Chapter 4 III

Terrence parked his car outside Mr Sithole's house and entered. It was still eight thirty in the morning, and he still had an hour to spare before he got to work.

Mr Sithole's daughter, Ida was sweeping the yard, gathering the weeds on the ground when she heard the gate opening. She had leaned forward to allow her hands to join the concoction of weeds and leaves together, but raised her head to see who was entering and why this person had pushed the gate so hard that it made a sound like that of friction between two steel metal sheets. She dropped the broom in awe upon seeing Terrence, standing up and stepping on to the mixture she had spent almost an hour trying to get to be sparkling clean, sending it all over the place and almost tripping on herself as she moved forward, surprised to see this creature in front of her.

"Take it easy sweets," Terrence chortled and smiled, opening his arms wide. Ida came rushing to hug him, laying her head on his chest and consuming his intoxicating smell. She let go of him and stepped back to examine him.

"Long time no see," she hit his chest playfully, smiling widely yet envying how good he looked in his black skinny jeans that tightened his rickets, drawing and showing the shape of his thighs, which looked as though they were as hard as a bone. How much she wished her hands could travel on them.

He had put on black biker boots, a black short-sleeved t-shirt with the words: Smith Deliveries in bold italics running horizontally on his chest and a white baseball cap. She held her small waist, grasping and tying the blanket she had wrapped on her figure tightly as it was loosening.

"What a small world we live in. I thought l would never get to see you again and assumed that you've probably been consumed by comfort of Mamelodi. That place_" here he whistled as though remembering something from a long time ago. "Is so lit with tons of fun and... " Terrence spoke his mind after seeing how well taken care of Ida looked especially after he hadn't seen her for more than a decade, pausing and examining her clear skin.

"Not yet. I'm still pushing, trying to make ends meet. I moved to Hillberry not so long ago, but you know how life gets," she replied, forcing herself to smile.

"Found a richer man?" he asked, trying not to sound insensitive but the words had already been spoken."I meant to say..."

She interrupted him.

"I found a better job. I'm not about that life anymore," her face got emotionless as she tried by all means not to break down, but got distracted from her own thoughts when she noticed the ring on his finger.

"When did you get married?" she asked.

"Shortly after you left me for that old man," he looked at her and she bowed her head, ashamed of her actions. "Is Tbose in?"

She nodded.

"It was nice seeing you, l guess. I should get going," he tried to lessen the tension between the both them and left for the backrooms. He went to the room on his far left and knocked loudly at the door. He then burst through it and invited himself into the room, but looked on in horror when he saw the people on the bed.

"Modiehi?" he put his hands over his mouth in awe when he saw his neighbor on top of his friend, naked. Tbose laughed.

"I told you I'd make a plan to have her in between my legs. Give me my money," he chuckled loudly and pushed Didi off him. "Get the hell out of my house you cheap lassie!"

Didi could not believe what she just heard. She stared at Tbose, dumbstruck and embarrassed when she could feel Terrence's eyes on her.

"Are you deaf? I said get out of my house before l make you!" Tbose thundered, scaring Didi who jumped off the bed and fell on the floor, dragging the sheets and taking them down with her. Terrence couldn't help but laugh.

She picked up her clothes, holding tightly onto the sheets, covering her body with them before exiting, her eyes glassy. Terrence shut the door behind her and watched as Tbose put his shirt on.

"Turn around l wanna put my trousers on," he instructed and Terrence, still in stitches, turned around and opened the windows, letting in fresh air in the stuffy room. It was only a while later that he settled on the bed when Tbose had finished dressing up.

"That lassie kept quiet when Natalie greeted her in the morning as she drove out of her yard, only to find out she just came here to get laid," Terrence laughed hard as he took out a R50 note from his pocket and placed it on the bed next to him.

Tbose clicked his tongue, walking to the kitchen to pour Terrence a glass of water.

"She's not even that nice in bed dude. She was busy making a lot of noise and bab'Sithole came knocking on my window, asking that l keep it down. I don't know how many times l put my hand over her mouth to silence her, but it was as though l was provoking her because she kept on biting on it hard. My hand is probably bruised, " Tbose spoke in a high-pitched voice, raising his red hand palms and showing them to Terrence, who whistled and laughed. "Can you see that? Now l must go to the hospital to have it checked."

Tbose clicked his tongue and walked to his bed to hand Terrence his drink. He took his R50 note and kissed it.

"Thank you for this dawg," Tbose lifted the note up and moved it around like a flag in a windy city.

"Thanks for the water ntwana (friend)," Terrence gulped down his drink but laughed, spitting the water everywhere when he remembered what Tbose just said.

"Please don't laugh at the fact that I'm too broke to offer you a glass of beverage," Tbose begged as he settled in a chair opposite to Terrence, shoving the money in his pocket.

"It's not that ntwana. The fact that she drove all the way here just to make a statement out of this when she could've walked just so she could make that much noise kills me bruh," he laughed so bad, walking to the kitchen to rinse the empty glass. "And stop being dramatic dude that hand will be fine in a few days."

"That girl's a bore dude," Tbose clicked his tongue and went to his wardrobe. He came bearing a brown envelope and came to sit on the bed.

"I guess you've come to collect this," he said handing the envelope to Terrence, who came and took a seat next to Tbose. Terrence was unsure about what to do next, knowing very well that the success of his marriage after this whole ordeal depended on this brown envelope.

"Open it," Tbose suggested, seeing how quick Terrence's mood changed from 100 to 0 in just an instant. He could've captured a picture of him and made a joke of it for the whole year had this moment not been as serious as it was.

Terrence pushed his fingers on the glue sealing the envelope, sliding them left and right and before he knew it, the envelope popped open. He could feel his heart beating out of his chest as he grabbed the neatly stapled papers inside the envelope, pulling them out gently and placing the brown substance on his thighs. He skimmed through the papers, his eyes only concentrating on the numbers.

