A Mother's Pride

Chapter 14

"Are you enjoying your food?"

"Yes my child, thank you."

She seems happy, at peace. I am still touched at the fact that she welcomed me with warm hands, even after I abandoned her for a boy.

"How's the baby?" I was hoping that she was not going to go there but I guess this is what "catching up" means. I have to tell her everything and let her say, "I told you so."

"The kids are back in our house. You will see them when I come fetch you for Christmas."

"Kids? Our house? Kids?"

"Uh...yes. Thabo and I had another child four years after giving birth to that one."

"Wait, tell me everything."

She looks intrigued, like my life story is good. If only she knew.

"Well, okay. I was pregnant but I still completed my matric."

Lie number one, I don't even know thirty percent of the syllabus in matric. I dropped out in February, February!

"And you were able to handle that? I am so proud of you, for a moment there I thought that you had dropped out like people said you did."

I should have known that people were saying stuff about me and it would obviously get to my mom. She must have felt like a failure when she heard that her only child had dropped out of school just before the first quarter even ended.

"No, no. I changed schools because of the stigma there. I hated the way those teachers and my classmates looked at me. I could not take that environment anymore so Thabo took me to a way better school."

"Oh dear me, I misjudged that boy, he actually cared about your future."

I think lying is my guilty pleasure.

"So yea. I gave birth and named my child Lesedi. Then the other one, Naledi Catherine, was conceived three years later."

"You named her after me?" My mom can be a little too emotional, that's where I take it. Her eyes are already glossy.

I did. Catherine is my mom's first name, so I gave it to Naledi as her second name.
I nodded as a response to mom.

"You are so sweet Momo."

"I know I abandoned you but I loved you, I still do."

"You're making me emotional, go on."

"Oh well, the brother is fourteen and the sister is ten and I do not really have much to say but Thabo and I live in our house right now with the kids."

Second lie. I lived with him but not anymore. I do not know why I chose to lie about that. Oh yea, I want mom to be proud of her child. That at least I achieved something even though it did not seem like I would.

"You guys are still together?"

"Yes." I swallow the lump that has just been created down my throat.

Third lie, I mean, who could it kill? Mom doesn't have to know about the devastating tunnel that I had to go through because of not listening to her.

"I swear I did not think that you guys would last."

"Uh...me too." I say through my teeth.

"I have to meet him and personally apologize."

Luckily my phone rings.

"Hey Mavis."

"You've been gone for so long, I thought you just went to get a few things." I hear Lesedi on the other line.

"How do you have Mavis' phone? I'll be home soon."

I hang up. Because mom is so curious, she asks me who is Mavis and I tell her that, "she's my maid that I have grown very fond of throughout the years."

I'm already in too deep into this lying thing. It is like a ripple effect and I cannot get myself to stop.

"I have to go, Lesedi wants me to come home."

"Okay my baby. It was nice hanging out with you for a little while."

"Do you have a phone?" I ask her.

She has a way better phone than I do, it's a smart phone. Wow! I am even embarrassed.

"Okay let's exchange numbers and we will do this more often okay?"

"Okay Momo." She smiles.

I do feel guilty for lying to my mom but what else was I supposed to do? I love her and I cannot imagine her face when she realizes that her daughter is a failure.

And I am too embarrassed to let her know that leaving home landed me into a very deep hole of poverty and sadness. I am too ashamed to let her know that I didn't actually make it in life.