VI: Love at first sight

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Dressed in an off-shoulder sexy blue dress, Clere signed a check and handed it to the handsome and well-built man who sat before her in the lounge.

“Mr. Monde,” she began, “I do not pay you to make excuses. I want results. Tell me, are you sure you are up for the job?”

Monde Lubasi was in his late twenties and owned a successful private investigations agency. He could have been offended at Clere’s insinuations but laughed it off. He was the best in the business, and she had come to him because she knew he could get the job done. He understood her frustrations and couldn’t blame her.

“I just want you to understand and appreciate the situation. Ian Anderson is a powerful man…”

“Details, details, Mr. Monde. Will you or will you not?”

“You will have the results soon,” he told her.

Later, Clere stood by the window and watched the tall, dark man get in his car and drive off. Only after the vehicle had disappeared from her sight did she heave a sigh of relief. She had no idea what she would have done if Monde had decided to call her bluff to her face and walked. Each day that passed, her anger and hatred for Ian grew. She wasn’t going to be at peace until he had paid.

Her mother walked into the room carrying a laundry basket. “Clere, who was that man?”

She had been the one who had opened the door for him.

“No one important, mom. Where is Dad? I want to talk to him.”

“On a video conference call with Ronald.”

“What about?”

Ronald Mudenda was one of the few employees who had stuck with them through the whole Ian fiasco.

“I don’t know. Some company stuff. I think your father wants him to run things for him while he recuperates.”

“No,” Clere protested, already heading up the stairs. “Dad can’t do that. Hasn’t he learnt anything from what happened with Ian?”

“But he is our last hope. There is no one who can do this better than him. Your father has had too many death scares. He is just not up for this dog-eat-dog world.”

She stopped mid-stride on the stairs and turned to face her. “I will do it.”

Charlotte was taken by surprise. “I know you mean well, but we can’t ask that of you. You are just a kid.”

“Mum, I am eighteen years old. I know all that there is to know about the company.”

Charlotte put the basket down and went up to her daughter. She reached for the girl’s hand. “Honey, I know you mean well, but this is not for you. It’s a cruel and cutthroat world. It will rob you of your innocence.”

Clere looked down at her mother who stood a step below her. “It’s not up for discussion, Mum. I am the one who is going to run the company.”

“But honey, that is not what you need right now. You need to go out. Go to college, meet friends, have a boyfriend… live a little. You know that man who just left? He is very handsome and looks like a nice man. You should try dating him if he is single.”

Clere frowned at her and headed up. She wasn’t going to be swayed by anything else. She had already made up her mind. Her father had put too much trust in Ian Anderson, and he had nearly paid with his life.

She wasn’t going to let the same mistake repeat itself. She knew where her mother’s fears came from, but her mother had nothing to worry about. In their eyes, she was their fragile baby they had protected all their lives. They had not realized that girl grew up a long time ago.

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ZIMBA PAINTS

Walking past his son’s office, Edmond Zimba stopped and watched him through the glass wall as he sat lost in thought. He walked over to his office door, knocked, and entered when there was no answer.

“Lemba?”

“Dad?” he turned his chair to face him.

“Everything okay? You haven’t been yourself of late. Tell me, are you regretting your decision?”

Edmond had been worried about him but had decided to give him space, hoping he would come to him when he was ready to talk.

“How did you know Mum was the one? Can you really love someone at first sight?”

“I guess. Where is this coming from?”

“I think I’m in love.”

Edmond was taken aback as his son talked of the woman he was supposedly in love with. He didn’t know what to make of it.

Lemba had only dated Nacilele, and Edmond was afraid it could be rebound love.

“Trust me, Dad. It’s not. I’m really in love with this girl.”

Lemba couldn’t help but laugh at his father’s fears. He had had a month to think things through, and with each day that passed, he was more convinced that the woman he had met on the night he officially announced the end of his relationship with Nacilele was the one.

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Teliwe was busy with her customers when Edmond and Edna pulled up in the driveway. The garden was located in the affluent residential area. Edna, a petite and elegant woman, consulted the piece of paper in her hands when her husband asked if they were at the right place.

