33

TEARS OF A ROYAL BLOOD

33

The following day, Phazama really arrived at the royal house and was surprised to see Solwazi and Thembeka.

Solwazi:You’re back?

He asked him as he just entered the room.

Phazama:Yes. I want to apologize first for the role I played in all of this. I’m sorry. I won’t blame my father because I knew I had to get help but I didn’t. I want to help.

Solwazi looked at him and sighed. He decided to give him a leap of faith. Everyone deserves a second chance, and he did tell him Londi’s name.

Solwazi:Are you still a seer?

Phazama:Yes.

Solwazi:Okay, Mkhonto is sick. I don’t know what’s wrong with him. He speaks like a person who’s dying. He asked me to bring his wife and children here.

Phazama swallowed and looked down. Mkhonto’s fate was hanging on the balance

He went to the bedroom where he was, and he did look like someone who was dying.

Phazama:Mkhonto….

Mkhonto lifted up his eyes and looked at Phazama faintly.

This must be the work of Madida. That man just won’t give up.

Mkhonto:My… wi…fe

Phazama:Solwazi will bring them. Hold on.

He took out his herbs from his bag and made him chew on them.

Phazama:I will give you more herbs, I just have to collect them. We will fight this. Stay strong.

He walked out and went to Solwazi.

Phazama:It’s really bad.

Solwazi:Very. I’m scared. I don’t want to lose my brother, we just lost our father. I know he did some bad things and turned selfish but Madida partly influenced that. Mkhonto is a good guy, he has a wife and children. Whom will he leave them with?

Phazama:Madida is trying to get him to give up so he could come out again, but Mkhonto is fighting. We just don’t know how much longer he can hold on. But I will do every thing in my power.

Solwazi nodded.

Phazama:I need to light some incense around him and that throne chair. I’ll be back.

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Zizipho finally gets out of the bed and goes to the bathroom to pee. She washes her hands when she was done and goes back to her room. She found her mother sitting on her bed.

Zizipho:I want to be alone.

Sindiswa:I want to talk.

Zizipho:About what?

Sindiswa:Everything that is happening.

She sat down and removed the jersey she was wearing.

Zizipho:I just don’t understand why you keep on lying to me mom. Do you have any idea how much this is breaking me? I just found out that the man who raised me is not my father, and you tell me that my biological father is dead. Days later I find out that he’s not even dead and you know he’s alive but you didn’t tell me anything. If Bhuti Mkhonto didn’t say I’m not even a Zondo, that means you wouldn’t have bothered to tell me about my true identity.

Sindiswa:I’m sorry. I thought I was protecting you.

Zizipho:Protecting me with lies? When were you going to tell me?..

Sindiswa:I was going to tell you.

Zizipho:Please get out of my room, right now I’m holding myself because I know my tongue can be sharp. I respect you as my mother.

Sindiswa:I’m not going anywhere. I will tell you everything. Sipho is alive, yes I knew that. He disappeared when I was still pregnant with you. Qhawe found out that I was cheating on him and confronted me, I couldn’t deny because he had proof. He found out I was pregnant and he was so mad and angry, understandably so. He pushed me to tell him the man I was cheating with, I told him that it was Sipho. He hunted him down and assaulted him pretty bad, Sipho spent days in the hospital nursing his wounds. Qhawe didn’t want the news of my infidelity getting out, he said he would be embarrassed to the whole kingdom. So we agreed that we would never speak of it, and that we would say the baby is his. But he needed to be sure that Sipho won’t ever be in our lives. So he paid him money and threatened him to disappear, he was a king and Sipho was nothing, so he took the money and ran. Sipho thinks that I miscarried, Qhawe told him that. He tried to make contact with me years later from the incident but Qhawe found out and he almost had him killed, but I talked with Sipho and told him to leave me alone. He thinks you’re gone, that you died in my womb. After that I never spoke with him again, I don’t know where he lives or how he’s doing.

Zizipho:Wow.

She said looking at her mother.

Zizipho:God help me that I don’t make mistakes that would be a pain to my children when I’m a mother.

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In the Eastern Cape, a man walks out of his car and takes his briefcase. He heads inside his house. His grandchildren run to him and he picks them up one by one.

He looks at his wife in the kitchen and smiles. He goes to her and hugs her from the back…

“There are kids here”she says to him.

“I’m just hugging my wife. Is that wrong?”he replies back.

She smiles and turns around to give him a kiss on the cheek..

“How was your day? There rascals still troubling you?” he asks.

“It was fine. They are trouble baba, Nozipho must come back from KZN ngeke.” she says shaking her head while laughing.

“They are our grandchildren”he says.

He goes to the bedroom and puts his briefcase down. Coming back home to a full house is something that always boost his self-esteem. He’s proud of the family he has made. His wife is the amazing thing to ever happen to him. He has four children; Nozipho is the first born and she is 21, she has two children(twins) . The second born are twins and they are 17, the youngest is 14.

He takes off his blazer so he can take a shower.

He opens the closet and hangs it.

He reaches inside the pocket of his other jacket and comes back with an envelope.

He sits on the bed and opens it.

A sonar scan. Dated 22 February 2000.

He can’t help but drop a tear. It’s the only thing he has of his lost daughter. He hopes she’s resting in peace.

His wife comes into the room and sees the scan in his hands.

She holds his hands.

“I’m sorry”that’s the only thing she could say. His daughter’s topic was insensitive and she had to be patient and kind.

“She would be 23 years this year. Maybe she would have looked like me” he points out.

His wife comforts him like she always do. She wishes he could get some sort of closure at least, because his heart hasn’t accepted the loss.

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Phazama was on his hut and settling in. He performed a quick cleansing around the whole house.

He stops what he was doing when he senses an unfamiliar presence in the room.

Phazama:Who are you? Show yourself.

The door closes and he hears a loud voice laughing.

He swallows and tries to bend down to get his thing but a force throws him to the wall. He winces and cries in pain.

“Phazama Phazama Phazama”the voice calls him three times.

He looks up and sees nothing. He drags his body to the corner of the room and takes out a powder which he blows into the air, and he finally sees him! Seeing ghosts is one part of being a seer that he will never get used to.

Phazama:What are you doing here?

“I’m here to warn you. Stay away from this. It doesn’t concern you”

Phazama:I won’t do that. You are just using him because he has a good heart, you know you will never allow him to have any union with your daughter. You are influencing whatever it is that is happening between them so they think they love each other. After everything he has done for you, you want to discard him like this!?

“He’s a Zondo! They stole from us”

Phazama:But he never stole anything. You know how pure his heart is. He doesn’t have any hidden agendas. He is willingly helping because that’s how he is.

“It’s the least he could do after what his family did to my family”

Phazama:Just so you know, Madida is your enemy. He’s the one who started all of this.

“Sins of the parents fall to the hands of children”

Phazama sighed and shook his head.

Phazama:You are no different from Madida if you do this.

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After speaking with Zizipho, she went to her room and she is looking at Sipho’s picture.

Sindiswa:I failed you. I lied to you. You will be so disappointed when you find out. I’m sorry. I love you.

She hugs the picture and cries.

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To be continued…