Mandla

Chapter 5: Suited for each other

Zanele and I are meeting for lunch and as always, she's late, You'd swear she's the one with four armed men  walking infront, besides and behind her everytime she goes out, but nope, she's only responsible for herself and still never arrives on time. She parks her red Range rover in and makes her way to the coffee shop next to my store. She's a lover of the finer things and everything about her regalia bares testament to that, she has all black on with leopard print hooker heels to match, she looks like the ambassador of slay Queens all over the world.

She takes a seat and orders a double moito and a shot, nevermind that she has to go right back to work after our catch up session. She's also inlove and newly engaged so as you can imagine, she has a lot to tell me.

Catching up was great as usual but it's time for me to get back to work. There's something about today that's rather strange, everybody at the shop has been avoiding eye contact with me. The security has also been keeping people from talking or making any type of contact with me and they are seemingly monitoring all my telephone calls too. Also, If I didn't know any better, I'd say Zanele was hiding something from me by how guarded her words are, careful not to let something slip. I decide to go to the toilet to take a break from the strange vibes i'm getting. As soon as I enter, I see fifteen missed calls from Mah and a message from Baba that reads "Why aren't you answering your phone? Your mother has been worried sick. We need to know you're okay after what we saw in the papers this morning"
Huh? what did they see on the papers this morning and most importantly, what does it have to do with me?

As for me not answering my cellphone; It has been very faulty as of late. I can't see any incoming calls unless I'm not in the presence of the security or my husband. I wash and dry my hands then make my exit but I don't go back to my shop. I head straight to the nearby pik n pay within the mall instead. The Customers are giving me weird looks and there is no way that i'm imagining it. I see the newspaper aisle and when I decide to walk in, I am met by my husbands picture plastered on more than 5 publications. I grab the first three and head to the counter to make my purchase. The cashier hesitates but my facial expression tells her not to test me.
"That'll be R38.73 ma'am"- She says.
I pay and leave the till with my head held high. If these people want to talk about me, I'll give them something to talk about.

I'm surprised the security hasn't figured out I'm far from the shop by now but there are a lazy lot, I've noticed from time to time. I lock myself into our SUV and start skimming through these magazines, I get to the pages that have my husbands picture on them. There is a woman here claiming that he raped her, she set up a YouTube channel where she went on to "expose him" and has apparently went to the police about it.

I immediately try to search the net but my cellphone has been disabled from using it, I thought it was faulty but nope, it was disconnected. Mandla is such a con artist though, he said his phone also had a similar problem but now that I think about it,  he has been answering calls and googling things the whole night till this morning whereas I couldn't. Is he that ignorant to think that I wouldn't find out about this, like really?

I drive out of the mall and head to a nearby internet cafe. There are those stares again. I catch a teenager staring at me without a blink. I look at his computer monitor and I see the women that claims that my husband raped her on the screen, the boy tries to block me from seeing it upon my approach but I give him that "don't do it or you will regret" stare that surrenders him powerless. What is up with men and secrets? I put a chair right next to his and use his mouse to navigate through the computer, I increase the volume and maximise the screen. The girl looks like she is in her late 20s, volaptuous and chunky. She's got an afro and faint skin with freckles but looks nothing like me. She goes on and on about how my man took advantage of her at a private business party. Her dates are correct cause that day, he came back home late and blamed it on a late night meeting the next morning.