Pumulo was working on the laptop in his office when Nacilele entered. She wore a pretty African print business suit.
“Cousin,” she began, a smile on her face. She pulled the chair and sat. “I heard a rumour down the corridor that you got married.”
“Nasi,” he said simply.
“So the rumours are true? She is a handful. True or false?”
“I see the company grapevine is still pretty active.”
“Well, what is she like?”
Pumulo chuckled as he typed away on the laptop. “Let me not pre-empt anything. You will meet her soon enough.”
“Fair enough. So I heard Aunt Sibeso say that my new mulamu is not the only contender.”
Pumulo closed the file before him and heaved. “I married the wrong girl. I never thought I would ever be living a scene ripped out of a telenovela.”
“What happened? You don’t just love one girl today and end up marrying another the next day.”
“It was either her or lose the company.”
“Are you saying your wife is the new saviour of the family business?”
He nodded and gave his wedding band a contemplative gaze. “IEO Bank turned down our loan request. Over two thousand of the workforce was at risk of losing their jobs. Nsemiwe had the money. She dangled the juicy carrot to Mom. It was an offer she could not afford to pass.”
Nacilele folded her arms over her chest. “So my new mulamu is going to be a real bitch, huh?”
Pumulo chuckled as he opened up the file and continued with his work. They had no idea what they were up for. They had signed the deal with the devil. It was about time they all had a taste of Nsemiwe’s craziness.
🕸🕸🕸
“Teli,” Edna called out to the young gardener who mixed cement in the wheelbarrow. She had just come back from a church meeting and was excited to show Teli what she had found.
“Mrs. Zimba.”
“Come. Come and see,” she said and headed to the wooden workbench on the veranda. Teliwe, dressed in a blue overall and cap, walked over to her. “I found these near the mall. Ain’t they lovely?”
Teliwe stared into the box with nearly three dozen seedlings of hyacinths. A memory came to her mind. A bitter and painful memory she didn’t want to think about.
It was her seventh birthday. She had sat on the bench at the orphanage with her mother. “Teliwe, what do you think? Ain’t they lovely?” her mother had asked. She had ten-plus plants in a box. She had touched the young seedlings and looked up at her. “Do you like them?”
Young Teliwe had nodded enthusiastically at her question. That seemed to please her mother, who smiled back at her and told her she would have to take care of the young seedlings till they bloomed. If she watered them every day, they would bloom fast, and she would be back by then. That was a good twelve years ago. She had never returned.
“Well?” Edna queried, bringing her back to reality.
“Did you want me to plant them somewhere?”
“I thought they would look lovely next to the carnations. They are purple hyacinths.”
Teliwe took the box and headed out to where she had planted the white carnations. Edna followed her.
“I noticed you don’t have hyacinths in your garden. Next time I pass by the vendor, I will get you some.”
“Oh. Thank you. That is nice of you. But you don’t have to,” she said quietly. The plants brought back bad memories. It was the reason she didn’t stock and plant them in her garden.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” Edna said as she headed back in. “Let me know if you need anything else.”
Teliwe just sighed. There was nothing she could do if the elderly woman wanted to buy the plants for her. She figured it was time she came to terms with her past as well. And stocking the hyacinths among her products would be a good start.
🕸🕸🕸
“Please say yes,” Edna said three days later to Teliwe as they walked to her car. She had dragged the girl away from work and taken her shopping. Edna opened the back of her car and placed the bags there.
“Oh, I don’t know, Mrs. Zimba.”
“Please, Teli.”
“Okay, but I’m not promising anything…”
Edna clasped her hands together joyfully. “I know you won’t disappoint me.”
Edna grabbed her by the hand after locking the car and headed back to the mall. They walked into a gift shop. Edna liked Teliwe and planned to set her up on a date with her son. His upcoming birthday at the country club seemed like a good start.
“I don’t know what I should be getting him.”
Edna looked around at the various gifts. “Something nice and simple will do,” she said as she stopped in front of men’s wristwatches. “This. Get this. It’s on me.”
“Oh, Mrs. Zimba. But that is too much,” she said as she looked at the price tag on the monogram wooden watch. She told her she would pay for it herself, but Edna wouldn’t hear of it.
They bought the watch and a set of grill tools. Edna was paying at the reception when someone roughly pulled Teliwe around to face them.
“What the hell?”
Nsemiwe glared at her and slapped her across the face.
Teliwe held her burning cheek in shock. Nsemiwe lifted her hand to slap her again, but Edna blocked the slap and slapped her instead.
“What is wrong with you?” Edna asked, standing between the two young ladies as Nsemiwe tried to reach for Teliwe.
“And who are you? Are you her mother? Do you even know what this foolish girl did?”
“Teli, who is this woman?”
“Some mental patient who escaped from the psychiatric ward,” she said and reached for their bags to leave. Nsemiwe pulled her back. The commotion caught the attention of curious shoppers.
“You are not going anywhere until I’m done with you, little slut.”
“What did you just call me?” Teliwe asked in disbelief.
“A slut. A whore. A homewrecker…”
“Are you seriously calling me a slut—you, who had to pay a man to marry you?”
Nsemiwe glared at her. It was not what she had expected when she had planned to ambush her in the mall. She had her people following her every move. She looked about her, blinking her eyes as the onlookers murmured among themselves.
“Whatever the case, he is my husband. I will not have the two of you meet up in secret and ruin the future of my child. I am the wife now. You are nothing but a mistress!”
“Then tether your husband, if you are that insecure,” Teliwe said calmly. “Don’t drag me into your marital drama.”
“Mistress!”
