Rare connection

“Son, can you hear me”Mr J asked shaking his son. “S’busiso” he called him again but no response followed. He had bruises all over but no deep wounds.

G made some calls, the ambulance arrived within 20 minutes and took S’bu to hospital. He was assessed as having sustained a head injury and was taken for an emergency scan of the brain. After waiting for an hour the admitting doctor came out to inform them that S’bu had fractures on his skull and unconscious but fortunately his brain was not affected. He was expected to make a full recovery but will be monitored in a high care unit for any complications. Mr J made a call to his wife informing her of the good news and spent the next hours informing and thanking everyone who assisted in looking for his son. It was already morning when he finally got to rest.

Thandi had not been getting much sleep since S’bu went missing. When her phone rang she hurried to answer it. When she found out that it was Mrs J, her heart sank. She was already sobbing when she answered the phone. It must be bad news for Mrs J to call her directly this late or she would have asked Mandy to call her. Mrs J realised Thandi misunderstood the reason for her call and blurted out that S’bu was alive. She called her directly because her dream was accurate and did not want her to continue worrying. Thandi’s tears turned to laughter and thanked Mrs J for calling. She slept better than she did in the past four days.

When Mr J and Menzi went to see S’bu at the hospital during visiting hours, he was awake and happy to see them. His memory was intact and remembered that five days ago he woke up hungry and decided to go buy some fast food. On his way there the road had detour signs asking drivers to use another route which was deserted. Soon after taking that route he came to a stop as there were some tyres on the road. He thought they fell from another vehicle and got of to clear them when he was ambushed. He was hit on the back of his head, lost consciousness and woke up five days later in hospital. He never saw his attackers. According to the nurse at the clinic he was found by road workers in the morning who brought him to the clinic. There was no sign of his car and had been stripped off his clothes.

Police took his statement, details of his car and other belongings. They promised to call if they find the perpetrators but were not hopeful since it had been five days and perpetrators had most likely moved to other provinces or even left the country.

The following day S’bu was discharged from the hospital and since the university were closing the following day, they decided to all go home that afternoon. Before setting for home, S’bu thanked all his friends who had gathered at his flat for assisting his family to look for him.

“By the way S’bu what love portion did you give Thandi?” Menzi asked on their way home.

“What are you talking about?” S’bu asked confused.

“Come on Bro, whatever you gave her I want it for my future wife. I’m sure Q wants it too” Menzi said laughing joined by Mr J and Q.

“Stop using riddles and just tell me what this is about” S’bu responded pretending to be annoyed.

“How do you think we knew you were missing? I’ll give you a clue, it’s someone you call every other night” Menzi said winking at him.

“Thandi? no ways!” S’bu exclaimed in disbelief.

“Yep, initially she thought you were trying to get her to admit her feelings to you but when you didn’t call for two nights in a row she started to have ‘a bad feeling’ and told Mr and Mrs J” Menzi emphasised the bad feeling part making brackets in the air with his fingers.

S’bu could not imagine Thandi talking to his parents at all. She was conservative, talking to elders about dating and love would not something she would normally do. Now she had to talk to Mr and Mrs J about their son and the conversations between the two of them.

“Dad please tell me how she approached you, I want to hear her every word” S’bu pleaded with curiosity.

Poor Mr J had to recall and tell S’bu everything that was said the day Thandi told them her suspicions.

“The finale was when we had looked everywhere for you and running out of options she had a dream” Menzi said leaving the sentence incomplete on purpose.

“Menzi! come on, should I remind you that I almost died? How sad you would have been if I died?” S’bu blackmailed his brother.

“She dreamed of you in hospital, hurt but alive. The hospital had a bell outside. I honestly thought it was just a dream but Mr J took it serious and that’s exactly how we found you.”

“Holy crap! you kidding me!” S’bu exclaimed.

“Watch your language!” scolded Mr J. “You have a very rare connection with her” he added.

It was already dark when they got home. They were welcomed by Mrs J, Mandy and Amahle who had no idea that her dad almost died therefore did not understand why everyone was so emotional. S’bu wanted to call Thandi that night but decided against it. He wanted her to finally admit that she was in love with him. With everything that had happened he was sure she would very soon.

Thandi lay on her bed thinking about her predicament. She was relieved that S’bu was back healthy but now it was going to be very hard for her to claim not to have feelings for him. She could explain suspecting that something happen to him because he did not call when he normally did but how was she going to explain the dream?