My Sisters Keeper

68

MY SISTERS KEEPER

SIXTY EIGHT

It's been a couple of days since I spoke to Lungelo. Although he keeps calling I have been avoiding his calls. I keep listening to his voicemail though. I miss him, but the fear of finding out whatever he is involved in makes me nervous.

It's new Year's eve and I'm not sure if he is coming to get me like he promised, but I have an outfit just in case. Bontle and her friends are all over the neighborhood celebrating their distinctions. It turns out their school had a hundred percent pass rate. Impressive. Paul picked up Princess and Prince earlier. Its quiet without them, but he has promised that they will  come visit during school holidays. That alone earned him some browny points in my mums books.

I was in my room busy googling if my previous abortions will affect this pregnancy. I might be mad at Lungelo but I dont want anything to happen to this baby, and I need to make sure my body can carry this child. My fears escalate when I read that my cervix might just be thin because of the multiple abortions. And if that happens I might lose my child. I get lost in reading all the worse case scenarios I dont even hear Bontle calling me. Only when  she taps me on the shoulder do i pay attention to her.

"Are you okay?" She asks looking concerned.
"I'm okay. Just tired. What's wrong?"
"Bab'Lungelo is here." Oh, he came.
"Okay, I'm coming." She leaves. I get up and fix myself then head to the lounge. I find him sitting going through something on his phone with a glass of juice in front of him.

"Hi!" He looks up when he hears my voice and puts the phone away.
"Hi. I'm sorry." This isn't the time for this. I take a seat next to him. "I came to get you."
"Okay." Bontle comes in with a plate of muffins and places them on the coffee table. She takes the statement of results and places it next to the muffins. Lungelo picks it up and looks at it. A smile forms on his face.
"You owe me a phone." Bontle says matter of factly. Lungelo has a huge grin on his face.
"Impressive. Well done." He gets up to hug her then sits back down.
"Thank you." Bontle says. She takes out her phone and shows him the phone she wants. "That's the one I want." He looks at the phone then looks at her.

"Are you sure?"
"Yep, it's the iPhone 8 plus."
"Okay." He reaches behind him and comes back with a box in a spar plastic bag. "I guess I'll have to take this one back." He takes the box out of the plastic bag and it's an iphone 11 pro. She starts screaming and all I can do is close my ears.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you." She keeps saying and wiping her tears. My babygirl is happy. And that makes me happy.
"I thought you said you wanted the iPhone 8 plus?"
"Nah, this one will do. It's even better. Thank you." She hugs him again.

I decide to take a bath while Bontle and Lungelo are busy setting up her new phone. When I'm done I lotion and put on a black A -line dress with some block heels since I'm not even sure where we're going. I brush my weave and wear a bit of make up then head out. My mom is not back from her friends so I'll just call her. We say our goodbyes to Bontle and leave. We drive for about an hour then he parks the car on the side of the road and looks at me.

"Hi!" I look at him confused.
"Why did you stop?"
"We need to talk."
"We can talk at the house. That's where we're going right?"
"Yeah, but I want us to talk before we get home. I'm sorry about what happened that day."
"Leaving me in your house or having enough guns for an army in your house?"
"Our house. Look Nomonde I'm old." Really? He's barely forty years old. "I have a past. A not so clean past. And sometimes that past trickles into my present."
"Okay mahatma Gandhi get to the point." He laughs. I missed his laugh.
"What I'm trying to say is I am part of a cartel." He says staring at me. He looks anxious, almost afraid.
"Like a gang?"
"Sort of, just a lot more sophisticated and has more reach."
"What does that mean?"
"I've worked with the Biyela's since I was in varsity."
"Biyela's as in Philani Biyela?"
"Yes, but I started working with his father and when Philani took over the cartel I worked with him too. I cant tell you everything that we do but......"
"Because it's illegal?"
"Mostly." He goes on to tell me about his other life as the Shadow Assassin. In my opinion that's just a fancy word for inkabi. Who knew I'd get out of prison and marry a criminal. But for some strange reason nothing in me is screaming for me to run.