Destined

S’bu woke up the following day unusually energetic and cheerful. Mandy and Menzi wondered if he was loosing his mind. They went to the hospital to see Thandi after their breakfast. Mandy and Menzi came out looking more sad than yesterday. Thandi was deeply sedated with a ventilator breathing for her. A lot of on tubes were connected to her with machines beeping all the time. It was really sad seeing her like this. S’bu was the exact opposite, he was making calls updating his parents and Thandi’s family about her progress. He even suggested that Mandy and Menzi leave him and go back to work as he will keep them updated about Thandi.

“S’busiso what’s wrong with you?” Menzi finally asked concerned.

“I had a chat with Nana last night, now I have a better understand of my relationship with Thandi” he said.

Mandy and Menzi exchanged looks, S’bu was claiming to have chatted to their late great grandmother.

“Nana has been gone for over a year now” Mandy said.

“I know, call it a dream or enlightenment or whatever but I’m at peace with whatever happens with Thandi now.”

“What do you mean?” Mandy asked her brother who was sounding more crazy each minute.

“Our connection is forever, if we are not together in this life, we will be in the next one. If she dies, I just follow her and we together again” S’bu said smiling.

“How exactly would you just follow her?” Menzi asked more concerned about S’bu than he did when he was sad a day before. At least yesterday S’bu was going through the stages of grief which most people go through and eventually accept whatever outcome and move on with their lives. To Menzi, S’bu was happily suicidal, something no one can treat. Suicidal thoughts associated with depression can be managed if depression is treated but S’bu was not depressed nor was he manic.

“It doesn’t matter” S’bu said dismissively.

“Thandi better make it, for all our sake” Menzi said.

“What exactly did Nana say to you?” Mandy asked curious and more uneasy about her brother.

“She said Thandi was destined to be mine. You, Amahle, Mom and Dad chose her way before me. I messed up every time when I tried to take over the process and ended up hurting her. You were never a troublesome child but you became one and got excluded from a school that Thandi could have never afforded. Mom and Dad forced you to attend a school where you meet her. The first time we met was in our home study, she was so excited about solving a maths problem that she unintentionally jumped right to my arms. Few minutes later, Amahle who was hysterical about her leaving, pushed her into my arms again. Because Dad did a background check on all your friends, in the study was an extensive file on her. I did not have to lift a finger, I did not have to leave home and everything about Thandi was handed to me on a silver platter” S’bu said laughing at the realisation. “You know when we got married she was leaving me? She was tired of all the women around me and I was jealous and mean after seeing her standing with Sthe. That bull came out of nowhere to attack her and we were married, just like that” he said snapping his fingers. “Since then I have done everything to make sure that she does not leave me but achieved the opposite effect. I should have left things happen the way they were meant to happen. Even if Thandi is furious with me, she can never really leave me. She will always come back for you and for Amahle and somehow always end up in my arms. That’s why I’m at peace with whatever happens from now on” he said.

Mandy thought about what S’bu said and the time Thandi’s dream directed the search party to Sbu’s location when he was missing. Her Father always said there were a lot of things that could not be explained in this life, maybe S’bu did chat to Nana and was not crazy after all. She was interrupted by a call from the hospital. She looked at the screen and had no intention of answering. Hospitals usually called to convey bad news. She did not want to be the first person to know if Thandi had passed away. How was she going to break the news to her weird acting brother? S’bu took her phone and answered the call. He also expected the worst when he saw the hospital number. It was Dr Jali again, he wanted to inform them that Thandi had miraculously responded very well to treatment and was now awake. S’bu thanked the Dr and made calls to inform Thandi’s family and his parents.

During visiting hours, S’bu, Mandy, Menzi, Thandi’s Mother, Aunt Noli, Mr and Mrs J were all standing around Thandi’s bed fussing over her. She turned down water, juice and food a multiple times.

“You have to eat Thandi, look how thin you’ve become” her Mother said concerned.

Mrs J and Noli nodded agreeing with her Mother.

“I will eat later, I’m just not hungry right now” Thandi responded weakly. Mother’s forget that you are a grown up once you are sick, they would even carry you like a baby if they could.

She turned to look at S’bu who had hardly said a word since they got in. “Why didn’t you tell me that we were really married?” she asked, their eyes meeting.

“I..I..was not sure how you would react” S’bu stuttered.

“What about the rest of you, why didn’t you tell me?” she asked looking at everyone in the room. She always thought that the Jobe family was weird in inviting her to all their events and rituals. They would insist even when she felt awkward and turned down their invitations. On the days she refused to go with S’bu, Mr J would come pick her up himself and she never had guts to send him away. They have all casually referred to her as Sbu’s wife but she never read anything to it. Now thinking about it, her family also treated S’bu like a son-in-law.

Everyone looked down avoiding her eyes.

“We couldn’t tell you until the proper processes were followed” Mr J answered.

She turned to look at S’bu again. “When I said I can’t marry you because you can not be in a monogamous marriage, why didn’t you tell me that you’ve been faithful since we got married?” she asked.

“I would have had to expose the fact that we were already married” S’bu responded sounding stupid.

Thandi rolled her eyes. “Nana was right, you are an idiot” she said.

“I agree with you, he is an idiot” Mandy said. Mr and Mrs J nodded agreeing with Mandy and Thandi.

“In my defence, it made sense at the time” S’bu said, scratching his head. His explanation didn’t make sense at all now.

“You also spoke to Nana?” Menzi who had been quietly following the conversation asked, amazed.

“I’m not really sure, Thandi hesitated. It was a dream, I think, but everything she said has been true so far” she said.

“Now that Thandi knows the truth, I think we should follow the right processes and make this official” Mr J suggested.

“We will be expecting you as soon as Thandi is out of the hospital” her Mother responded.

S’bu was amazed at how easy everything was sorted. He spent almost three years finding ways to get Thandi to officially marry him, it turned out that all he needed to do was tell her the truth that they were already married. Everyone left before the visiting hours were over to give Thandi with S’bu some privacy.

S’bu was now sitting on the bed with Thandi’s head resting on his chest. “MaDlamini, I’m sorry” he said earnestly.

“Which part exactly? not telling me that we were married or lying about the car or about my salary or breaking up with me for stupid reasons?” she asked looking at him.

“All of it” he said and kissed her passionately. Thandi pulled away and looked at him with a serious face. “You know that I had breast cancer, which means I will be passing that risk to my children” she said.

“OUR children” he corrected her. “I knew there was a risk back then, I know now and I still want to spend the rest of my life with you” he said kissing her again until she kissed him back.

“Ma was right, you really should eat. We can’t make babies when you are this thin. I will be afraid to get on top fearing that I would crutch your bones” he teased before leaving.

“Shameless!” she exclaimed, blushing.