“Hey dad it worked,” Asanda winked and gave his father a thumbs up.

“Explain,” Babalwa demanded.

Mdu kept quiet, gathering his thoughts and piecing them together correctly, although he meant no harm with his comment, using it as a way to defuse the tension, it was obvious that it had been taken the wrong way. The last thing he needed was an argument with his wife when everybody went to bed because fights with her seldom ended then and there.

“Dad told us that Grandpa and Aunty V are coming over to visit for Granny’s surprise birthday party, which is great, but the problem is that you and Aunty V are always fighting,” Lerato elaborated, placing a bowl of ice cream in front of her father before sitting back down with her own bowl in front of her.

“So, on our way home, we decided to play a prank on you guys to get you guys to stop.”

“And it looks like it worked,” Asanda added.

Babalwa stood up and left the table, and at that moment, Mdu knew that he’d be sleeping on the sofa that night. Out of all the qualities God had given his wife, a sense of humour is one he skipped. Besides, there were still a few things he needed to sort out before his mother’s birthday, chief among them was her attendance. She’d been hit and miss on the subject and he didn’t want to nag her to come because it would have the opposite effect so he would steadily leave little breadcrumbs for her to follow.

Everybody else involved played their part, confirmed their attendance, their plus ones, dietary requirements etc. Well, everybody except his father because of course he’d be the odd one out, and there was no way he was going to chase after him. Babalwa recommended they hire a party planner but he refused because they wouldn’t understand how important this was.

It was his mother, to them it was just another job for some rich bloke but to him, with all the effort he had put in, it came from the heart but now… he wished he had hired a party planner. Ever since their divorce, Mdu’s parents had become nothing but shadows of their former selves but if there’s one thing that they taught him it was that, you keep your toolbox in your own garage and don’t go around trying to fix people’s relationships, even if it’s your parents.

Besides a few homophobic remarks from Mdu’s father that were berated and several quarrels between sister and wife, there was peace in the house and things were as normal as they could get. Well, as normal as a dysfunctional children’s author could get, including the random interactions between father and daughter-in-law.

“Excuse me Babalwa, I’m sorry to bother you. This laptop is doing something I don’t understand, and I don’t want to break it, do you mind giving me a hand?”

“Sure, no problem at all,” she smiled, taking the laptop from her father-in-law, “Okay let’s have a look here, looking for a date to bring here, I see,” she winked as she leaned over beside him to help.

“Ah pay no attention to that. I’m more concerned with the news.”

Babalwa hummed as she tapped on the laptop, opening and closing tabs before typing furiously. “What the hell is this?” typing even faster as she pulled the chair beside her. She couldn’t believe what was happening, what she had found, what was happening under her very nose.

Is this what Mduduzi was up to while she was at work? Did this mean … no, it couldn’t be, he loved her, they built a family together, had two beautiful kids and worked together to build the dream life they always talked about. He wouldn’t dare throw it away. She pushed the laptop away from her and it crashed on the floor, the noise it made was accompanied with her shaking in anger.

Tell us: What do you think Babalwa found out Mdu?