Oyama: Her Story

CHAPTER 26

By the time we land in PE, the air is warm and scented with a mix of ocean breeze and summer blooms. The light feels different here, sharper and more alive, like the land itself is waking up just as we are. Qhawe slips his hand into mine as we exit the plane, leading me towards the Ford we came in a week ago.
We start the drive.
We don’t talk much as the car moves along winding coastal roads, the view breathtaking and vast. I lean my head against the window, feeling the fresh rush of excitement and peace that only this kind of open landscape can bring.

Its been 2 weeks and I have gotten back to my groove, back to looking at sick babies and taking care of sick people. That’s the job I chose, well they say it chooses you, but yeah, Xolani was upset with me for leaving the Eastern Cape, but he got over it, when I also stopped talking to him and then we apologized to one another and we are back to being besties. Life with Qhawe after that fight about his brother has been, a bit different, but in a good way, he would drive me to work every day and pick me up, even when I had nightshifts he would still pick me up, he’d sometimes bring me lunch, and dinner which he made himself. Then somehow find his way into the hospital without the security seeing him, he’s been banned ever since the Scene him and his brothers pulled that day when I got hurt. I never knew public hospitals can ban someone, that has to be illegal right? How it happened was like this: So I was doing my rounds like how I usually do and then as I’m walking back to my office I find him just standing there, wearing his black slacks and Oxfords.

He was standing by the window, near the bin looking out, I screamed when I saw him and he turned around just as startled, “Hai sana, Qhawe ufanani la?” I ask.
“I came to take you out to Lunch” he says surprised by my question.
The woman who works as the PA to the Office I was using was just as surprised and shocked when she saw him, “How’d you get in here?” she asks.
“I walk in, right past you, you were on the phone” he says, he walks closer towards me and kisses me.
“You know normal boyfriends call when they are take their girlfriends out” I say.
“Yeah, but I’m not really normal” he smiles moving his hands down to my waist.
He is right about that, “So you ready to go?” he asks.
“Sure” I say grabbing my handbag.
We use the staff entrance where he parked his Aston, he opens the door for me. I step in and we are off, we are driving and our fingers and locked, he smiles, “How did you do that?” I ask. “What?” he asks.
“Walking past that PA without her noticing” he smiles and just shrugs like he doesn’t know. As we drive through the city, I can’t help but glance over at him, both impressed and bewildered by how he pulled off that stunt at the hospital. He’s got this way of moving through spaces like he belongs wherever he goes.
“So, you’re just going to smile and pretend you don’t know?” I press, raising an eyebrow.
Qhawe glances over, a mischievous glint in his eyes, “Who’s to say? Maybe I do this all the time. Maybe I have connections you don’t know about,” he teases, but there’s a hint of truth there that makes my stomach flip. When we came back from Lunch a security guard stopped him from entering and said, someone has a restraining order against him. He looked at the guard and smiled at him and just smiled and nods, but every day after that I would find him in my office waiting to take me home or to lunch and the guards still don’t know how he gets in. I now see how he and Mogale got away with that prank, when they were in Grade R.

I’m so happy tomorrow I can finally go back to Mthatha, its been about what, a whole year since I went, to ‘Head Office’ which is what I call, my father’s traditional house. Yeah one thing about African people is that most of us, have 2 houses, your house in the city and your traditional house, or Homestead, which I like to call, ‘Head Office’ because when anything important needs to be discussed, or announcements need to be made, its done there. Plus, it’s the place me and Mxolisi have inherited and now we make it our; ‘Head Office’ when we go over there, because there’s no way, I’m sleeping in my grandmother’s house, don’t get me wrong they cool, but hai ke there’s too many of us, someone has to eventually sleep on the floor and I can’t some of them. Growing up it was cool, now its hai eh. The house my father built is nice though, although not as beautiful as the one in PE, which is a Double storey, I miss sleeping there, not gonna lie.