“Get a life, Nsemiwe. And let this be the last time we meet like this, or that you ever lay your hands on me,” she said, grabbed the bags, and walked out.
Edna clucked her tongue at the young woman who was left in the mess she had created.
🕸🕸🕸
Holding an ice pack to her swollen cheek, Teliwe stared outside the moving vehicle as it poured steadily. It seemed each time she felt aggrieved, the heavens would open up and help her express the pain in her heart.
Even though she had apologized for the ugly scene earlier, Teliwe didn’t know how to face her clients anymore. First, it was Mr. Zimba who had to witness such an unfortunate scene, and now it was his wife. What would they think of her? If Nsemiwe kept up with her antics of ambushing her at every turn, she would eventually affect her business, and she could not afford that.
Edna, on the other hand, was feeling guilty. She looked over at her now and then. She had been the one who had dragged the girl to the mall. If they had left soon after buying what she needed and had not insisted on dragging the girl to the gift shop, then they wouldn’t have had the misfortune of running into the crazy wife of her ex.
“Teliwe, I’m sorry. If we had stayed home as you had insisted, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“It’s not your fault. Don’t worry about it,” she said.
“Are you okay?”
Teliwe didn’t understand why Nsemiwe had to pester her and make her look like the mistress when she had been the one to come between the two of them. She had bowed out with as much dignity as she could. Not once, no matter how her heart ached, had she called Pumulo or gone to seek him out. But the way Nsemiwe said it, she made it seem like she was still hung up on the man.
Sighing, she turned to assure Mrs. Zimba that she was doing just fine when the car parked next to them at the traffic lights caught her attention.
“Mother?” she whispered.
“Did you say something?”
Teliwe rolled down the window and stared at the chic woman who sat in the driver’s seat of the golden Honda Amaze. “Mum,” she said a little louder. She unlocked the car door and pushed it open. She jumped out of the car and went to the Honda Amaze.
“Teliwe! Teli!” Edna called back in panic.
Teliwe knocked on the window of the golden Honda Amaze. “Mother? Mother, Mum!”
The woman in the driver’s seat turned and looked at her in recognition and let out a little gasp. The man beside her said something to her. She turned her head to him, then back at the girl who stood in the rain.
“Teli!” Edna yelled.
“Mother, you came back. Mom, open the door,” Teli said, yanking on the locked door. “Mom.”
The traffic lights changed. The golden Honda Amaze began to move. Teliwe stared in shock. “Mom, open the door, Mom!!” She yanked harder on the door. Edna continued to call her as the car took a left turn. The golden Honda Amaze turned onto the highway and drove away.
She stood in the middle of the road, drenched, disbelief written all over her face. The cars honked at her. Edna parked her car and ran over to the girl as the rains intensified.
🕸🕸🕸
Chonta and Edmond found Edna in Teli’s chalet, pacing and wearing out the floor with worry.
“Edna, where is Teli?” Chonta asked.
“I don’t know, mulamu. I lost her. I have searched everywhere, but I can’t find her.”
Edmond hugged his wife. “We will find her. Don’t worry. You should change. You are soaking wet.”
“Where could she be? She was being unreasonable. She just ran away from me in the middle of the road.”
“What happened?” Chonta asked, and Edna narrated the incident at the mall, then on the road at the traffic lights. Chonta gave her cousin’s wife an incredulous look.
“Are you sure? Could it be her after all these years?”
“If that woman was her mother and the Kaluba you speak of, then yes.”
Chonta grabbed a chair and sat, her legs too weak to support her.
“Chonta, what is it? Why are you like this? What’s going on?”
“Oh, cousin,” she said with tears in her eyes. “I hope she is not the one and Teliwe was mistaken.”
Edna shook her head. “No, I think she is the one. She registered recognition for all the five seconds she looked at Teli.”
“I have to find my girl,” she said and stood up. “She can’t be alone at a time like this.”
“But where will you start from?”
Chonta turned to look at one of the pictures on the table. A young Teliwe stood smiling with a group of other kids, with four nuns behind them. The tears she had been holding at bay rolled down. She couldn’t believe that Kaluba had done it again.
Some women surely did not deserve to be mothers.
🕸🕸🕸
“Nsemiwe!!” Pumulo yelled out her name as he walked into the Akokwa residence. “Nsemiwe!!”
Sibeso came out of the kitchen. Next to her was an elegant-looking woman in her forties, Mrs. Nyambe, Nacilele’s mother.
“Son?” Sibeso called as he headed upstairs, still yelling out his wife’s name. He came down and found her at the bottom of the stairs. “What is wrong?”
“Where is she?”
“She left with you in the morning and hasn’t been back yet. What is going on?”
Pumulo kicked the sofa and growled. “You tell her to leave Teliwe alone. You hear?”
“Te… Te… Teli?” she said the name slowly, her hand on her chest. She looked at her son’s pained face and swallowed hard. She had done this to her son. She reached out to touch his face. He stepped away. His dark brown eyes stormy. “Pumulo…”
“I did what you both wanted. What more does she want from me? Tell her to leave Teli alone, or I won’t be responsible for my actions,” he said and stormed out.
Aunt Chonta had called him, reprimanding him for his wife’s appalling behaviour. She had told him to keep her in check, or she would deal with her.
Sibeso watched him go, at a loss for words.
“Sibeso? What is going on? Your son is newlywed and already having side chick problems in his new marriage?” her sister-in-law Inonge asked as she whisked eggs in a bowl. She shook her head and headed back to the kitchen.
“Of course not,” she murmured. “My son is not like that.”
INKED IMAGINATION
