Felicia popped in the next morning. The boys had already left for school. She let herself in the house, she had her own spare key. Mpumi tried holding the struggling man through the furniture in the siting room, “Get your filthy hands off me! I am blind, not crippled!” he cried and she quickly let go.
Felicia finally found them in the sitting room. It was from Dion voice that she found them. “Dion,” Felicia went to him. She tried kissing him but he pushed her off. “Ow, well. How are you, Dion?” she sat down next to him.
-**So, I’m standing here, and what? She can’t see me? She won’t bother even greeting me, or sparing that one minute of silence so that I can greet, perhaps. Today, I’m clean and I smell nice, shouldn’t I be less disgusting to her now? I’ll give you privacy. Horrible people. You deserve each other, anyway. Ow, but why am I turning against her? She did nothing wrong to me. He did! He&
Felicia had been telling Mpumi that Dion’s family had abandoned him because he was not easy to deal with. Mpumi had received a salary of two months in advance and she found out that Felicia was leaving. Felicia only returned to drop off the grocery and pay the house-help, now she was leaving—“Felicia?” cried Dion. He must have known that she was around. She had tried to keep her noise down as she did not want him to know that she was there. Felicia made a decision; she was tiptoeing out of that house. She left without seeing Dion.Mpumi was only left puzzled. Her senses alerted her that Felicia would never be coming. In that moment she had abandoned the family. Now, Mpumi had no idea what to do next…-**How did I get myself into this situation? I must go…? **-She started hurrying, she was headed to her room to go pack her bags. She did not know what to do for the blind man, nor did she want eternal responsi
Dion had made his feelings known about the girl’s economic status and Mpumi did not like it. “Never ever sit where I sit. Your mother can’t afford this couch, so why sit on it?”She had a few words to say but she wouldn’t dare say them out loud.-**You don’t talk about my mother like that. You don’t know her. She could be a queen to some land. She could be a president in some country and probably, has much more money than you. Who am I kidding, that’s impossible…? But he doesn’t know that. He shouldn’t say things like that. Who says things like that? Ow, I forgot, madmen do. **-“You’re still here.”Just like that, the girl got off. She tramped out of the room. It was now that Dion paid attention to the stinging pain. It was moist and he concluded that the cut was bleeding. He did not do much. He knew that he needed some plasters, but then he disliked the girl. She was th
Vincent found his little brother in the living room, drawing a picture. “Dave,” he sat down with him. He took the drawing from the table and held it in his hands. “This is nice. What am I seeing here?”“You don’t know what you’re seeing and yet, you say it’s nice…?”Vincent laughed, “No, see it. I just want to hear it from your own words. Come on, tell me.”“That’s you.”“Ow?”“And you’re holding my hand. This is dad—”“Dad: you mean Dion?”“Yes, and that is Felicia.”“Dave, Felicia’s not… Felicia has left.”Dave naively answered, “Yes, for work. She’s coming back.”“Mpumi told me that she came, and she left again.”“That means she’ll come again,” the little boy was denying reality and V
Dion thought that Mpumi was in her room. The children were at school. Now, he could go into the kitchen and prepare himself something to eat. Dion was still getting used to his life as a blind man. He patted every piece of furniture in the room until he finally found the fridge. He opened it.Mpumi was not in her room. She was in the kitchen the whole time. She watched Dion from the distance, quietly.-**What’s he looking for now? Ow, a cup. Won’t he just drink from the bottle? Hurry up, already. I want to see his reaction when he realises that’s cooking oil. Why did I put oil in the fridge though?**-The man sipped. He quickly spat into his handkerchief. “Is she stupid or what?”-**Hey, watch it!**-He put the bottle of oil aside. He went for a container he pulled out of the fridge. He opened it and sniffed, he realised it was meat. He had a gag reflex and he quickly put it away.-**Is that how vegetarians reac
Someday Mpumi was amazed to find Dion not fighting her off. He was calm that day. In fact, he was listening to her. He was trying to connect with her for the first time. “You’re always sitting down and thinking… and hurting,” she was on the couch with him. While he sat formally with his feet on the ground, she had hers crossed on the couch. She cuddled a pillow between her arms.She sat facing him and starring senselessly at his pretty face. He would’ve likely been uncomfortable if he could see her staring like that, but luckily, he didn’t. His eyes stared blankly into space as he mainly focused on her voice.“I once read somewhere that the darkest part of the night is when it’s almost dawn. I don’t really know your story, but I actually see hope in your situation. Look at me, I didn’t have a home when I got here. I slept on a train. I slept in public toilets. I slept outside. I got cold. I got attacked. I go
