uThando

Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Banzi and I literally jump out of the cart as soon as it stops in front of Beth's cottage. The pain I had a few minutes ago? Oh, it has vanished now. I'm in a state of sheer panic and fear while Banzi seems to be losing his mind. Our primary concern now is Lina. Without knocking, Banzi barges into Beth's house and if it was any other day, under different circumstances, I would have reprimanded his action but today is an exception.

"Who the hell -" Beth says in a high-pitched voice, clearly alarmed by the forced entry.

"Thando," she says, clearly shocked to us. I guess she didn't expect such behaviour from us.

"Is everything okay, my angels?"

Even though we're disrespecting her, and trespassing if we're being honest, she's still being nice to us. Oh Beth.

"Is our son with you?" Banzi asks. His voice is hoarse and sounds colder than normal.

His question takes Beth by surprise, which I understand why.

"Yes, of course. He's right -" Just as she says this, we hear Lina gurgling from somewhere in the house and we literally run toward the direction of his voice, and we find him playing happily on the floor with tons of toys surrounding him. A sob escapes my lips and I find myself dropping to the floor as my knees weaken.

"What's going on?" Beth asks, clearly confused by what's happening or maybe by my reaction.

"Has anyone been here since we dropped him off?" Banzi asks.

Now Beth is really confused. I'm still crying on the old lady's floor. It's not drama that's making me cry like more than it is relief, relief of finding Lina still here.

"Is there something wrong, Lubanzi?"

The way she pronounces his name could have been something to laugh about if it was any other day but today is unfortunately not one of them.

"Beth, could you please just answer my question," Banzi says sternly, almost snapping at her.

Beth sighs and takes a minute to think, or compose herself, I don't know before she answers him.

"Besides my colleagues, no one else was here," she says, sounding a bit doubtful.

"Are you sure?" Banzi probes, which makes me happy because I'd also like to know.

"Yes," she says with great assurance.

Banzi nods as though relieved, but her next words send a cold shiver down my spine.

"Actually no, there was a lady who was here just a few minutes before you arrived."

"What did she want? What did she say?" Banzi is back to his cold and interrogative state.

"Nothing much, just that she came with her son and wanted to see the person who'd be looking after him while she's here and since I'm the only child caretaker in the lodge..." She shrugs.

"She said she came with her son?" Banzi asks.

"Yes, that's what she said," she confirms with great certainty.

Oh, my goodness this is bad; this is really bad. Banzi is pacing up and down Beth's lounge like a deranged man. I decide to gather myself up from the floor and get us out of here.

"Okay, thank you, Beth. Thank you for looking after our son last night. We're here to fetch him."

"My dear, I don't mean to pry but what's going on? I can see that all is not well."