Heart Desires – Episode 1

HEART DESIRE – Episode 1

A story by Jochrine Kunda

BLESSINGS

*** I closed my eyes expecting the worst when grandma held a cooking stick in her hands ready to hit me with it until I heard a voice speak

Voice: LEAVE HER ALONE

I turned and found Veronica who wore an angry face, she was my best friend but I considered her as a sister coz we’d been through a lot together, her mom and grandma were friends so she listened to her and dropped her weapon then she turned to her with a smile

Grandma: you’re welcome my daughter, how are you?

Veronica: I’m okay Ma bu….

***she interrupted her***

Grandma: how’s your mom?

Veronica: she’s fine but why do you want to hit her?

Grandma: mwana wandi (my child) this friend of yours is very useless in fact “immature” is the term I should use coz her soon to be husband is in the house and wants to talk to her but she runs outside like she’s crazy

Veronica: but Ma, I still think marrying her off especially to someone she doesn’t want is unfair on her part

Grandma: unfair for what, huh? Who cares about what she thinks coz as far as I’m concerned she doesn’t even know how much a bag of mealie meal costs so tell me what’s unfair here

Veronica just kept quiet and held me while I cried then Ba Bwalya came out of the house and looked at me for quite some time then he took grandma aside and went to talk to her, I took the sleeping Jane from Veronica and put her to bed then we went to sit on a bench and she helped me calm down and assured me that she’d do everything in her power to make sure I never married him but I still felt dirty for how he touched me and he later walked away with a smirk on his face but I ignored him

Veronica: Mwelwa called today

Me: really! What did he want?

I quickly wiped off my tears since I was eager to know what her baby daddy wanted after abandoning her for 3 years

Veronica: he said he wants us to meet and talk

Me: about….?

***She just shrugged her shoulders***

Me: so after rejecting his daughter for three years the prodigal son finally returns

***We laughed ***

Veronica: what do you think I should do?

Me: talk to aunt first and hear what her opinion is but I suggest that you still go ahead and hear what he has to say, maybe he wants to start a relationship with his daughter and I think you should let him coz you can’t keep Jane away from her father

Veronica: awww thanks sweetheart, I was really confused and my head was spinning you see another reason why I love you

We hugged then continued talking about different things when Mary walked by after being dropped off by a “Range Rover” with a lot of shopping bags and I knew her blesser did his work, she looked at us with a disgusted look on her face and clicked her tongue then walked away.

Veronica took her leave since it was getting late and I took her halfway then returned home to find Mary giving grandma the gifts she brought for her while she blessed her and I attempted to walk away but was stopped by grandma and she asked me to kneel in front of her, she started poking me while talking

Grandma: you’re just a waste of resources, your friends are very considerate and bring me gifts but you reject Bwalya and act like a child. You think you’ll live in this house forever? If Bwalya won’t marry you then no one will welasha we (you piece of charcoal)

***I had gotten used to being called that because of my skin colour***

Grandma: you won’t ki*ll innocent souls with your filthy disease, now go and prepare supper. I need to eat

She was right, I’d never been able to stay in a relationship for long because everyone ran away after learning about my status so I gave up on trying even though it wasn’t easy. I got up and went to the kitchen with tears threatening to fall from my eyes and I heard them call me bad names while they laughed, I always felt like I was stuck in some dark room where I could never find happiness. We finally started eating when I was done with supper but I couldn’t get anything down because I felt their eyes on me and it made me uncomfortable then Mary suddenly chuckled and clapped her hands

Mary: grandma, I’ve been thinking

Grandma: what is it my baby?

Mary: can HIV be cured?

***Grandma shook her head several times***

Grandma: No, no, no, that’s a disease that will take one to the grave especially if they start getting thin (she looked at me) it has killed thousands of parents leaving behind millions of orphans. You’ve got it?

Mary: come on, do I look like the type to contract it?

Grandma: that’s a relief, but in case you have it you can get cured by sleeping with an Albino

Mary: that easy! It’s like the disease has gotten to some people’s brain and don’t want to get cured, I never knew there was a cure that easy

Grandma: yes or marrying someone who has it too

She smirked, that was enough to put me to bed with an empty stomach and wet pillow.

The night was the only time I had to rest and I’d always be up as early as 3, I went outside and starting making fritters which I was going to sell at the market which I also hated coz the girls would speak ill of me like I wasn’t even there, they sometimes told my customers about my status and they all turned going to the next person so there was nothing right about anything I did, my status had gotten the best of me that I now considered it as a disability. The moon shone so bright giving so much hope and I just looked at it as I got lost in thoughts…

To be continued...