Scattered Stars

Chapter 42

I thought the hard work would be finding Lesedi but the work that came after stretched me to my limits.

She stayed in the hospital for four days and I visited her every day until we were able to bring her home.

That wasn't the hard part though, the hard part was dealing with the silence. Ever since releasing her statement to the police officers she had gone mute. She hadn't said a word to any of us even after she has her nightmares. The nightmares were the worst, she would wake up in the middle of the night screaming bloody murder then she would tuck her head between her knees and cry.

She didn't want any of us touching her, if you tried to pull into a hug or hold her hand she would recoil and start crying. My mother was growing frustrated because the social worker she was seeing said that Lesedi wasn't cooperating and during their sessions she would keep quiet and stare off into space. She had begun to worry that Lesedi might have been contemplating suicide and that was truly terrifying.

Mama had to go back to work but Lesedi wasn't ready to be left alone so we asked Palesa to come over and watch after her since she couldn't go to school either after being released from the hospital.

Lesedi wasn't eating, she had lost an incredible amount of weight in a short span of time. There was no longer joy in the household.

We all just normally sat around the table in silence each one of us glancing at our plates. There hasn't been an update on Big John, all we know is that the police are trying to locate him, and it's not like they have a choice, when we did the interviews with the reporters we made sure to shine the light on the department. We praised them and gave them ALL the credit about locating the girls just so the media could keep track of their progress and to also throw Big John off our scent for a little while until a plan is established.

Like usual Lesedi just stared at her plate in absolute silence, Lethabo devoured his food in a haste while my mother and I ate slowly and kept glancing at Lesedi then back at each other in defeat, we were at a loss.

I was stressed out and falling behind in my school work plus I was getting in trouble for dozing off because I often stayed up all night while Lesedi cried.

"I don't like seeing you like this," Dian said softly, he ran the pads of his thumb gently around the dark rings around my eyes.

"Well then don't look at me," I was already stressed enough I didn't have time to be concerned about my appearance, sure I looked like a zombie and my uniform wasn't always ironed but I didn't look that bad, but then again I haven't looked in the mirror in a while.

"You know what I mean, " he said softly. He pulled me by my waist and kissed both my eyelids. "Let me take you out, let's go on a date, I haven't taken you out on a date in forever and you deserve a break."

"What about Lesedi?"

"Baby, I understand that you are stressed and worried about your sister but you need to take care of yourself too."

"So abandoning my sister is taking care of myself?" In retrospect, I was being unreasonable but in that moment I felt like he was asking me to abandon my sister.

He sighed and shook his head, "you know that's not what I mean. Look we don't have to do anything too extravagant. How about a picnic?"

I rolled my eyes and looked away but he clasped my chin softly and turned my face towards him again, " I'll prepare everything, we'll have it in my backyard and you won't have to worry about anything. I just want you to be in a neutral environment, no pressure and no stress, just you and me."

I thought about it for a second, I definitely needed the break, not from my sister but the heartache seeing her caused and the suffocating silence that often enveloped the shack.