Oyama: Her Story

CHAPTER 18

We walk outside and his father is inside talking to Qhawe and his brothers. Lebohang said he’d be back 10am. I look at their mom, she’s on her phone. She smiles, and biting her lips, I look at their dad he’s also smiling then looks at us. Are they SEXTING? WHAT THE FUCK.
“Mama kaQhawe” she looks up, “I need to ask something” he expression changes to concerned, “The footsteps thing…?”
She claps her hands, “Thank you, YOH, since they were babies you wouldn’t hear them crawl in a room or walk into a room, they’d just show up and disappear just as quick” I start laughing, “Their father is the same way, when we first started dating, it didn’t matter too much, cause you could hear him when he was walking, then we move in here and boom his footsteps get quieter and quieter. I brought it up with him and he was like, ‘I’m imagining thing”
“Today, I was grabbing a piece of fruit and I didn’t even hear Lebohang walk into the kitchen even when we were in the parking ground, I couldn’t hear him until he announced himself” I say and she starts laughing.
“What are you guys laughing about?” his father asks putting a bowl of cereal next to their mom. “You guys and your non-existent footsteps” she says. I thought It was gonna be our little inside joke, but OK.
“You guys are imagining things” he says and walks away, this time it’s like he makes his footsteps. It has to be a superpower they all have.
“You see now he’s doing it on purpose” she says and I start laughing.

They all sit down, with bowls of cereal. A rich family that eats Kellogs. LOL. Ja neh. We are eating, their mom is glowing in this sunlight. Their fathers phone rings, he looks at it, he looks at it confused, “MaKhoza where’s your other phone?”
“Upstairs” she answers. He stands up and answers the call. She looks at him and back to her cereal, all that’s heard is crunching.
“Can you still take me to my brother’s house?” I ask.
He nods and continues, “How’s your sister-in-law, Qhawe told me she’s pregnant, boy or girl?” “Boy” I say.
“Ohhh so close” she says laughing and so do I. I wonder what its like raising only boys, I mean 11 boys is a lot, I know its divided 2/4/5 but that’s still a lot. Given how they were also raised I wouldn’t be surprised that they all slept at one another’s houses, like Qhawe slept in Bryanston because that’s where his other father and mother lived. Their father walks back in smiling and confused, he looks at me, I look around confused.
“Oyama”
“Baba” I answer.
“Did you threaten a teacher today?” he asks with disbelief in his voice.
The all look at me, with the same disbelief, “No” I shake my head.
“What’s going on?” asks their mother.
“That was Lebohang’s Headmaster, he said one of the teachers was threatened by a light skin woman wearing a long black dress, who was standing with Lebohang, when she was threatened” he says and starts laughing.
My mouth is wide open, and Qhawe looks at me confused, I close my eyes in disbelief.
The bitch who hooted at us, “I said Voetsek, that’s not a threat though” I say defending myself, “We were in the parking zone and she hooted at us for no reason”.
They start laughing, “OK, Don’t worry, I’ll handle it” his father says.
Who the heck snitches on an adult?

Qhawe is driving us to my brother’s house, his dad just said he’d handle the threat situation. We are inside of a Bentley and he’s holding my hand.
“I’m gonna pick Lebohang from school” I say.
He looks at me, “Aow mama nah” he says.
I start laughing and give a proud smile, “We have gotten close, he’s told me things”
“Oh yeah like what?” he asks.
“A certain pair of twins in Grade R switched off the Mainswitch and then pulled the Fire Alarm drenching the whole Grade R block” he looks at me with the corner of his eye, “How did you do it?”
He gives me a side eye, “I don’t know what you are talking about” he says.
I start laughing and so does he, “It was really easy” he says.
“What about cameras?”
“Like I said easy, so there, was 2 cameras in the hall way, right, but there was no camera behind the school bathrooms, so me and Mogale at the same time, we asked to go the bathroom and got in, we went out through out the window, then ran all the way to the Main Box, in the administration office at the back, no one is ever there. When we had eyes on the target, I ran back to the bathroom and waited for the lights to go off, when they did I knew I didn’t have a lot of time before the backup came up, so when the lights went off, I quickly ran to the fire alarm pulled it, then dived back to the bathroom before the lights came on, then we walked out with everyone else” he says proud and I’m just laughing.
“Did your parents find out?” I ask.
“There was a suspicion, because we were the only ones near the Fire alarm that was pulled, they had no evidence, they only found out because we told our dad, he told our mom and they grounded us” he says.
“I would think your dad would be proud” I say.
“Oh he was, he was more impressed then angry or anything” he says, “Mom wanted to spank us, but our dad stood in between us and the belt, he made us promise not to do anything like that ever again, we promised, and that was the last prank we pulled at that school” he says.
I smile, shaking my head at Qhawe's story, "I can't believe you did that. And your dad covering for you? That's something."
He shrugs, still wearing that mischievous grin, "He understood, you know? It wasn’t about breaking rules for the sake of it—it was about figuring out how things worked."
I laugh, shaking my head again, “Still sounds like trouble to me.”
Qhawe glances at me, his thumb lightly rubbing the back of my hand, "Yeah, well, we learned our lesson. At least, for the most part."
We drive in comfortable silence for a few moments, the roars of the Lamborghini filling the air. I can feel his calm presence beside me, and it makes me relax. There's something about being with Qhawe that feels...right. Even when he’s talking about his rebellious past, there’s a warmth in his voice that makes everything sound so easy, but that story Lebohang told me still stings a bit. But, I’ll just have to trust, Lebohang that he’s not like that, and he was just defending his younger brother.
"Are you sure your dad will handle the whole 'teacher' situation?" I ask, breaking the silence.
Qhawe chuckles, "My dad's not one to let things get out of hand. He’s probably already smoothed it over with the headmaster. Don't worry about it."
I lean back in my seat, feeling the tension of the morning slowly leaving my body, "I still can't believe that woman snitched on me."
"People love drama, babe. She probably had nothing better to do."
I laugh, "Clearly."