SIXTEEN: Old friends

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Seated on the edge of the oversized beige cloud couch in her off-shoulder champagne ball gown, Yolanda glared at the woman responsible for ruining her wedding day while pressing a tube of hydrocortisone cream to the ant bites scattered across her skin.

For the past few hours she had been applying and reapplying the ointment the moment it dried. Three hours of effort and the red polka dots on her face and the exposed upper part of her body had not faded. Against her light skin, they were impossible to miss.

Kasawa stood a few metres away. The smirk on her face stretched from one side to the other.

It made Yolanda want to close her hands around the woman’s neck. The only thing holding her back was Mrs. Irene, seated quietly in the corner of the suite, keeping to herself.

Yolanda needed to make a good impression. She was a married woman now. She was expected to be rational. Composed. Mature.

‘Who put you up to this? Was it Feggy?’ Gershom hissed at Kasawa. She was the first name that had come to his mind. He was convinced Feggy still harboured feelings for him, that she was holding out hope for a reconciliation, that this was her desperate attempt to derail what he had built with Yolanda. He could not help but scoff at the thought.

‘Why are you even asking when we already know the answer?’ Sofia cut in. ‘That bitter woman did this. She is not going to get away with it.’

At the sound of Feggy’s name, Yolanda let out a carefully constructed gasp. Her expression crumpled. A few tears followed. She lamented her misfortune with conviction, playing the victim so precisely that anyone watching would have believed every word.

Inside, she was gloating.

She did not doubt for a moment that Feggy was behind it. She and Sofia had already discussed it with the bridesmaids. As she performed her anguish, she reached into the pram, lifted Luthanda, held her close, and looked from Gershom to Mrs. Irene with wide, frightened eyes.

‘Mother, I know I hurt Feggy. I know what I did to her marriage was wrong and I am sorry for that. But what she is doing now is too much. First she sent her sister to attack me, and now this. Each time it gets bolder. She is becoming fearless.’ She pressed the baby closer. ‘Babe, what if she comes after our daughter next? Mother, what if she takes her anger out on Luthanda? She is my life. I would never forgive myself if something happened to her.’

Mrs. Irene shook her head quietly and reached for the squirming baby. ‘Take it easy. You are going to crush poor Luthanda’s ribs.’ She settled the infant against her. ‘And you should know, Feggy has nothing to do with this.’

‘Ma, please!’ Gershom said, his voice rising. ‘Even after what you witnessed today, you still blindly defend her? If we had been holding our daughter when those jars were thrown, what then? Ma, will you still put your hand in the fire for her?’

‘Yes,’ she said, and threw a steady look towards Yolanda.

Yolanda kept her expression mournful. But inside, her mind was working.

She had believed that once Mrs. Irene saw that Feggy was not the saint she imagined her to be, the woman’s loyalty would crack. A mother’s first instinct, after all, was to protect her own child. Even if Gershom was the black sheep, he was still her son. Yolanda had thought today might be the moment that shifted everything.

She thought of the videos already circulating online, the comments, the mockery. She had gone live on her wedding day never imagining anything like this would happen. The thought of it made her grit her teeth. She balled her hands in her lap, pressing her nails into her palms, and forced another lone tear down her face.

Gershom wrapped his arms around her and rubbed her back, promising her quietly that he would personally file charges against Feggy. This time, he said, no amount of pleading would save her.

‘That is exactly right,’ Sofia said, throwing a triumphant look towards Mrs. Irene and Kasawa. ‘What happened today is assault. We are going to the police. She went too far. And you,’ she turned to Kasawa, ‘you will wish you never came out from whatever rock you crawled out from.’

‘Go ahead,’ Kasawa said. ‘If I was afraid of the police, I would have run. But I stayed.’

Gershom looked at her with tired wariness. That was the thing that had puzzled security when they found her. She had not fled. She had walked calmly to the bar lounge and was chatting with two male companions over a glass of Bloody Mary when they located her.

‘Whatever you are planning, think carefully,’ he told her. ‘I do not know what that woman told you but if you come near my wife again, I will personally deal with you.’

‘Your wife and I have scores to settle, Mr. Chomba. I was not sent here by anyone. Is that not right, old friend?’

Yolanda raised her eyebrows. ‘I do not know you.’

‘Of course not,’ Kasawa said, without missing a beat.

