandiwe was old and I had not added her to my life insurance so when she died I was going to be in debt for funeral costs alongside with Mdunge.

Mdunge was easy at borrowing money but hard at paying back. Sizakele's son really helped me back there. According to Sizakele  Khonzani wanted to marry Sthandiwe because he had loved her since highschool. I told her about the supposed miscarriage.
Muzikayise never came to Sthandiwe's funeral. Mdunge vowed to kill him should he see him step foot there. Ntombikayise on the other hand said I was responsible as if I was the one who sent Muzi to go and open my daughter's legs. We agreed to never announce that matter to anyone including the family in Richards Bay, the only people who know the truth is Ntombikayise, Nobuhle,Khonzani and myself.

Mdunge only lasted for 3 years after Sthandiwe's death. He had threatened to tell his stupid sister everything from we had elevated from being poor to being average so I did what anyone in my situation would have done and assisted him to meet with his ancestors much quicker than intended and a doctor "confirmed" it to be a heartattack.

The only problem I had was that Ntombikayise already knew about Mhlongo and I so she told her nonsense of an elder brother Mdunge before he passed away.

Muzikayise disappeared to only he knows where and I last saw him 10 years ago. Yes I last saw him 10 years ago. It was the Mhlongo's funeral. Sizakele and Khonzani had passed away in a car accident. I am at peace that Sizakele died and never found out I slept with her husband.

Muzi was at the back of the crowd when I spotted him and pulled him to the car park and he made us enter his car so we could talk properly without anyone hearing us but one thing led to another and yes it was a shameful act of lust and desire because it had been long by then 7 years without being touched because I had stayed away from Mthiyane for those years. I did not want to fulfil MaNgubo's prophecy. A portion of it was already fulfilled by then. Now I can proudly announce my downfall.

Muzi and I being intimate was a mistake. I only asked why he exploited my daughter and I wanted to meet his maker and join his brother that very same minute but I felt weak and succumbed to his touch. Nobuhle had an abortion of which I asissted in because she was also caught in the pack of unfortunate Muzi targets and gotten stuck alone with an upcoming offspring.

Muzi does sure does leave his seeds wherever he goes even I am sure of that. 

"Gogo here is some tea and biscuits for now." Yibanathi says while entering my room. This girl and her habit of not knocking either way she leaves the tea and biscuits next to me and leaves my room.

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