Chapter 4 The grand entrance

Bonga, Sbonga:

I tossed and turned as my coffin went down, my dead body laying inside. I was there with them though, watching on at everyone's reaction to my departure.

Kiara was standing near the coffin, held by Ma, who was also trying to be strong for everyone, as always. I could see from how her tears would just gush out of her eyes whilst she wasn't even aware of herself crying. She was holding onto Kiara, who looked a lot older, seventeen, l reckon, who wanted to follow after me. She was laying flat on the soil, her light skin red from all the crying, her cute nose pink, wailing at the sight in front of her.

I looked past the crowds at Abigail, who was with her mother and sister at the back of the crowd. The three musketeers. Not that l was shocked, not that l expected much, but she was looking down at some documentation with her mother, smiling to herself as she kept on pointing at a certain something on the paper. She was showing that to her mom, who's eyes were so focused on the encryption on the pages, but something else caught my attention. A woman, a pregnant woman.

She shed silent tears, a smaller version of me on her one side, about Kiara's age at present, who quite didn't understand what was going on. He kept calling the woman, who was now brushing her big belly, "mommy, mommy, where's daddy?" She would brush on his tiny hand and hush him. It was like it broke her heart because she kept on brushing on the big belly, telling herself, in a way, that it would be okay.

Sizwe wasn't there. A beautiful woman, with clear, dark tan skin was though. She was standing alongside someone l felt l knew but couldn't recognize his face. My mom wasn't here, too. Quite a lot of the people l worked with were also here. I was at my own funeral.

It was until I felt stings of a cold substance on my back that l woke up. That wasn't me waking up actually, I jumped out of bed and hurt myself a little.

"Hold on a bit..." retrieving the gadget from the ear. "Edward! Are you out of your damn mind?! Kairo is asleep and you are screaming your lungs out like a mad man in your sleep! What kind of sick behavior is that?!"

I quitened, like a small baby.

"Right now l can't even hear what this person's saying because of your loud noise! What's that? I'm asking you a simple question, what's that?!"

"Look Abi l..."

"Shut the hell up! Take that little brat of yours and evacuate! I want you nowhere near my house in the next 6 or so hours. I'm going to be having a serious event here, and l don't even wanna see any of you here, not even your smell."

Great.

"Where are we..."

She was about to leave. Like thunder, already boiling, she turned on her footsteps and threw a deadly stare in my direction. I swallowed sweet nothing.

"What was that?" It came out as a whisper.

She threw the jug she was holding across the room and before she could charge towards me, I interrupted.

"Nothing. That was me thanking you for your philanthropic acts."

She clicked her tongue and placed her phone on her ear.

"As I was saying..."

She charged out of the room.

I sat on the bed. I was in pain. In serious pain. It made me ashamed to know l was in pain, but l was. It took a while before l could admit that, and when l did, dragging myself to the doctor was the only option l had. Not that there was anything else l could do. Now it was worse. I couldn't even walk properly. Now l was faced with another predicament. I had nowhere to go.

I took my phone from the dressing table and placed it on speed dial. My heart warmed up when l heard that feminine voice.

"Mama..."

I could hear her smiling. She loved to smile this woman, that was one thing l so badly adore about her. She hid her pain with a big smile.

"Hi baby, how are you this morning?"

"Homesick."

She mocked me, a bit. It was a beautiful ridicule though. I enjoyed it. She said:

"You are always home Bonga. The only thing you want to finish in our house is our food but it's fine because l enjoy feeding you, a lot."

I smiled.

"No ma thing is..."

"No excuses. Come home baby, come with Kiki please."

"Did l hear someone say Kiki?" That was my dad in the background. I chucked.

"Yes honey, Bonga's coming over so I'm suggesting he comes home with her."

"Don't come here if she's not here." –Dad.

"Actually, you guys love your grandchild more than you do your own son, neh?"

"YES!"

"Wow I feel so used. And unloved."

"You know we love you. Let me prepare a little something for you guys,"–Mom.

"See you in a few. Love you!"

I cut the call. I was going home. At least I was cared... let me not say much. People will end up hearing our thoughts. I limped to Kiara's room. Her mother was downstairs, shouting her lungs out in her deep, husky voice, conversing with someone over the phone. Kiara was still asleep, so l went over to her wardrobe to grab a few items for the trip. Until suddenly...

"Are we going to Gogo's house?"

She was already jumping up and down on the bed.

"Kiara you'll finish those springs on your bed, do you want to sleep in a boat?"

She laughed, and settled down. How does a person wake up and feel so energetic? Yho.

"Morning baby, come give daddy some sugar."

She crawled to me and sat on my lap.

"Ouch baby not so much."

"Does it still hurt?"

"Yeah, but not so much. How did you sleep?"

"I had a really, nice dream dada you were there, Gogo and Mkhulu were there, even Lesego was there."

"Yes..."

"We were at Lesotho, are we going to go to Lesotho again daddy?"

I nodded and kissed her nose.

"You wanna go to Lesotho again?"

She nodded.

"With Lesego?"

"Yes daddy her mother will say yes if you ask her."

"I'm afraid of her mom she beat you up."

I laughed.

"She didn't. l was the one who punched her on the face. Look, this is what l did..."

She got off my lap and went to kick and punch on her pillow. I laughed.

"Go take a quick bath so we can go, my angel."

"To Gogo's house?"

I nodded.

"MAKE IT SNAPPY DARWIN YOU ARE WASTING MY TIME!" Abigail banged on the door.

