His Love Healed My Heart

INSERT 27 (SUNDAY EVENING )

BANDILE

We hear a gunshot and Qhawe is the first to jump out of his seat, and then a second gunshot. When we get to the front door, she is lying on the floor bleeding.  The door is still open, the two guards come running in and in that moment we hear a car driving off.
Me:  Check it out and call an ambulance
Qhawe:  no! the ambulance will take too long.  Get the car. (I’m still in shock and I think Lwazi can see that and runs to get the car as Qhawe carries her to the car.)
Ncesh:  Bandile snap out of it, you need to drive that car, Lwazi is not as calm as you think.  (she’s right, I run to the car, Lwazi gets out and I drive off. Lwazi and the girls will take another car.
Qhawe:  hang on Baby Girl.  She is losing a lot of blood Bandile. I can’t lose her.(I can hear his voice is breaking, he wants to cry. Qhawe doesn’t cry.  This is bad)
Me:  keep talking to her, try to keep her awake.  She’s going to be ok man, she’s going to make it. keep her awake.
Qhawe:  hey, hey, don’t close your eyes look at me, remember when you saw me leaning against your car, remember how irritated you were?  Do you want to know  what I was thinking, I was asking myself how can such a tiny woman drive a big vehicle like this, you looked so small in that double cab. (I laugh to myself, she does look small whenever she drives a big a car and she loves them.  I look at my rear view mirror and I see that she is trying to say something but she is struggling, I think the pain is too much, she closes her eyes,) no! no! no! no! don’t close your eyes baby.  Bandile we are losing her, drive this car man.
Me:  Check her pulse (he checks it)
Qhawe:  she still has a pulse.  Hold on my love we are almost there.  Her pulse is weak.
Me:  We are here (I say just as I stop the car at the emergency door of the hospital, Qhawe gets out of the car carrying her and a nurse sees us and brings a stretcher)
Nurse:  what happened?
Qhawe:  two gunshot wounds to the chest, one shot through and through and the other is still inside.
Nurse:  You’ll have to wait here
Qhawe:  No, I need to be with her
Nurse:  You can’t go in there, she’ll be fine.  (the other nurses take her into the ER and we are told to wait in the waiting room, the nurse walks away from us and comes back again.) These need to filled in. (she says that looking at me and I take the forms from her and fill in what I can and Qhawe realises that I’m stuck, there’s things I don’t know.  He takes them from me and completes them, he gets up going to the reception and hands in the forms.)
Qhawe:  who could have done this, and whoever did this knows that I don’t have that much security around the house on weekends especially when I’m home.(Qhawe is too calm and that worries me)
Me:  we are going to find out who did this man, and they going to pay. (Lwazi walks in with the girls, they look like they’ve been crying.  I wonder how Lwazi coped with two women crying)
Ncesh:  Where is she? (she asks coming straight to me and I just hold her, she starts crying) she can’t die Bandile, we can’t lose her, I can’t lose her Bandile.
Me:  Hey, look at me, she is not going to die, she is going to make it. (I notice Qhawe has tears falling, I don’t even think he knows he is crying, I think Thando noticed, she moved from Lwazi to Qhawe and wiped his tear, only then he realised he was crying. I have never seen Qhawe cry and I mean never. Right now I feel sorry for whoever shot his Baby Girl)
Thando:  she is going to pull through, she is going to be jumping on you for you to carry her while she wraps her legs around your waist and kiss you like nothing happened.  (Qhawe looks at her with a faint and a surprised look.) yes we know, she told us it is one of her favourite things she likes to do when she is with you. She loves you Qhawe, she might be too scared to say it but she loves you, she wants forever with you.  (she hugs him tight) I almost forgot, here we brought you these, I think I saw a bathroom sign that way.  (she says pointing at the direction where she saw the sign.)
Qhawe:  Thank you.  (he gets going to the bathroom to change his clothes, he has Khanyi’s blood all over him.)
Lwazi:  come here baby,  are you ok?
Thando:  I’ll be fine my love.
Lwazi:  anyone for coffee? (We all say yes and Qhawe comes back as Lwazi leaves to go get the coffee, I ask him if he would like some, he looks like he needs it and he just nods.)
Qhawe:  Lwazi can you also put this in the car (he hands him the bag that Thando gave him.) has the doctor said anything yet.
Me: not yet.
Qhawe:  what’s taking so long, it’s been an hour already.
Me:  I called Eddie and Andile and they on their way.  I also asked the security guys to go over the camera footage.
Qhawe:  There’s two extra cameras I  installed a few months back, no one knows about them, one camera is directly facing the front door and also rotates a 180 deegrees, hopefully it caught who shot her.  I need my laptop to excess that footage.
Me:  That’s great.
Ncesh:  I don’t even understand why someone would want to kill her.
Thando:  I suspect the ex-wife (she says something I’ve been thinking but didn’t want to say it out loud.)
Qhawe:  well she might as well kill herself wherever she is before I get to her because I am going to forget she is a woman and the mother of my kids.
(the doctor walks into the waiting)
Doctor:  Khanyisile Sondlo
Us:  yes (Just then Eddie and Andile walk in interrupting the doctor)
Eddie:  What’s going, where is she?
Doctor:  I was just about to explain.  (we all look at him waiting for him to speak.)  Ok then.  She was shot twice on the right sight side of her chest, one bullet was through and through and we have managed to remove the other bullet. She is still unconscious but she is stable.  She is a very strong woman, she is fighter and very lucky.
Qhawe:  What do you mean lucky?
Doctor:  whoever shot her had every intention of killing her.  If she was shot on the left side, the second bullet would have gone through her heart and I don’t think she would have made it. (Luyanda walks in as well, Eddie or Andile must have called him.)
Qhawe:  can we see her?
Doctor: I’ll give you 10 minutes
Qhawe:  thanks doc for everything (we all go to her room, she has a private room, Qhawe must have organised it.)