Mpumi had been mad at Dion who shunned her the moment Felicia showed up. The night that Felicia announced that she would not be back for dinner, Mpumi decided to get back at Dion by serving him an uncooked meal. Often, Dion would only end up going to bed but his anxiety over Felicia made him very hungry. He proceeded to the kitchen.He would be making himself a good meal while everyone in the house had already gone to their rooms. The water from the kettle had boiled, Dion lifted the kettle but the handle broke. The water spilled over his arm and he led out a devasting cry that got Mpumi running into the room.“Dion! Are you okay?” she quickly pulled him to the kitchen sink where she ran cold water over his red skin.Dion tried convincing her that he was fine but she carried on with a fuss. She dragged him to the couch where she took a look at his burn. The man was easy to bruise.-**This is what I did to him?! How many people will I hurt? Not
Mpumi was convinced that she wanted to leave but when the children had returned from school, she changed her mind. She had learned to like them. They were genuinely sweet little boys. She worried what would happen to them if she left, seeing as Dion did not want them. Mpumi decided to stay for a little while, and in the meantime, think about solutions for that broken family.Since, there was no money in the house, Mpumi had to relinquish what she had made and saved up to fulfil some of the needs. She had to use her salary from the previous months to buy food. She managed to pay very little for the boys’ transport. Letters of bills started coming in. It was school fees, transport and rent. One day Mpumi received a call from home. The call came with bad news. Mpumi learnt that her mother died. The little woman broke down. She had to go back home to prepare for the funeral.……………………………&hell
“Vince, what are you doing? That’s Dion’s phone. Where’d you get it?” asked the little Dave when he saw Vincent pull it out and fiddle on it.“Where do you think I got it? From his bags, of course. I’m calling someone, anyone on this phone. If it doesn’t work, then we’ll have to sell his stuff,” answered Vincent as he carefully navigated the phone in his hands. “Gee, Dave, I saw really cool stuff in his bag. You know we could get rich.” Vincent, shortly, gazed into sky to show that he was thinking, “I have an idea. A business idea. Ow, the things we could do with that money.” And then he got back to searching through the phone. “Only one number? I wonder who this is.” The numbers were not saved. Vincent saw them on the call page. He put the phone against his ear. “Hello?”Through the phone came a voice, “Dion?”“No, it’s… It&
Chapter 150“You… You’re alive?!” Mpumi couldn’t believe her own eyes.Ray was alive this whole. This was a man she had fallen in love with many years ago. Their relationship was a tumultuous one. It was on and it was off, it was good and it was toxic. Mpumi ended up getting so obsessed with this man. He was her first love after all.She had dated some guys before him but she never quite felt anything for any other man before Ray. She couldn’t understand her feelings, she was too young.They were both at Mpumi’s motel now. Mpumi was hesitant on letting him in but in the end she did. He sat at the small round table while she remained standing. She was still so frightened.“You stabbed me and then ran.” Ray continued, at the same time piercing a strict gaze into Mpumi’s eyes, “You left me there to die. I collapsed and laid on the pool of my own blood, I asked you to help me, but you r
Chapter 149Kefentse was the happiest man in his entire friend group. Things were working out for him and in his favour. He was taking over his father’s company. This was something he worked his entire life for. To be recognized by his father meant everything to him.“And now, you must bring us a wife.”“What?” Kefentse couldn’t believe the words of his father.“My son, you have just acquired a thrown. Now you must have an heir. With this much wealth and fortune, many vultures will come out of the woodworks to try to steal from you. Besides that, people are more likely to trust a man with a family. You are at an age to ground yourself.”Kefentse was still so struck with shock. He did not see that coming.His father went and on and on about his next plans for Kefentse’s life, “Ooh, I know a few girls around your age. All from respectable families. Say, we should set dates! ...”
