The Power of Love

Chapter two

Andrietta Marie Du Toit was trying to eat something. However, she could not swallow anything. She felt her nausea overtake her. She managed to run to the bathroom, just before her food came up.

It was the 10 June 1970. It had been a long, treacherous year, since the Luthando Williams had been captured and unlawfully put in prison. Andrietta gripped her bathtub rail as she got up from the floor.

Free-flowing tears fell down her chin, tracing lines of hopelessness down her face. She managed to walk to her room once again, before collapsing on her bed. She heard her bedroom door creak open. She knew whom it was. The only person in her world that knew what she felt, Gloria Dlamini.

Andrietta felt Gloria stroking her back, trying to comfort her. Gloria spoke softly, "Dear, I know this is hard, but you have to get it together." Gloria lifted her up and hugged her. 

Andrietta felt her breathing coming out far too short and she felt her vision blur for a second. However, Gloria's voice comforted her and she found her breathing rate slowly falling into a normal pace.

"I know I should be stronger, it's just that today is our anniversary and Luthando is in jail." Andrietta weakly saying. "He went to jail on the day of our anniversary. He went to prison for doing absolutely nothing. He is dying in prison for being black! There is nothing I can do to help." she continued.

As Gloria consoled Andrietta, memories of when she first saw the pair together blitz through her train of thought. She remembered seeing them in the garden, holding hands and laughing. They had looked so happy and in-love.

Gloria had cornered each of them separately and emphasized the need for them to be more covert. She begged them to be wary of being to open, lest they get caught. She became their protector of sorts.

Gloria Dlamini had become the new housemaid after Fezeka, Luthando's mother had stopped working by the Du Toit's. She became the new cook and took a liking to Andrietta, whom seemed more stuck on her own world, to notice anything around her.    

Gloria remembers the day she had to break the news of Luthando's arrest to Andrietta like it was yesterday. Andrietta crumbled into her arms and never managed to iron out her creases, ever since that dreadful day. One of the maids had found a love letter that Luthando had written to Andrietta in her room. The news had spread like wildfire, until it reached the ears of Mrs. Du Toit. She interrogated the poor girl until the maid showed the letter to her. The next thing they knew, Luthando was in jail for stealing. 

Andrietta finally got a hold of herself and said rather soberly, "I remember when you came into my room and said that Luthando had been forcibly taken in by the police. That you had heard my parents talking about putting him in jail for "corrupting" my mind. They lied about him, Gloria! They had said that he stole from them. Now, everyday for the rest of my life, I will feel incomplete without his love. It seems like a bad joke by God to have him taken in on our anniversary." Andrietta untangled herself from Gloria embrace and stood. She started pacing. 

"I know that this seems unfair and wrong. That your love for each other will That you will never be able to see him because of this racist world we live in. But you know love recognizes no barriers. This might seem like an obstacle, but i reassure that your love for each other, will overcome this hurdle. You two will be reunited again. This barrier will be broken through , with love. Nothing is stronger than love. I will believe that this will only make your love for each other stronger." Gloria said with utmost conviction. 

This sentiment not only warmed Andrietta's heart, but it gave her strength too. She was supposed to be strong for Luthando. It had been a year since his imprisonment. She resolved to do something about it. 

In prison, Luthando crossed out another day on the wall with a piece of rock. He had officially spent a year in jail. He was beginning to give up hope of ever seeing the light of the outside world again. Of ever seeing Andrietta ever again.

The first few months had been bearable. They could not break him. He had not done anything wrong. His love for Andrietta kept his spirits up. However, as the days turned into weeks and months, he felt a deep sense of hopelessness and despair. Months ago he had been certain that he would be released from jail, now he felt like a fool for even wishing upon that dilapidated star. 

Once upon a time, he had been certain that he would see Andrietta again, now he was certain he never would. The agony of missing her rippled through the very fiber of his being.

He ached for her love. To feel it engulf him. In the begining, he could close his eyes and imagine it, he could not do so anymore. He had lost that ability weeks ago. Now, he just felt nothing but the misery of not being close to her. That night he went to sleep, sobbing into his hard pillow, conceding that he would never feel her love again. 

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