Babalo’s father thought of Balo’s mom, Bella, when she gave birth to their beautiful son, and when he had taken Balo from her when he turned eight months. Two months before that, Babalo’s father met his childhood girlfriend Linako, Alumda’s mom. After years of losing contact, he asked her to have dinner with him and his wife, and indeed she did. During dinner, Linako kept giving Bella intimidating looks.

Linako was still in love with Babalo’s dad Simbulele, so she invited him over to her house for drinks sometimes secretly when Simbulele walked her home after dinner. He didn’t understand his mind. He just lost interest in Bella and all he could think of was Linako. He therefore spent most of his time at her house, totally forgetting about Bella and Balo. Bella realised what was going on under her nose so she filed for divorce. She just couldn’t stand being a doormat because Simbulele had become very abusive to her every time Bella asked him for money since he was the breadwinner. He’d call her all sorts of names and as if that wasn’t enough, he also beat her up.

After two months, Bella knew that she had to take control of her life and stop hoping that the man she loved would somehow change back to the man she fell in love with. One morning she woke up to an empty bed. She knew where her husband was, so she took a quick bath, prepared her son and left him with her neighbour and went to the police station. Little did she know that as soon as she took a taxi to town, Simbulele barged into the neighbour’s house and took his son against the neighbour’s go ahead as she was informed not to give Balo to anyone. Without thinking twice, Simbulele went back to Linako’s house with Babalo and told her that they had to run as soon as possible because somehow he knew that Bella had gone to the police. They didn’t waste time but packed a few items and ran to another town.

After 16 years Balo just couldn’t feel any connection with Linako so he asked her if she was his mother. His father interrupted and said, “No, but she’s a better mother than your mother could ever be.” Babalo didn’t like that statement. How could his father be so sure when he had never given his mother a chance to be his mom? Anyone could tell that Linako wasn’t his biological mother. She hated him for no reason at all, perhaps he reminded her of Bella because according to Simbulele, Balo looked so much like his mother.

“No Babalo! You don’t… We don’t need her, okay?” snapped Simbulele.

“You are right about one thing. ‘We’ don’t need her. I’m the one who needs her,” replied Balo with both of his hands covering his face, something he did whenever he felt as if he was about to explode.

“I told you that woman is…useless!

“Then why were you in love with her from the start? Huh? Well daddy dearest, let me school you a bit. You see, the ‘useless woman’ as you and your new wife call her, happens to be my mother, my blood, the person you fell in love with, or am I wrong?” By now, Balo was pacing up and down but he stood still when he noticed that his father wasn’t responding. One could see that what his son said had really hit home.

“You…you still love her, don’t you? Father please tell me what went wrong between you two? Why did you end up with Alu’s mom?” He sat down next to his father again.

“Babalo, you need to stop with these questions already…” that sounded more like a warning.

“Why dad? What are you so afraid of? Oh my! Her…she’s the cause of all of this, right? Well I’m going to search for my mother either way!” His father looked at him sadly.

“Well, I’ll be damned!” said Linako, standing by the door.

Sometimes a third party comes uninvited at the wrong time. Everything moving in Balo’s body told him to swear at his stepmother. How dare she interfere in this kind of conversation? It didn’t need her opinion at all.

“You’ll be damned, you say? This is between me and dad,” said Balo, annoyed to the core.

Linako laughed at him: “Honey, this is my house. Therefore, anything that happens here is business of mine.” Once again Balo looked at his father but it was clear that he was on his own, but what was new?

“That’s enough, okay?” Balo stormed out and went to his room to change and then tried calling his girlfriend, to no avail. He decided to go to her house using his father’s car. The weather was starting to cool off when he parked the car. Every time he visited her, he always felt shy because it was if he was disrespecting her parents, although they were no more. Olona lived with her older sister, Cally, who was very fond of Babalo. She’s the one who invited him in from day one.

Balo was about to knock when Cally opened the door, rushing off to work. “Oh, brother-in-law, come on in…”

“Hello Cally, is Olona in?” Cally offered him a drink seeing that he wasn’t himself. “You’ve just missed her, actually. She’s visiting her friend in the hospital.” Balo just nodded while heading for the door.

“Are you okay?” asked a concerned Cally.

“I’m okay. I just needed to be away from home for a while. I needed a break,” he confessed.

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“Someday I’ll tell you…” he said.

“Well, I’m off to work and seeing that you’re avoiding going home, you can chill here. I’m sure Olona won’t be long.” She didn’t give him a chance to say anything because she knew he’d refuse. She grabbed her handbag and left him laughing at her. After minutes of staring into space, he received a call. He didn’t even look at the screen, that’s how drained he felt.

“Sure,” he answered.

“Whoa! Who kicked you so early?” It was Alumda and he smiled. They were pretty close despite everything else…

***

Tell us: He seems very angry. Do you think this is the right mood to go and look for a parent in?