I woke up in hospital. My parents were sitting next to my bed and there were tears in my mother’s eyes. My father had his arm around her back and he was comforting her.

“Zizipho! Mntwan’am. Oh! Thank you, Lord!” my mother screamed when she saw me open my eyes. She looked up and praised God as if she was seeing Him floating above the bed.

“My daughter!” my father said with wet eyes. He kissed my hand gently.

My head was so sore I could hardly move it.

“Don’t move. Don’t move. You are going to be okay, ntombi yam. Your mother and I are here,” my father said. I moved my eyes to look at my parents. I was in pain but I felt safe.

I was discharged from the hospital a day later. My parents fetched me and brought me home. They wanted to look after me until I fully recovered.

“Where’s Loyiso?” I asked my parents when we arrived at home. I realised they hadn’t mentioned his name at the hospital or on our way home.

“That boy! That boy! I’m going to-” My father said angrily but my mother cut him off.

“Hayi, Tata. Calm down. What’s important is that our daughter is here with us and that boy sleeps on his fist in the jail cell,” my mother said.

“In the jail cell?” I asked. I remembered hearing Loyiso crying like a baby.

“Your neighbour Kha … Kha. Hayi, I forgot his name,” my mother said.

“Mr Khathu?” I asked. Mr Khathu was a retired teacher but he had the body of a healthy forty-year-old man.

“Yes, him. He heard you scream and came just in time to save you from that boy. He knocked Loyiso down with a knobkerrie. He then called the police who arrested Loyiso,” my mother said.

I felt satisfied that Loyiso was behind bars and I was grateful to Mr Khathu for rescuing me. In the same breath, I felt disappointed at him for not breaking Loyiso’s bones.

“I am sorry, my child. Your mother told me what she said to you when you phoned her the first time that boy laid his filthy hands on you,” my father said. He looked at my mother, “Nonzaliseko, my wife. I apologise to you as well. I thought you always took my word because you always agreed with me. I had no idea I made you feel like you didn’t have a voice.”

My mother hugged my father warmly. I joined in and hugged both my parents. As we were embracing I saw two shadows at the front door. I looked up to see Asive and Avela holding flowers. Tears of joy made streams on my cheeks. My family and friends were there with me when I needed them the most. I couldn’t wait to hear all about what my friends had been up to in their lives.

***

Tell us: What surprises you in the ending, if anything? Why does Zizipho’s father feel the need to apologise to his wife, now that he knows how she has seen their relationship?