Maid For Marriage

106

"Senzo! What is this!" One of the uncles shouted. Zamo started crying loudly. "Your home is incomplete! Zamo is here to fix that! You have to marry her!"
"According to me, my house is complete. If you feel Zamo is so important, then you marry her!"
"Senzo!"
"What! What! I'm tired! I'm tired of all of you making decisions for my life! By the time you're gone, I'm going to have to deal with the consequences of your decisions! I'm done! I'm doing what's good for me and my family!"

"And what about my grandchildren?" Bab'Gumede asked. "My children are perfectly content and happy. They have four mothers who love them." Everyone just seemed frustrated. "I'm done with this conversation. Please take your child and go."
"Senzo, wait. Just wait, let's talk about this."
"You want to talk about this? Really, because I will. I was trying to maintain Zamo's image, but we can talk about it! Your child is disrespectful! She's not wife material. Especially not for me! She has disrespected my wives from the day she set foot here. She talks out of turn, and she doesn't want to contribute to family chores. I don't want her here."

"Okay, Zamo has cousins."
"Gumede! You can bring every woman in your family here. You can even bring everyone who has the surname Gumede in the whole of South Africa, and I won't marry her. My wives and I are happy. The only wives I acknowledge are MaKhumalo, MaCele, MaMlambo, and MaBhengu. I have no other wives! So please, take your child and go." I had tears in my eyes. I was so proud of him, and what he said made me feel secure in our marriage.

When they left, I didn't care. I grabbed Baba and hugged him. "Don't ever spare my feelings to maintain peace in this house if it'll hurt you. Okay?" I nodded and wiped my tears. "That goes for all of you. I can admit that I needed to stand up to my family, but next time, just say no. But I'll make sure there is no next time. Okay?" We celebrated that night. The electricity came back, so we cooked up a storm.

I was so excited when we finally traveled home. Seeing my mother and my grandmother was amazing. "Princess, you seem very happy. Genuinely happy. On the phone, something just sounded wrong. What happened." I sighed. My mother and grandmother both looked concerned. "Ma, a lot happened, but Baba really surprised me." They both looked interested.

"We found out why I kept getting sick and losing babies." That peaked their interest. "What was it? Is it curable?" Ma asked. "It was witchcraft, Ma." They gasped and demanded an explanation. "I thought maybe it was my father messing things up for me, but a sangoma told us that he holds no power over me in the spiritual realm. It was MaGumede bewitching everyone. Especially me.  She was bringing all sorts of badluck to me. The babies I lost, the illness, and me being so sick when I was pregnant.  It was all her doing. She tried one last time, but she didn't know MaKhumalo, and I switched rooms. So she planted her muti in the wrong room, and it affected MaKhumalo."

They gasped. "Is she okay?" I nodded. "Doctors say she won't be able to have children, but she's at peace with that." They nodded. "Baba threw her out, and they have cut ties culturally. They just need to deal with the legal side of things. But then the Gumedes brought her cousin to be Babas new wife. It was two weeks of hell, Ma."
"Thandi! Why didn't you tell me, Princess?" I just sighed. "Ma, you would've come there and beat the girl up. She was so disrespectful, Ma. All of us gave permission for her to marry Baba, but he told her family no."
"Huh! Senzo! Said no?! Was she ugly?"
"Ma, be serious. No, she wasn't ugly."
"You're telling me Senzo, who sleeps with anything in a skirt, said no?"
"Ma!" I said in a warning tone. "Fine, sorry. I know he's still your husband."
"He said no, and he told his family and the Gumedes that there would be no more wives." She just hummed in response. "He does seem more mature, but I'm still weary of him. He put you through a lot. Him and his family."
"Ma, please. Let's move past all of that." She just sighed.

My pregnancy was going good. I didn't tell anyone, but I was already showing. Everyone was coming to visit for Simangaliso's six month "birthday," and they would definitely notice. I was sixteen weeks along and very visible. We didn't know the gender yet, but I was almost sure it was a boy. Not even MaKhumalo knew because she was extremely busy with work. We only saw each other on video call. My mother was the only one who knew. She was helping a lot even though I didn't need it this time.