My phone vibrated under the pillow early Monday morning, I thought it was Mpumi when I answered it without checking the ID.
“I’m still sleeping Mpumi, what do you want?”
“Hey! How are you?” said Ken!
“How dare you! How dare you ask me how am I after what you did to me? How can you be so heartless Ken? Do you know how worried sick I’ve been about you?”
“I’m sorry, can you come outside? I need to see you.”
I remember how I jumped out of my bed, crazily searching for my slippers under the bed. I was so happy that he was outside, the events of the previous week all but forgotten.
I stopped for breath before leaving my room, asking myself how I was going to announce the news to him without sounding too excited. He looked as handsome as ever in his track pants and vest. When our eyes met I couldn’t help but melt to the side of him, throwing myself in his arms just as he was to say something.
“Don’t you ever disappear on me like that again, you hear me? You nearly gave me a heart attack.” I said, resting my head on his chest.
He removed me from him, an unpleasant look taking a form on his face. “We need to talk…”
“Me, first! I’ve been dying to see you because I wanted to tell you a little secret before you hear it from someone.”
“No, really Pebetsi, listen to me!” He shouted. It was the first time he ever raised his voice at me, so I just stared at him asking myself, what was going on with him?
“She is back!”
“Who is back?”
“My fiancée, she is back and we are getting married.”
“Your… did you just say…” I wanted to go on but suddenly it felt like I had something stuck in my throat making it hard for me to speak. All I could do was kneel down on my knees and cry.
“I’m sorry Pebetsi I never intended for all this to happen. She is the Mayor’s daughter, you must have probably heard that she flew in from USA a week ago and that is why I couldn’t come pick you up.”
“How can you string me along? Lure me into believing we have a future together when you knew… You knew that you are engaged?”
“You are a married woman Freaky! What future could I possibly have with you? We had a good thing going on but I never promised you anything more than that.”
“Liar! You promised to make me your wife. You promised to take care of me and my kids and…”
“That was only pillow talk. If there was any chance of a marriage how come I never took you to my house? How come you’ve never met my family? You need to stop dragging us unnecessary attention and get up right now.”
“What am I supposed to do with this pregnancy, Ken? I’m pregnant…”
“I’m sorry, I can only offer you money to abort. I can’t afford to have a child with another woman when my son is just a year old…”
I felt like someone struck me with a knife when he said those words… All along I didn’t even know he had a son.
“And my kids, what would happen to my kid’s school fees?”
“Look Pebetsi, I was only helping out where I could. I don’t think I can still be able to do those things not with my fiancée around. I’m so sorry.” He said, getting in the car.
“You can’t do this to me Ken, you can’t,” I said, trying to open his door.
“I’ll send you money to take care of the pregnancy. I’m really sorry about everything.” He said driving away.
Just like that, a man I’d thought I had a future with left me standing in the middle of the street calling out his name like a desperate fool.
True to his words he sent me R5000 later that day. I sat locked up in my room, trying to figure out why life was so cruel to me. After trying his cell a billion times and not getting any answer, I knew I had no choice but to abort the child, because keeping him wouldn’t bring Ken back anyway.
***
Tell us what you think: What would you do if you were Freaky? Would you abort?