My name is Tuarayi. I want to tell you a story about a brother of mine, who was also my employer. See, my brother, Musawenkosi, was a very influential man and the ladies were always after him. He felt proud for having a new “trophy” to show off every week.
He would introduce us (staff members) to all his women. We would have to smile and be friendly to them; make them feel comfortable and lie to them about how lucky they were because they were the first woman the boss introduced to us. After a while it became normal, we didn’t have to rehearse it anymore…until we were introduced to Ms. Ngcenge.
She was different. She was warm and welcoming; she would make every staff member feel at ease. However, we were all aware of the fact that she could see through us, because she would casually ask something and leave without a reply if we were lying. She gave off the sense that she knew the truth, but didn’t want to be rude.
She wasn’t like the other women we had met before; they were demanding and made us feel inferior. They didn’t associate with “our” kind – the broke nobodies. They were the boss’s girlfriend and didn’t engage in small talk with us. They felt superior. Oh, if only they knew what we knew, maybe they would’ve been nicer towards us.
Months went by, the boss introducing us to more women and, as usual, we lied to them. Some were beautiful but they couldn’t be more different to one another. They all had different backgrounds, different attitudes- they were different. I don’t know what happened, but the boss ended up in a relationship with just two women; Charity and Ms. Ngcenge.
Charity was the dependent one. She came from a fair background; her father had passed away leaving Charity, her two siblings and her mother behind. She was humble and in just a short space of time the boss had done so much for her. He took her to fancy restaurants, bought her quality and expensive clothing, he made sure her hair was always done – he brought her up to his standard. Before long Charity was introduced to Musa’s family; his children took an instant liking to her and he was relieved to know that he had made the right decision.
Ms. Ngcenge knew nothing about Charity, but she knew that there was someone else – remember the saying “A woman always knows”, it couldn’t be truer. Ms Ngcenge was always there when Musa had a problem, whereas Charity couldn’t be bothered. Ms Ngcenge struggled throughout the relationship while Charity was spoiled rotten. In a sense Ms Ngcenge was blessed because, Musa was even planning to marry her. She was the one who had his heart.
No one knew how Ms Ngcenge found out, but she did. She had arranged to meet with Musa at his work. When she confronted him, he denied having any other relationship besides her. I remember her looking at the car keys that lay on the table, but no one saw her take them until she got into the car and drove off.
The next we heard of her, was when the police told us, that she had hit a tree 60km out of town. We are not sure whether it was an accident or if it was suicide. Either way, she had left everything behind including her young son. Charity had won I guess, she had it all including the very heart Ms Ngcenge was after.
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Tell us: Have you ever had to “compete” for you lover’s heart? How did it go?