‘Listen,’ Gershom said, his tone shifting. ‘If you tell us that Feggy put you up to this, I will drop the charges against you. You are being used.’

Kasawa smiled slowly. ‘No. I came on my own. Though I would very much like to meet your ex-wife one day. What she did, walking away with her head held high the way she did — not many women can do that. It takes a brave woman.’ Her voice softened for just a moment. ‘Elizabeth was not that brave. She kept hoping and waiting until she lost herself entirely.’

‘You do not have to protect her…’

‘I am not protecting anyone, Mr. Chomba. Your wife and her friend over there ; we have a history. They just do not recognise me.’

‘What the hell did you just call me?’ Sofia snapped.

‘I called you a pimp. Is that not accurate? Are you not the one who facilitates all of this?’

‘You better watch your mouth before I shut it for you.’

‘You are welcome to try. I have nothing to lose. Neither of you frighten me.’

‘Enough.’ Mrs. Irene’s voice was quiet but it cut through the room. ‘How do you know my son’s wife and her friend?’

‘Ma!’ Gershom turned to her, outraged. He could not believe she was giving this woman the floor. Her presence at the wedding had made him dare to hope things were turning. Now he did not know what to think.

‘My name is Kasawa Phiri.’

Silence.

‘You would not recognise me. I am just one of many faces you have left behind.’ She looked directly at Yolanda. ‘We attended the same boarding school in Kasama. You dated my brother — Gabriel Phiri. You probably knew him as Gav.’

Something moved behind Yolanda’s eyes. It was subtle enough that only someone watching very carefully would have caught it. She kept her expression perfectly blank.

Sofia turned to look at her. She was running through her own memory quickly. The Kasawa she remembered was a scrawny girl with an ill-fitting body and thick tortoiseshell glasses who always seemed to be hovering at the edges of things. She had to admit the transformation was complete. The awkward girl had become someone else entirely.

‘So what? Everyone has a past,’ Gershom said. The idea of Yolanda and another man sat badly with him even hearing it secondhand. ‘She dated your brother. That is ancient history. She is my wife now. Her past has nothing to do with today.’

‘You are right that everyone has a past,’ Kasawa said. ‘People change. People learn. But some people simply find newer and more expensive targets.’

She paused, and when she continued her voice carried the weight of everything she had held onto for years.

When their parents died, she and her two brothers — Gabriel, five years her senior, and her youngest brother — had been taken in by their eldest cousin Fredrick Ziwa and his wife Elizabeth. Fredrick ran a prosperous dairy and poultry farm on the outskirts of Kasama as well as several shops. The children had lacked for nothing in that house.

When Kasawa qualified for Grade Ten, Fredrick and Elizabeth arranged to send her to boarding school. It was during an open visitor’s weekend that Gabriel first met Yolanda. The two dated for almost six months. Then Yolanda ended it without warning.

The reason became clear a few weeks later. Yolanda had not left Gabriel because she didn’t love him anymore ; left for the source of the money.

Gabriel confronted his cousin. The confrontation turned bloody. It tore the family open.

Fredrick cast Gabriel out of the house. Then, within weeks, Kasawa and the rest found themselves without a home either. Yolanda and Sofia had moved into Fredrick’s matrimonial home instead. Yolanda’s final two years of high school were spent living with a man old enough to be her father.

For those two years, Yolanda and Sofia lived like royalty. Elizabeth, her five children, and the three cousins were left to survive as best they could. Fredrick stopped paying school fees — for his own children and for Kasawa. They all dropped out. They took whatever work they could find to help Elizabeth pay rent and keep the youngest two in school.

Elizabeth tried everything to win her husband back. In one desperate attempt, she attacked Yolanda. Yolanda and Sofia fought back. Elizabeth ended up in hospital with injuries far worse than anything Yolanda sustained.

While she was still recovering, the police came and arrested her. Fredrick refused to intervene. He refused to settle. Elizabeth served three years.

Their relatives did nothing. Fredrick was the breadwinner. No one was willing to go against him. And for many who had quietly resented Elizabeth’s position, her fall was something they watched without grief.

Kasawa had watched all of it.

She had waited a long time for this day.

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© Ponda

VOCAB

Kasama — a city in Northern Province, Zambia; known for its waterfalls and as a regional hub