“Who the hell do they think they are? Chunking me out like used gum,” muttered Danny putting his bags down on Lerato’s floor.
Lerato put down a tray of tea on the table. “Here is some tea, it will calm you down before you wake Hope up.”
“I don’t care about tea, you think tea will fix the twenty-five years that I spent slaving for the Zondos?” he asked while pushing away the tea, causing Lerato to drop it.
Lerato shivered with fear as the cup fell to the ground and broke. This caused Danny to finally sit down.
“I’m sorry, babe,” he said regretfully.
“It’s fine, but, Danny, I think you should just let it go” said Lerato. “I mean this can be our chance to start over! Just us and our son!”
“You are right, but how am I supposed to forget about them? They blame me for their son’s death,” said Danny.
“I’m sorry they did this to you. Surely when they said that this was for ‘cultural reasons,’ they were telling the truth,” she said, patting him on his shoulders.
“Don’t do that, don’t side with them, pretending to understand!” he shouted at her. “Why can’t you just take my side?”
“I’m on your side baby,” promised Lerato.
“No, you are not. You have to decide which side you are on, so when things turn sour I know who my enemies are,” he pushed her hands off him.
“You are scaring me, Danny,” she said, stepping away from him. “I am going to check on Hope.”
“Go.” He threw his hands in the air. “I need to see someone. Someone who will hear my side of the story without judging me, unlike my wife.”
Lerato stopped, concerned. “Where are you going?”
Danny just walked out of the house without answering. He pulled his car out of the parking lot.
He just drove around and found himself in the last place he ever thought he would go.
“So did you come here because you need my help?” asked Thomas, sitting across the table, in the prison reception.
“I didn’t come here for your help,” Danny said, “I came here to talk to you as my father, if you are willing to listen.”
Thomas swallowed his pride and folded his arms. “I’m listening, son.”
“What’s going on?” he curiously asked. “Talk to me.”
Danny calmly said. “Remember when you got arrested and I had no one? I had to go back to the Zondos.”
He gave him a full explanation of what happened. “Now, after all I did for them, they want to take the one last thing I have; the legacy.”
Thomas became possessed with anger. “Who the hell do they think they are, to treat you like this?”
“Maybe I should just let it go, like Lerato said,” said Danny.
Thomas looked around shaking his head. “So, you just want to walk, like a little boy?” he said, aggressively. “You have to act; take what’s yours, boy. These people used you and you don’t deserve that.”
“What am I supposed to do, dad? These people have made up their mind.” He put his hands behind his head. “I said a lot of upsetting things to the Zondos. I threatened to burn their farm, and come to think of it, I think I actually meant it.”
“That’s my boy,” Thomas said proudly. “No one can walk all over a Modise. You deserve the whole cow, and they should give you that. If they don’t give the legacy back to you, you must make sure no one gets it.”
If you were Danny’s father, what advice would you give him? Would it be similar to Thomas’s advice, or would you say something different?