QHAWELOMZI

Baby Girl looks so peaceful.  The girls walk over to her and kiss her cheek, telling her to wake up.  Everyone is standing next to the bed and I’m standing by the door just giving them a chance to talk to her. Eddie walks over to me
Eddie:  how are you doing?
Me:  I’ll be ok. 
Eddie:  I called the police on my way here, they are probably at your house now, so we’ll leave just now and attend to that.  We are going to find whoever did this. Bandile tells me there’s another camera in the house and you are the onlyone who has excess to the footage.
Me:  You need my laptop, it’s in my study.  The password is Khanyi’s birthday, call me when you open it, I’ll talk you through how to excess the footage. I’m not going with you.
Eddie:  I know, I’ll talk to the doctor.
Me:  Thanks.  Eddie I want you to know that I didn’t mean for this happen, if i had known there would be such a risk, I wouldn’t have given my guys the weekend off.
Eddie:  don’t do that, don’t blame yourself for this, we don’t blame you. We know you love her and you will do anything to protect her.  Don’t blame yourself, she needs you right now. We haven’t told the kids yet.
Me:  thank you man. Please don’t tell the kids, they’ve been through a lot lately and I don’t want them worrying about their mother.  Let them enjoy their holiday.  Khaya and the twins are coming back Tuesday, we can tell them then.
Eddie:  I understand.  They really have been through a lot. (the doctor walks in interrupting us)
Doctor:  ok guys your time is up.
Eddie:  What’s your name doctor?
Doctor:  Andrew Williams
Eddie:  May I have a word with you Doctor Williams
Doctor:  Sure no problem sir.
Everyone walks out except for Lwazi.
Lwazi:  Whoever did this is going to pay.  I’m no killer but they are going to pay. (he is angry, he’s breathing fire, and he is making me wonder why I am so calm, it’s unlike me.) She welcomed us into her life, made us part of her family man.  We have a family because of her.  Bandile’s boys can’t wait to meet her and someone tries to kill, for what, what did she ever do to them for her to deserve this? If Zwelibanzi is behind this, I swear. ( He keeps quiet.)
Me:  I know it’s not Zwelibanzi (he looks at me shocked) think about it Lwazi, Zwelibanzi wants something from Khanyi and  he needs her alive.  He wants the company back, if she dies Zwelibanzi loses that company.  Whoever did this really wanted her dead and right now my money is on Anelisa.
Lwazi:  She can’t be that stupid, can she?
Me:  She thinks she’s in love so anything is possible. (we both laugh)
Lwazi:  I have to go man. I’ll see you later.  Don’t worry too much she is going to be ok. She will fight to pull through for you and the kids.
Me:  thanks man.  (he hugs me and leaves.)
I walk towards Khanyi’s bed, I stand there just looking at her eventually I decide to get in bed with her, I move her a little and position myself properly so that her head is on my chest.  I think they need to make bigger beds for hospitals.
Me:  you need to wake Khanyi, you can’t leave me all alone here.  I’m used to having you around, you got me addicted to you, I can’t go back to a life that doesn’t have you in it, our kids can’t have a life without you in it, we won’t survive it. Eddie and Andile are torn, they need you.  Andile doesn’t even want to talk. You need to wake up my love.  I lie there next to her stroking her face with my fingers, thinking of things she would be saying right about now.  I really hope and pray that Anelisa is not the one behind this shooting otherwise my kids will lose their mother.


