…Apparently the girl was just doing okay by hustling for herself after studies at Evelyn Hone College but after school she met this…
By Yona Musukwa
As one grows up, lived experiences will teach you that love has many definitions.
For some, it is plenty of savanna, pizza, prawns and hungry lion. For others, it is flowers. For others, it is that paper manufactured by bo De La Rue called money. For others, it is secrets and the courage to bleed together.
On the morning of December 22, 2021, Sandra woke up in a beautiful Cape Town hotel like a Queen. She rose to the sweeping scenery of the Table Mountain meeting two oceans, a view to die for.
She woke up to a life she never imagined. Breakfast in bed with the love of her life and plenty of horizontal engineering. The new couple in town was on fire, the man was firing on all cylinders. In fact, Sandra was almost tempted to call the headquarters of FIFA in Zurich, demanding that her husband be awarded a ballon d’or in horizontal engineering.
Perfect honeymoon!
It is also during her honeymoon that Sandra discovered, to her shock, that Fanta and Fruiticana were not the only drinks available on earth, as most ba mwana shabulila think. She was now meeting, for the first time, cabernet sauvignon. With this discovery, her liver paid the price.
Soft life in motion!
Before meeting her husband, Peter, Sandra was a hustler who woke up everyday calculating survival, chasing money and a job, dreaming of a better tomorrow.
After graduation from Evelyn Hone, Sandra couldn’t go back to Petauke, where she came from. Even though she loved Petauke, a place generous with mbeba, the place was very stingy with opportunities. She decided to stay in Lusaka.
Sandra was supplying stationary to various businesses owned by Peter’s family. And then, God knocked on the heart of a son of a well-off family. When Peter showed interest in her, she fell fast and hard. She saw in Peter, stability, safety and a prosperous future.
On 19th December 2021, they had their wedding. Even the word lavish, as an adjective, spectacularly fails to aptly describe their wedding. On December 21, Peter and Sandra flew to Cape Town for their honeymoon.
Sandra felt the universe had aligned. Fate, it seemed, had finally cracked open marriage into a rich family; signed, sealed, and delivered.
Hallelujah!
Four years later, with 2 boys manufactured, Sandra is wrestling with one scary inconvenience that has emerged, and about to completely redesign her.
Three months ago, her father in law died. Life does not pause to mourn, it moves on. A week after burial, her husband arrived at their Ibex mansion, around 22:00, with something.
Even though their sons were fast asleep, he locked their bedroom, he also locked Sandra in the master bedroom. He switched off all the lights, including security lights outside. In total darkness, he then went outside and brought something in one of the bedrooms. He removed all the lights in that bedroom, locked it and went to have a chat with his wife.
He leaned closer to her, lowered his voice and started whispering. He explained to her that unknown to him and his siblings, his father had a ‘living thing’ he kept, that ensured they lived peacefully, comfortably, and prosperous forever.
When he died, he left instructions that Peter was the one to takeover from him, because that was the altar where their family blessings came from. From that day onwards, that room was out of bounds. No further details, just enough mystery.
Since, then, only Peter goes in that room at 22:00, to leave 2 trays of eggs everyday. Sandra only goes in when Peter has travelled. She only goes in, put 2 trays of eggs near the entrance and come out.
The room is kept very dark. You can’t see anything. Sandra says the room feels so heavy and dark, all she hears is something breathing very heavily, like the way obese people breath. Every time she goes in that room, she literally listens to her heartbeat argue with death.
After a month of living with this ‘thing’, she went to see her mother in law, Peter’s Mother, for some explanation. Her mother in law told her that she, just like her, just saw her late husband arrive with that ‘thing’, and went on to live with it for 36 years. Never saw it with her naked eyes but religiously put 2 trays of eggs everyday in the room. Now, it was her turn, unless she wants to destroy the family.
Sandra got even more confused and scared, not only for herself but for her two boys. Just for some perspective outside the family, she decided to make a pilgrimage to the Fossil, so that he can peep in his bag of wisdom.
Bane, this earth is hard.
Class Dismissed!