Chapter 10- Why is it so difficult?

‘What?’ , is the only sensible thing she can think to say. She is not sure whether she should stay and converse more with the girl or just walk away from the drama and hope she doesn’t get hit from the back. At the end of a few seconds, Kupakwashe decides she would rather not engage. She steps aside, waiting for a reaction.

‘Girl, I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
Sensing no threat of an immediate fight, she walks off, praying silently that the tall girl does not follow her. She makes it to the car without further event.

Kupakwashe keeps this incident to herself until a few days later. Her dad is not home yet, they are watching tv with her mother and they can hear Tadiwa’s thin laughter down the hallway where he’s playing with the house help.

‘Mhama what did you do with that erm marijuana’, she wishes she didn’t have to say the word, her knowledge of it might make her look guilty, she thinks.

‘Flashed it down the toilet’, Tanya does not even raise her eyes in answering.
‘Oh, thought you had kept it’.
The disappointment is not missed by Tanya, she still doesn’t look up.

‘Why?’
‘Well, the guys who put the packet in my bag now want it back’, she says, almost without concern.
‘What do you mean Kupa?’, Tanya asks, harshly. Her eyes are fixed on the shrinking teenager.
‘I…I saw them on Sunday, she asked me what I had done with it,’ she is so nervous, the skill for speech threatens to leave her.

‘Who is she?’, seeing how much she has frightened her daughter, Tanya tries to be gentle.
‘I don’t even know her name, I have seen her at school.’
Tanya lets out a sigh, ‘I want to talk to…’
‘No!’

They are both startled by Kupa’s reaction.
‘She will hate me if you do that mhamha. The whole school will bully me.’
‘You are worried about that when someone planted an illegal drug in your bag Kupa? Can you hear yourself? You think this is about likes? Do you think she liked you in the first place?’

Tanya is now breathing heavy, eyes opened as wide as they can open. She is frustrated that Kupa cannot see she is trying to help.
Kupa only stares back, a flicker of dislike in her eyes.

‘I will come to your school and talk to your teachers and the girl! That’s all there is to it’. The finality of this decision is not missed by Kupa.
She sits on the couch , her focus on the colorful screen for a few minutes before she gets up.
In her room, she uses her pillow to muffle her crying.

~~~

‘Hello.’
‘Hi, babe. Are you at the office?’
‘Yes, why?’

‘I am taking your dad for his doctor’s appointment. Do you want to come with?.
‘Oh’, Tanya smiles, Dylan’s charm and kindness is not lost on her. She usually hires a taxi for the monthly appointments.

‘I’m tied up but thank you for taking them Dee.’
‘Alright babe, I will see you later. I love you.’
‘I love you, bye.’

She stares outside her window absent mindedly, smiling. A part of her still waits for the day Dylan takes his revenge on her.

Tanya is fretful, as if she has never hosted her parents until today. Dylan had called a few hours earlier letting her know the doctor had delayed. He thought it was more sensible to have them eat at their house before he could drive them home.

In the 7 months that Tanya’s family had grown by 2, her parents had not visited. She feels protective over her children as she checks
to make sure Rudo is doing all the right things. She will not allow her mother to make her kids feel uncomfortable in their own house.

She is standing by the door when she hears the crunching of the gravel beneath the car tires as Dylan drives in. She does not move until the car stops in the driveway. Dylan is quick out of the car to help her dad get off.

She watches as her father winces from pain as soon as each foot hits the ground, he of course, would never admit to the pain. She walks towards him, taking his hand to support his weight.

‘Hello Baba, how are you?’
‘I’m well Mai Tembo, thanks to mkwasha for a comfortable ride. Those taxis have rough drivers at times.’

Tanya is very aware of how her dad will do anything to divert the attention from his illness. She lets it go.
She looks back, expecting to see her mother behind them. She notices Dylan leaning in on her side of the back seat. Her mother is planted, firmly on the seat. Tanya concentrates to hear what her mother is saying, arms folded and resting on the top of her stomach.

‘Haaa its alright mkwasha, I don’t need to get in. Just bring my food , I will eat in here…’