BANGIZWE
I watch as she struggles to make sense of what I've just told her, I'm also in disbelief, we just left the place barely hours ago and now this?
"No," She starts shaking her head and I quickly reach for her "No, that can't be. That's not right,the shop is not on fire.... No.... Actually, you know what, I'm going there right now," She turns back to to the closet and gets dressed and I wait for her to finish.
On our way there she doesn't utter a single word, she's lost in her own world and I have no fucking idea what to say to prepare her for what she's about to see, it's already all over the net, I've seen the place, it's burning down.
I reach for her hand with my free one and she only looks further away, even with the darksness in the car, I can see that she's trying hard to keep it together. There's commotion as we park and Lulama doesn't wait for me to switch off the car before she jumps off and runs towards the commotion with firetrucks, ambulances and cop cars so I quickly get behind her because shes completely out of it right now and I don't want her getting hurt,"
The firetrucks are already here and the workers are busy with their extinguishers but it's bad. The sound of her loud cries painfully piercss through my ears as she falls to the ground but I keep her in my hold, I'm not letting her go. How the hell is this happening! There's not a lot of people because it's late at night but the few that are here are being pushed back by the cops
"Bangizwe!" Nkosi comes rushing "What happened?" He asks then looks at Lulama. I have no answers.
I spot Lwazi making his way through the red tape, he first squabbles with one of the officers then I don't know what he says to them but they let him through.
Lulama goes into a complete state of shock, almost like she's having an out of body experience as she becomes unresponsive to everything, she's just looking at the burning building"We need to get her in one of the ambulances," Onalerona says also kneeling behind me then she says lowly to me "She can't continue watching this, we need to move her,"
I snap out of it and pull Lulama up with me but she resists. I know for a fact that there's nothing I van day to convince her to move so I carry her instead, the bit of strength she had left has come undone and she's silently crying. Seeing my wife like this kills me, I have so many questions, so many but I don't want to leave her side
"It's okay, go... We'll stay here with her,"Khanyisa says and I look at Lulama, for a moment I'm convinced that I'm not looking at my wife right now, I'm looking at a shell of her but not her.
" I'll be back soon, just a few minutes, I promise, " I caress her hand with my thumb but she doesn't respond, she doesn't move at all.
I walk back to the cops and approach the man I'm assuming to be the detective "Do you have answers to what happened here?" I ask him.
"And you are?"
"This is my wife's shop, do you know what started the fire?"
"No, not yet. My people just got in after putting out the last flames but I assure you, we will do everything in our power to find out what happened. But while we're still on that, I have to ask a couple of questions, to both you and your wife,"
"I'm willing to answer whatever you want but my wife will not be able to go through that at this moment,"
"But-"
"I said not tonight," I cut him off " If you have questions for tver then you'll have to wait for tomorrow, I believe I'm being clear,"
He clears his throat, looks over at the ambulances then brings his attention back to me and nods "You are. I'm detective Hlungwani and I'm the one who will be heading this case until it's closed,"