They got out when she confirmed it was. They went in and were welcomed at the gates by Arnold; tall and lean man in his twenties, with dark skin that gleamed in the sun and watchful eyes that missed nothing. High cheekbones gave his face a sculpted look, and when he smiled, a small dimple appeared on his left cheek.

They asked to speak to the owner, but Teliwe was held up with other clients, so he offered to show them around. By the time the tour was over on the forty-by-forty residential plot and they headed to one of the two chalets that served as an office, they were both in awe at the beauty of the place. Teliwe joined them, and Arnold introduced them as the Zimbas.

“So what can I do for you?”

“Chonta actually sent us to you,” Edna said and told her she was her sister-in-law and her husband’s cousin.

Teliwe smiled at the mention of the woman who was more a mother to her than her own. “Any friends of Aunt Chonta are friends of mine.”

And so they sat and got to plan for the best landscape that suited their just-finished house. The couple were very impressed with the young girl, and Edna would not stop talking about her on their way home.

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Later that night, the Benedicts sat their daughter down. But Clere could not be moved for anything.

“Don’t argue with me on this. My mind is made up.”

“Honey, your mother is right. You have a life, and we can’t take that away from you. Ten years from now, you might be regretting your decision. Besides, this is a sacrifice I can’t ask of you,” her father said.

If only you knew, she thought, looking down. She had sold her virginity to the pervert Ian in exchange for the company. It was a secret she would carry with her to the grave. “It’s no sacrifice. Can we please talk about something else?”

But her father was not budging either. He even brought on his “Dad is angry” voice, but that too would not sway her.

“Thank you for protecting me always, but your little girl is not so little anymore. You can’t protect me always.”

She was grateful that they loved her this much, but their love would not right the wrongs Ian had done to them. She went and hugged her father in the wheelchair and assured him that she would be fine.

“What about her dreams?” Charlotte asked.

“They were just pipe dreams, Mom. What matters now is restoring the glory the company once had.”

Bernard was frustrated with his daughter’s stubbornness. She was his only daughter. His only child. He cursed the wheelchair he was bound to. If he had been able-bodied, she wouldn’t be sacrificing so much.

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The Zimbas were having dinner when Lemba came down, dressed for the night.

“Son, I didn’t realize you were home. Are you going out?” Edna asked. “Come join us for dinner.”

It had been a while since she had seen him around the house since that night of the party, and it was worrying her, but she chose to let him come to her when he was ready to talk. She had liked Nacilele for him and thought of her as the ideal daughter-in-law. She had been disappointed to learn they had not been doing so well after all. She hoped they would get back together.

“There is something I must do,” he said, fastening his wristwatch. His mother told him she would leave his share in the microwave.

Easineya watched him go, amused. “I can’t believe he still gets to go about like all is well after breaking Nancy’s heart.”

“How is she?” Edmond asked.

Easineya shrugged her shoulders. “She has it worse. He really messed up this time.”

“And we are not going to interfere. That is his business,” her father said.

Easineya pushed back her chair. “I’m going over to see her. It’s the least I can do after my brother made a fool out of her and the town’s laughing stock,” she said when all she wanted was to tell her father that it was a silly rule.

“There’s some Chikanda I baked this morning,” Edna said. “Take them some, and do ask Nacilele to visit sometime.”

Later, as they prepared to go to bed, Edna sat at the dressing mirror and talked to her husband’s reflection in the mirror.

“So,” she began, “are you going to share?”

Edmond looked up from the book he was reading. “What about?”

“Where does our son disappear to every night?”

“Oh, that. He thinks he is in love. So every night, he goes out to look for his mysterious girl.”

He told her what their son had told him, and Edna was appalled. “Edmond, how can you be okay with all this?”

“I wouldn’t worry much about him if I were you. All he has to go by is her name and the memories of the night they spent together.”

“What kind of girl sleeps with a total stranger just because she had her heart broken? And our son? What was he thinking?”

Edmond tried to assure her that it was nothing, but Edna wasn’t having any of it. She was scandalized.

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©Ponda