"What does it say?" Tbose asked impatiently, leaning forward to try and see what was written on the paper but the letters just made him feel so dizzy.

"She's not mine. The results came out as 0.001% Thabo. I can't believe Natalie did this to me!" Terrence stood up from his seat as though sitting still was impossible.

"Liar," Tbose protested and snatched the papers from Terrence, who lifted his fingers to his mouth and started biting his nails, pacing up and down, the thoughts in his head clashing and gliding over each other as though he hadn't seen the numbers clearly.

Tbose's mouth hung open when he saw what his friend was talking about, but what shocked him the most was when he lifted his head only to see that Terrence was nowhere in sight. He rushed outside, the papers still in his hand and plundered to the gate, bumping into Ida who was looking on at Terrence's lorry in horror as it turned by the corner and became invisible.

"What's wrong with him?!" Ida asked, raising her hands up in surrender. "Look."

Her eyes traveled to the wall and Tbose glanced at it, his eyes widening when he saw the damage Terrence did on the fortification of the house.

Mr Sithole came rushing outside, although much slower and stepping on slowly as though he was walking around eggshells, stood next to his daughter and looked at his wall collapsing, the bricks falling on inside the house.

"Who did this?" he asked, looking at Tbose whose mind was decades away from now, thinking about Terrence, who was definitely not in the right state of mind to drive.

"We are doomed!" Ida screeched.

The Rainbow main road was only a street away from Tbose's house. The fifth house from the corner of the busy road on the right hand side of the street was Terrence's home, a place of his upbringing. Tbose's house was not too far from his mother's house.

Terrence and Natalie's house was on the first street, Tbose's was on the second, Terrence's home, where his mother and siblings lived was on the third, on the main road.

Terrence had mixed emotions, not knowing what to do next, and he knew that now more than ever he needed his mother next to him. He needed her guidance so badly.

He was shown into the dining room by the neighbor's son Msizi, who spent all his life in his mother's dining room from when he was still little up until now.

"Thank you, is she in the dining room?" Terrence asked, trying by all means to remain calm.

"Yes brother Terrence," Msizi agreed as Terrence walked to the lobby and found his mother knitting a blue jersey on her old rocking chair, her grimy, oval spectacles placed firmly on the end of her nose. She looked very old now, although she looked at her happiest unlike all those years ago when Terrence was a lot younger.

"Mama," Terrence said coming closer to peck the apple of his eyes on her cheeks, her mother's eyes watering when she heard his only son's voice.

"Oh my baby," she let go of the wool and it rolled itself over to the lobby, where his mother's cat came rushing to glide over it, its brown fur stretching as it gripped it and placed it above its body by laying fat on its back and placing it on its feet while lifting them up. Terrence's mother, Flora lifted her hands up so she could embrace his son's masculine shoulders, breaking into a sob and wetting his black t-shirt, making the whole process emotional for the both of them.

She kissed his cheek and let him go, and Terrence walked to sit on the couch just next to where the kitty was.

"Msizi! Msizi!" Flora shouted, raising from her chair.

"Mam Flora!" Msizi sprinted in the room, breathing heavily and leaning forward to hold his knees.

"Pour us a cup of tea will you?!" Flora yelled, settling on her chair and exhaling deeply.

"No ma, please buy us a cool drink Msizi, and some sweets for yourself my boy," Terrence took out a R100 note from his pocket, brightening Msizi's face, who thanked Terrence and took hold of the money before rushing out.

"To what do l owe this pleasure?" Flora asked, breaking the ice.

"You make it sound like l hardly ever visit," Terrence leaned back on his chair, sighing in comfort and closing his eyes.

"Do you ever visit me Terrence?" his mother asked, taking a box of biscuits from the side table next to her and placing them on a saucer.

"I was just here last week ma,"

"Oh..." she was about to say something when Msizi entered, handing the elders their drinks and giving Terrence the saucer of biscuits together with his change.

"I want to talk to you about something," Terrence said after he finished eating his food a little while later.

"What is it?"

He sighed heavily, but began to speak after a long pause.

"Ever since she was ten, something drastically weird changed about her," Terrence explained.

"Who are you taking about?" Flora rested her hands on the couch and straightened her spectacles, fully concentrating on what Terrence was saying.

"Paballo, my daughter," he swallowed hard when uttering the "my daughter" part, his voice flat and brittle. All along his mother listened on, not losing eye contact and nodding slowly.

"Of course I know who Paballo is. How could l forget my first granddaughter's name?" Flora shook her head but kept quiet afterwards, waiting for Terrence to speak. How much Terrence loved offloading his troubles to his mother, for it was amazing how much of a good listener she was.

"She became incredibly different. I understood at first that she had inherited so much of Natalie's genes because she looked so much like her, but now, she looks nothing like anyone in our family and also in Natalie's."

"Her hair for starters, is too long to be that of a person in our clan, and her skin, looks like that of a colored person's. She has gained weight, looks nothing like me and most definitely nothing like her mother."

"I began to doubt her paternity from thereon, so with the money l was supposed to use to pay the TV license last week, l gave it to Thabo to conduct a DNA test between Pabi and l, and today, l went to see the results. They came out negative. I'm not her father."

Flora's eyes widened and she took off her spectacles, clapping her hands twice before putting them back on.

"Natalie was unfaithful to you. You must divorce her! I refuse to have a child who was born out of wedlock as my granddaughter! How dare she do such a thing to my son? I will not allow of such nonsense to happen under my watch! Never!" Flora stood up from her couch and snapped, waving her hands in air and spitting on the floor. "Over my dead body! Divorce that piece of trash Terrence! She's of no better than a traitor!"