“I was five years old when my mother died” I began to tell Justin who was facing the door while I was facing the the window right throughout ” She died after she gave birth to my little sister Zendaya, my father Nhamo and aunty Farirai went to the hospital to fetch little Zendaya. Few days later Anotida who is my late mother she was cremated and her ashes were thrown into the lake. That’s what she wanted, she was not the kind to be buried in a grave eternally. She was free spirited and loved life and I loved her very much and I do believe wherever she is she is happy.

It was during winter when I was twenty five years old that I went to the lake where her ashes were thrown, I wanted to speak or connect to her. It was very cold outside, winter had sucked everything that once had life, the trees were leafless, the air was filled with coal smoke, with every step you take you could hear the crackling of fallen leaves. I had lilies in my hands I threw then into the lake and look up and I went back home.

When I got inside the house I took my shoes off and I was about to go upstairs when Zen called me and told me that I was needed in the living room. The table was filled with coffee and scones so I poured myself a cup of coffee and sat next to Zendaya, she was twenty years and doing her final semester at the University. My father was sitting on a single sofa, the sofa that was opposite to the one I sat it was Anakosha, she’s my older sister she was thirty years old next to her sat Edzai her husband they had a two months old boy child and the other sofa that was at the far corner sat a woman with a boy and two girls.

My father introduced the woman as Tinashe, the boy as Zebediah who was twenty three, Tanatswa who was twenty seven she was the old one and Aneni who was twenty two she was the young one.

My father then told us that after years of mourning the death of my mother he had decided to marry and this is the woman she was to marry. My first instinct about the woman was that I don’t trust her, there was something about her I just couldn’t put my finger on at the time. Anakosha and Edza congratulated them, I told my father they must move in after the wedding but it was his house, I got angry and put the cup on the table and came out rushing. Zendaya tried to run after me but I got in the car and left.

That afternoon nobody came down for dinner and the next morning Anakosha and Edzai went back to their home at Midvaal.