Melokuhle



It is 5 a.m. and I am already awake. The anxiety of having to talk to Zandile woke me up too early. I got up from the bed, careful not to wake Melusi up. I went outside on the drain, brushed my teeth and boiled some water with a kettle for me to bath.

When I walked back into the bedroom I found Melusi already awake with the bed already made. He looks so refreshed that I am so jealous. I am still tired, I’m sure my face shows it too. He pulls me closer to him by my waist and kisses me in a way that says you are mine. “Are you ready?” He asked, looking at me, brushing a strand of hair away from my face.

I nodded, we have to talk to Zandile before everyone wakes up. The morning chilly air bites into my skin as we head to the room a bit further away from the main house.

Melusi opens the door, I thought that we would have found Zandile still asleep but she’s awake and she’s sitting on the bed looking out of the window. She doesn’t turn to look at us when we walk in. “I don’t want it.” She said after a beat or two of silence. I look at Melusi who is also looking at me, he turns back to look at Zandile stuffing his hands in his pockets “So why did you come here and tell me about the pregnancy?”

She turned to look at Melusi and shrugged her shoulders. “I wanted to give you a say on the matter.” She licked her dry cracked lips and shifts her eyes away from us. “I’m sick.” Her voice cracked a little bit when she spoke “I have terminal cancer.” She looked in our direction again, her eyes sparkling with tears “I have only 13 months to live, that is why I want to terminate the pregnancy.”

Zandile may be a horrible person but I would never wish death on anyone not even on my worst enemy which she is. I found myself moving towards her, she looked at me with shock when I sat next to her and placed my hand on her back.

“I’ll raise the baby.” The words came spilling out of my mouth so fast that I didn’t have time to think about them and process what I had just said.

I looked at Melusi who was looking at me with a surprised look on his face. “Only if you want me to.” Melusi nodded, walking over to me and placed his hands on my shoulders.

“I,” Zandile said, before breaking down into a river of tears “I can’t believe this, I have been a horrible person to you and now…”

I shook my head and smiled a little. “That’s all in the past now, we will make sure that you get the best medical team there is, for you and the baby.”

Zandile cried so hard that my heart was breaking for her. Now looking at her under the light, I can see her skin hugging her high cheekbones, she has lost some weight. How long has she been suffering like this? All alone and maybe even scared.

Looking at her in this fragile form erases all the things she has ever done to hurt me, right now she needs someone to be there. No one deserves to die alone.