3 YEARS LATER
JENNIFER
Nurse: Jen, phone call.
I pull the blankets down.
Me: (sleepy voice) Who is it?
Nurse: The usual one.
I fully open my eyes and roll them.
Me: Tell him I’m sick or something.
Sandile: Get your ass up.
His voice booms loudly on the speaker causing the nurse to giggle. I yawn sitting up and take the phone from the nurse and switch off the loudspeaker.
Me: This friendship is starting to annoy me. What do you want?
Sandile: Nothing just to wake you up.
Me: You do know that I can do that by myself right?
Sandile: You take your sleep more seriously as if you’re paid for it.
Me: That’s because it’s important. Don’t you have a girlfriend or something? You need to get laid so that you can get off my back.
He laughs.
Sandile: Unfortunately for you I don’t. My wife just happened to friend zone me, imagine.
Me: She did good. You can be too much at times.
He chuckles.
Sandile: Poor me. I made a bad choice when I married her.
I laugh.
Me: I definitely say she’s the one who made a bad choice. Imagine having a husband like you who is not even romantic. When was the last time you got laid?
He cracks up so hard.
Sandile: Tsek Aza.
I giggle.
Sandile: On a serious note how are you?
Me: Still kicking and screaming and you?
Sandile: I’m okay just taking one day at a time. I miss you though.
Me: You were here just last week.
Sandile: Don’t care.
Me: Well I don’t because you call everyday so it makes it hard for me to miss you. I hate to see you go but I love to watch you leave.
Sandile: Is it? Then this is the last time I’m calling you.
I laugh tucking my feet under my thighs.
Me: I didn’t say stop calling.
Sandile: Mmm.
He muttered in a deep voice then that silence we usually fall into follows. I can hear him breathing on the end of the like and I do the same.
Sandile: When are you getting out?
Me: When I’m ready.
Sandile: You were ready just last week. What changed your mind?
Me: I realised that I was not ready to face the world again. It got too much for me so I booked myself in again.
Sandile: People were waiting for you. Your family, friends and me.
I heavily sigh.
Me: I know. I chickened out at the last minute. I got used to this safe space I’m in and out there just feels like I will fall back into depression.
Sandile: You’ve got people who will be with you every step of the way.
Me: I don’t expect people to baby me all the time. They’ve got their own lives to live. My parents can do that because it’s in their nature to baby kids until the last days but my friends? No, we are grow ups now and each have her own life and her fair share of problems.
YOU ARE READING
BEING A WIFE OF A PRISONER
FantasyBeing a sacrificial lamb to her brother's actions, Aza finds herself being caught up in a word she never thought she would find herself in