Mary’s father drinks the last sip of his tea, picks up the imvubu and heads for his daughter’s bedroom. No-one there. He looks for her everywhere in the flat then finds the garage door open. He rushes to MaMgobhozi’s flat. He knocks hurriedly, not waiting for a reply between knocks. Rage is mixed with worry.
“I am coming. Who is it?” calls MaMgobhozi.
“Open! It’s me, Buthelezi! Where is this child?” Mary’s dad shouts at MaMgobhozi as soon as she opens then door.
“What child?” MaMgobhozi is confused.
“Mary. Where is she?”
“Wasn’t she home when you got back from work?”
“I’m not joking, woman! Where is she?”
“Mary is not here. Don’t shout in my house.”
“Where is she?”
“Oh Lord! I don’t know. Was she not home when you came back?”
“She disappeared just now. She cannot leave the complex because I have the remote.”
“Maybe the guard opened the gate for her.”
Mary’s father takes off to the security guard booth. MaMgobhozi and her husband, Sibiya, follow him. They find him lashing the security guard with the imvubu.
“Hhayi bo! What did I do?” the guard yells, twitching from the sting of the lashes.
“Where is my child?”
“She said you sent her to the shops because you had a headache.”
“Cool down,” MaMgobhozi says to Mary’s father. She looks at the guard and says: “Hey boy, did a car pick Mary up?”
“No, Mama.”
“Where did she go?”
“She went up the road,” says the security guard.
“We better hurry before she falls prey to criminals,” says MaMgobhozi.
“She ran off to her man,” says Mary’s father.
“What man?”
“The same man who buys her gifts.”
“There is a man who buys Mary gifts?”
“I found jewellery in her school bag, and flowers under the bed. And a brand new, expensive cellphone under the matress!”
“Habe!” MaMgobhozi exclaims. “What do we do now?”
“I don’t know,” says Mary’s father. He wipes the tears from his eyes before they fall.
“What about her friends? Maybe she ran off to one of them?” says MaMgobhozi.
Londi knows where my daughter is, he thinks. He hurries to his car, MaMgobhozi and her husband, Sibiya, in tow.
*****
Mary’s phone rings again. “Hello, Rhino. Did you find your friend?”
“Yes, just stay there. He is on the way.”
“Where will he take me?”
“To Arboretum.”
“Who else lives there?”
“No-one.”
Mary sees her father’s car screeching out of the complex main gate.
“Oh no! Dad’s car is coming this way.”
“Hide, Mary! My friend will call when he is nearby.”
She runs and hides behind a thick tree trunk. She sees her father’s car make a u-turn back to the complex.
*****
“Why are you turning back?” Sibiya looks at Mary’s father, confused.
“I forgot my gun at home. I smell blood in the air.”
“Please cool down, otherwise jail beckons. Are you no longer a man of God?”
***
Tell us: Do you blame Mary for running away from her father?