Kiara quickly rushed to the bathroom, and took off her clothes whilst l ran a bath for her. I bathed her quick, and she put on her clothes. She even ate her breakfast in my room while l showered. We were done preparing in the next twenty minutes or so.

"Leave the car, and why is your walk suddenly so slunted? Is it the girls you go around sleeping with without any protection? Make it snappy, chop chop!"

We were in the kitchen exiting when she said that. She's crazy, how are we going to get home?

We made our way out to the garage, and drove out of the yard. We shall see what was to happen next.

I was home in the next hour. We lived quite far from home, in Dersely, and home, home was Ivory Park, where the heart is. I parked the car outside and my parents came to welcome us.

"Why are you limping like that?"–Dad.

He was standing next to his wife at the gate.

"Gogo!" Kiara rushed to her granny's open arms. She spun her around. This woman!

"Gogo, Abigail said daddy sleeps with girls without protective that's why dada is limping."

Ma stared at me.

"Protective?" She laughed.

I did too.

"Yes, that's what she said."

"The only girls she was referring to was Kiki and herself, and daddy is very protective of her girls."

Kiki smiled.

"Let's go have something to eat baby, huh?"

She got to her feet as she was placed on the ground and rushed inside the house with her granny chasing after her, a bubble of laughter on her face.

"Son..."

"Pops..."

We shared a brief hug as we walked inside the yard. We made our way to the garage. As always, two camping chairs with a crate in the middle and a bottle of Coke was situated in the middle. Two mugs were situated next to the bottle.

"You look drained."

I sighed.

"Honey..." Ma's sweet voice called out.

"Ma'Mvelase..."

"The food's ready, my love. Please come with my big baby so he can give his momma some sugar."

She laughed. I smiled.

"Ma, I'm old now."

"You still are my baby."

We carried the Coke to the house. Kiara was nowhere near sight by the time we had an early lunch in the dining room. Apparently she had said she was going to play house at Lesego's house. No wonder she wanted us to depart with her.

I shared brief conversations with my parents whilst we ate, where my mom bullied me, of course, however it was whilst we were halfway through our meal when my dad asked, "What's the matter son? What's going on with you? With your life?"

I sighed, and scratched my head.

"Let's rather not talk about Abigail."

"Sibongakonke what was that which Kiki was saying?"

"Ma let's not go there. Every family has its own quarrels, that was ours."

Mom shook her head.

"You can't have such quarrels every single day, Gregory. It can't be that every time you guys come to visit Kiara mentions such disturbing news. Tell me, are you happy in your marriage?"–Pops.

"I am father l don't know how many times l should say that! I can't always have such quarrels with you every time we meet and it's always about my wife! Everything's fine, Kiara was just being overly dramatic."

"You NEVER speak to me like that Gregory, never! I don't care how old you think you are but you must never, ever speak to me like I'm your age mate. Never!"

Mom cleaned up the plates. I sighed.

"I'm sorry. Let's not fight about this, please."

"Why are you limping like that?"

"I don't know, Pops and this thing is quite overwhelming. I had a dream this morning. I was at my funeral."

My parents both gasped in shock. Mom quickly came to the dining room. I shared my dream with them. Every detail of it, excluding what Abigail and her crew were doing though.

"When last did you go to church?" Was my mom's first question after l narrated what happened. "Sometimes, funerals represent weddings, but this one is scary. You can't be overlooking your own funeral."

"I know right, my love."–Pops.

"This is more the reason why we should go to church, Babazi."–Ma.

I sighed.

"Come home on Sunday so we can go to church Bonga. This is serious."

I nodded, and continued.

"So, I went to the doctor on Friday."

"For the limping?"–Ma.

"Yes. The results are to be sent on Monday. The doctor sent me a message on my way here. I'll hear of the results on Monday."

"That's better."

"My only problem is, I'm going to work on Monday."

"Talk to Sizwe. Arrange with him, this is important."

Meanwhile, at his house, all hands were on deck. The house was fully packed with so many strange faces, some were eating in the dining hall, some laying on the beds, some sniffing the walls... a lot was going on. It was a huge festival. The traditional beer was ripe, all prepared too. The ancestors had a lick at it too, as some had spilled on the floor.

A bus, filled with so many people had arrived at Abigail's house and it was these people that were all over the house. Her mother, Teresa as well as her younger sister were part of the crew.

"You know it needs blood. Blood needs to be spilled montly, weekly, daily, hourly, however you wish, but it will all depend on its stay here in the house. It gets more frequent once it gets bigger, stronger, and the riches start expanding."

She was a nervous wreck. They've never seen her sweat so much.

"Are you sure this is what you want to see happening? The sun is setting, the moon will soon appear. Do you want to go ahead with this?" One of the elders in the room was concerned. They were in the back cottage, the one Abigail kept hidden behind the huge trees and weeds. Red and black candles, alternating with each other, were placed in the room. She was in a black gown, her fingernails painted black, with a black coffin in the middle of the room. The pot was already bellowing with thick, black smoke. It was now or never. The red, bloodied moon begun to descend on the sky. She would never forget this day. The 18th of July, 18:05.

The witches took off their clothes as they placed her inside the coffin. They closed her on the inside, and covered the coffin with black soot. She heard them sing, mix things, and just then, the ground below them begun to shake. It shook several times, and she knew, it was done. The beast was finally here. IT HAD ARRIVED. IT WAS HER RESPONSIBILITY NOW.