EDDIE

We are at the Qhawe’s house, the police are here, doing God knows what.  The guards have pulled the security footage, they gave the police a copy and I also asked for a copy.  I know the police won’t do anything about this, I’ll have to call in a favour with an old friend should the footage show us it’s not who we think it is. Right now I’m in Qhawe’s study with Lwazi, Andile and Bandile.  I open his laptop and punch the password.
Andile:  How did you know the password?
Eddie:  He told me.
Andile:  he trusted you with his laptop, I don’t think he knew what he was doing, I don’t blame him, he is not himself. 
Lwazi:  I could have told you the password
Andile:  He also told you his password, I need to have Qhawe checked, something is wrong with him.  How can he trust the two of you with his computer?  (we all just laugh and Luyanda walks in)
Luyanda:  what’s so funny?
Andile:  Qhawe told Eddie and Lwazi his laptop password.
Lwazi:  he didn’t have to tell me, I just know it.
Luyanda:  I could tell you what it is.
Andile:  yhooo, I give up.
Lwazi:  you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure it out.  It’s Khanyi’s birthday.  Am I right Eddie? (I just nod.)
Me:  I need to call him, he’ll talk us through how to excess the footage. (I call him, he picks up when I’m about to cut off the call and he sounds sleepy, he must have been sleeping, I’m glad he is getting some sleep.  I tell him I’m in and talks me through the whole process and when we are done I hang up, telling him that I’ll call him later when we’ve looked at the footage before I hung up.
Andile:  connect the laptop to the bigger screen, we can all be able to watch it. (I do that and we go through the footage, there’s a knock on the office door and I quickly minimize everything on the screen.  It’s the detective in charge of this investigation.
Detective:  We are done for now, we need to speak to the owner of the house and the victim.
Andile:  the victim’s name is Khanyisile Sondlo, Miss Sondlo to you.  She is in hospital and unconscious.  The owner of the house is by her side.  You can go to the hospital tomorrow.
Detective:  I’ll also need you guys to come to the station to make your statements, I’m referring to those who were here during the shooting. 
Me:  We understand. We’ll be there tomorrow morning at 08:00.
Detective:  thank you for cooperation, I’ll see you tomorrow then.  (he walks out.)
Me:  these guys are idiots.  (we go back to viewing the footage.   This guy is standing right in front of her, before he shoots he looks at his phone. Then shoots her twice and runs off.)
Us:  Who the fuck is that?
Andile:  This was a hit.  This guy was sent by someone.
Me:  We need someone who can run his photo through a facial recognition system
Bandile:  do you guys know someone.
Andile:  we do (and we look at each other, this is a favour we were hoping we would never have to call in.
Me:  you know what this means right? (I ask looking at Andile)
Andile:  I know.  (the other guys look very confused right now)
Me:  It’s a long story.  We’ll tell you about it when this is all over.
Bandile:  who would want her dead and to go as far as to send a hit man. 
Andile:  that’s the thing, she has tried so hard not to be in the lime light, she stayed away from business that would attract unwanted attention.
Lwazi:  This is not good, not good at all.
Bandile:  My money is still on Anelisa.
Lwazi:  this is too smart for her, is it not. She can’t be that stupid either.  She knows Qhawe will kill her.
Me:  let’s not brush her off as yet.  Anything is possible