S’bu rival

The royal palace was buzzing with noise and excitement as everyone anticipated the arrival of the King. He always came to welcome them personally and this made the girls feel very special. Soon the royal poet was heard praising the King and everyone bowed down as the sling filled behind his poet. He welcomed them like he always did every year. Informed them of the importance of keeping their traditions especially now that most youths had turned to western ways. He informed them of their value as the stars of the nation and encouraged them to stay pure. The Queen’s spoke after the King teaching girls about life issues and problems facing young women like teenage pregnancies, rape and elderly man preying on young girls: the so called Blessers or Sugar daddies. When all the speeches were done, the girls had their virginity tests and given their certificates. They were served the best food and by mid day they headed back. When they got to the city, they got off and had a parade singing, dancing and waving their certificates with pride.

S’bu was about to get to his car when he the whole street was blocked to clear a way for the girls to walk through. He could not believe his eyes when he saw Thandi in the parade. She was singing and dancing with other girls. There were so many girls but he only noticed her. How beautiful and joyful she looked. Thandi also saw S’bu and ran to him.

“Hi, S’bu. I’m glad I saw you, there’s something I need to say” she said.

S’bu thought that Thandi had finally come to her senses and decided to admit her feelings for him. He nodded for Thandi to continue.

“When I first met you with Precious, I was jealous and hurt, she confessed. I had to remind myself that there was nothing between us, so you could be with anyone you wanted. The following day I heard that the two of you were childhood sweethearts and how devastated you were when she left that you even started hooking up with lots of girls to fill the void she left. I realised that I was being petty. You two are perfect together, I’m sure your list only has similarities” she added. “Being back in the village has put a lot of things into perspective for me.God sometimes uses other people to answer your prayers. Like when I was scared and worried about breast cancer, you came along and made everything better. We got closer so that I would help find you when you were hurt. Now Precious is back so you can stop fooling around and be happy again. I just wanted to say I’m very happy for you” Thandi said all this joyously with her eyes sparkling.

S’bu’s heart sank listening to Thandi talking joyful.

“Thandi are you really this happy because you think I belong with Precious?” he asked.

“No, silly. I’m happy because I found myself again. Being in the village and honouring my traditions makes me happy” Thandi responded.

Thandi’s phone rang, her face lit up when she saw who the caller was.

“Hello. I looked for you at the palace with no success” Thandi said on the phone.

“Turn around, I’m in the white car across the road” the voice on the phone said.

Thandi turned and looked at a luxury car that was across the road and laughed. “You are really here!”she exclaimed. “Excuse me S’bu, I have to go”she said already walking away.

S’bu watched her walking away happily across the road. A tall handsome man who looked like he was in his early twenties got off the white luxury car. He was wearing a traditional attire and looked majestic. Seeing Thandi he smiled and hugged her for a long time. S’bu subconsciously clenched his fits, anger was brewing inside. He wandered if that man was the reason Thandi was so happy. Did Thandi really believed that he was meant to be with Precious and moved on? Did he push Thandi into another man’s arms? How did everything go so wrong? S’bu had so many questions that he started to have headache. That night S’bu could not sleep. He was trying to find a way to fix the mess he made with Thandi but did not know where to start. How was he going to tell her that he used Precious to make her jealous so she could finally admit her feelings? Now the explanation sounded so silly.

The following day, all the local news papers featured Dr Bonga Ngcobo the most handsome and youngest of the King’s advisors. He was from a village and very impressive for a young man his age. His work was all about preserving the traditions. He had written poems and books about cultural rituals and past Kings that once ruled the land. He was the founder of indigenous games where youth was thought games that their great grandparents played. He was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy tittle for his work on cultural diversity and preservation of traditions.

S’bu would have been impressed by the young man if he was not the man he saw with Thandi the previous day. What hurt him the most was the realisation that this man had much more in common with Thandi that he ever did. Nonetheless he was not willing to loose Thandi, not ever. After reading about Bonga, S’bu smiled. The newspaper articles were a blessing in disguise. He now knew more about his rival and thought of a plan to get Thandi back. Bonga value traditions a lot, he would expect the same from his woman. If Thandi lost her virginity to another man, he would definitely end things between them. S’bu smiled, it would be difficult to seduce Thandi but it was not impossible and he was very confident in his skills. With a plan, he decided to call Thandi and ask if they could meet.