Chapter148The kids were trying to find out who leaked a very private piece of information about Vincent’s father.“I don’t know.” Gift argued for himself, “The only reason I was beefing with Vincent back then was because I thought he would take you away from me. Other than that, I really have no problems with that kid. I was just jealous…”“You’re not jealous anymore?”“No. Ever since you claimed me, I really had no reason to be anymore.”Sphesihle was touched to hear that. In fact, she remembered the reasons why she liked him in the first place—he used to be so sweet. She could swoon over his sweet words but that was not the time, they had serious matters at their hands.Whoever leaked that news what in the school, because the first article to be released about the matter was published in that school’s news-site. They had to find out who did that.&
Chapter 147Bowman started weeping bitterly. Mpumi was only flustered, and at loss for words.“When he woke up, he wanted hurt himself again. The doctors had to strap him down and sedate him.”Bowman tumbled to his knees. “Please…”He crawled over to Mpumi’s feet.“Please, you have to help him. You have to watch over him—at least keep him alive for me!”Bowman was actually on his knees, grovelling for her help. Mpumi once thought that she wanted him to do that, but now that he was, she couldn’t stomach it. She saw the pain in that man’s eyes. He was a single father who was terrified of losing his son. His only child.She started trying to help him up but he was far too heavy to lift. He kept rubbing his palms together, and kept crawling to her as she was backing away from him.“Please. Please, little Miss. Please help my son.”He then grabbed and held on to her knees so that she wouldn’t back away anymore. All over his face were his tears and a very certain sadness.………A little whi
Chapter 146When morning came and Mpumi had to go home, since her shift was over, she remembered to go check on Dion first. She found him on the floor, unconscious and bleeding from his head.She called for help, and all the others rushed in and took him for an emergency care. Mpumi was worried, she couldn’t sit still as she waited for the results. Bowman and his family were at the hospital too, after receiving that early morning call. They too looked worried.Mpumi did find herself exchanging glances with Bowman. She wondered what that was about. She was able to go home when the doctors confirmed that Dion was okay. She could stay up and blame herself for what happened to Dion on her watch, but she was too tired and too sleepy.Mpumi quickly, slipped into her pyjamas (nightwear), and into her sheets—DING DONG!Came a doorbell at her door. She was tired. She simply scoffed, and then buried her head under her pillow. She was determined on ignoring that vividly loud doorbell.DING DONG
Chapter 145There was silence as Mpumi was thoroughly thinking about her decision. The Hill family had asked for her help to bring Dion back home. The ball was in Mpumi’s court.She then turned to Bowman, looked at him dead in the eye, “You fired me and then I left. I left your son and your darned company, so you can have all the control you wanted. As soon as I’m gone, your son goes missing? None of you knew where he was until I came along. I came back and I found him. You should be thanking me.”Mpumi continued, “In fact, you should be begging me to help you and your little precious son.”“I am begging you, Mpumi—”“Not you, Liam. I want Mr. Bowman Hill to beg me himself.”Bowman simply scoffed. He couldn’t believe the audacity of the girl. How dare she demand him to beg?“I see that proud smirk at the corner of your mouth, Mr. Bowman Hill.” Mpumi sa
Chapter 144At school, Gift was always happy to see Sphesihle. He would always beam and brightly so around her. He didn’t care if anyone saw him with her. Gift knew that he was the most admired kid in that school. His social value did not decrease on just being seen with Sphesihle—if anything, Sphesihle’s social value was more likely increase.“I get so excited to come to school nowadays,” he said smiling at Sphesihle.They were in class, first period. They spoke in low tones so that they wouldn’t make too much noise. That was allowed. This was their Life Orientation teacher, and she allowed socialization among pupils as long as they used their ‘inside voices’—as long as they were not too loud.“I get to hang out with you again.” Gift continued, “Remember how tight we used to be? And we were such a power couple.”Meanwhile, Sphesihle couldn’t shake off the uncomfort
Chapter 143Mpumi could see a clear view of his face. His front hairs were dangling at his forehead, overgrown and almost obscuring his sight. His beard was as long and tangled in what could soon turn into locks.As she looked closer, she saw his eyes sunken in and dark circles around them. She saw his cheeks all bones and protruding.Shocked! Mpumi’s throat was almost as dry as the sand in the Saharan Desert. Her tongue had never felt so heavy as she tried saying her first words upon seeing the man’s face. On her own face was the look of sheer terror!“DION??!!”He only looked into empty space and mimed what even he couldn’t make sense of. He seemed very far and lost. Mpumi got closer to have a closer look at his eyes.“Dion?”However, he looked lifeless almost as though there was no soul living in there. Mpumi could only wonder what happened to him. How he even got to that place, in the firs
Chapter 142The nurses did not succeed at collecting the patient’s DNA. The patient in room X1. He was aggressive and wouldn’t let any of them close to him. They couldn’t even take a photo of him. This would make it even harder to identify him. They needed to find his next of kin.They nurses were with the matron in her office. They were all brainstorming ideas on a way forward. The matron only went silent. She didn’t know what else to say. She was still thinking.“I think I can help him…” Mpumi had said.They turned to her, looked at her and wondered, “How do you think you can help? Not only is he mental but he’s also dangerous.”“I’ll take my own chances, but I think I have to try to get through to him.” Mpumi could clearly see that none of those people were convinced.She had to try harder. “Look, as you know that I’ve worked at a clinic before. I a