Her

***

Kamogelo Mariri

I was in my suite when the door barged open. It was Katlego and the other guys.

"Why are you guys here?" I asked annoyed.

"Did you not see it?" Jake asked.

"See what?" I asked unbothered.

"Remember Kgaugelo?" Lesiba asked.

"Yeah." I answered curiously.

How could I forget her? She is the first woman to ever pique my interest. She was someone I knew and held in high regard. Her voice was calm and soft like a melody. I was enthralled by her beauty and her voice. Her scent wa...

"She is going through something really sad and horrible." Katlego spoke, snapping me out of my thoughts with his words.

"What happened?" I asked.

"See it for yourself." Katlego let out as he gave me the tablet.

It was a video of her and some stranger, but I knew this wasn't her in the video. The person in the video was slightly bigger than her.

"That is not her." I let out as I threw the tablet at Katlego.

I got up from the couch and I walked towards my office.

"How do you know that?" Jake asked.

"Because I had touched her body." I responded.

"You had sex with her?" Lesiba asked surprised.

"No, I did not have sex with her but I did help her to the bathroom and I know her body." I tell them.

"I want you people out of my suite." I added.

"So leave." I let out as I shooed them away with my hands.

"Don't you like her?" Lesiba asked.

"She only piques my interest." I tell him as I close the door of my office.

"Her boyfriend will help her." I convince myself.

I walked towards my desk and threw myself in my chair. I could not stop thinking about her. I wanted to know what was happening to her. Was she doing okay? Was her boyfriend helping her? What was happening? Was everything settling?

I groaned as my thoughts scrambled all over my mind. I turned my laptop on and I searched for information about her current situation.

Huh... It seems like she lost followers and brand deals because of what happened. I hacked into her account and I looked through the messages she was getting and how her account looked. Her account was like a war zone. The number of men in her comment section asking her how much she wants made me angry. Other people were using sending her death threats. It would be horrifying to be here if you were someone with a soft heart. I looked through her messages until I found the man who I assumed was her boyfriend.

Babe, when are you coming home?

Babe, I love you (red heart emoji)

Babe, are you working late?

Babe, I miss you (sad emoji and crying emoji)

Babe, I'm okay (smile emoji and blushing emoji)

I closed my laptop as I sighed. He barely ever responded. He never said 'I love you too' to her. His responses were similar to an uninterested guy.

Soon.

Me too.

Yes.

Me too.

K

Apart from me wanting to punch him but I should not have intervened. I should stay away from all of this. I should keep my promise.

***

Ten years ago...

We were in grade eleven... She was sixteen years old in grade eleven. Her afro hair had been tied up into a neat bun. It looked like a smaller afro on neatly done hair... She sat in the first row near the teacher's desk. The desk everyone evaded because it was the seat of the person who the teacher would always use as an example of... Not that it mattered to her, she appreciated that the teacher would take her work and use it as an example... After all, she was an overachiever and you could not really find flaws in her work.

I sat in the seat behind her. I liked the scent that always surrounded her, and as we're best friends.

Until I ruined it...

It was during break and she was nowhere to be found. She usually sat down under the Amarula tree that was twenty meters away from the soccer field...But today she could not be found. It made me worry but I knew she was still on school premises.

"Did you see Kgaugelo and Thomas behind the bathroom?"

"Who would have thought that Thomas liked her!."

I got up shocked a surprised by the conversation that I had heard from the girls that passed by. Thomas was a player and a liar. I could not just sit back and watch him hurt her. It would be crazy of me to do so. I rushed towards the bathroom and I went to the back of the bathroom. Thomas held Kgaugelo on the waist and was about to kiss her. Incensed and desirous, I stormed towards Thomas and I punched him.

"You fucking Scumbag!" I let out as I punched him.

"Stop it!" Kgaugelo shouted.

My mind was fogged by the loop memory of Thomas's hand on Kgaugelo and his attempted kiss.

"STOP IT!" Kgaugelo shouted as she slapped me.

"What is wrong with YOU???" I asked emphasizing the word you.

"What's wrong with me?" she asked shocked.

" There is nothing wrong with me!" she shouted.

"You always interfering in my life like you are my parent or something. Stop it!" she screamed at me.

"Kgau.." I let out.

"No! Don't ever talk to me ever again!" she shouted as she helped Thomas up.

"Don't ever both me ever again." she added leaving me standing there alone.

She ignored me after that and she changed schools.

***

I sighed as I got up from my recliner chair.

"Kgaugelo. How did you change so much?" I whispered to myself.

"You are smarter than this." I whispered as I left my office.

***

Limpopo, Venda, Mulenzhe.

She walked through a dusty alley trying to find the place. The dogs in locked gates kept barking as she walked by. She could hear rustling in the bushes on the other side of the alley.

She looked around nervously searching for the shack she was told about.

"You will find a lady in Mulenzhe. She lives on Putlanu Street. Go to the alley and you will see a shack. It is surrounded by the shabby chicken fence gate that looks like it's about to fall over. When you reach her, tell her that Maruti told you about her."

She stood in front of the gate and took a deep breath before she entered the yard.

"Thokozani Gogo!" She called out as she bowed down in respect.

This was how Sangomas were greeted. A sangoma is a doctor. Though it was not your typical doctor you would find in a clinic or hospital. A Sangoma was a highly skilled traditional healer... They were people who could communicate with progenitors. They were people who could cure people who had been cursed. They were also people you went to if you wanted to get rid of someone or bewitch someone. They were people who could help you if you needed to speak to your progenitors.

The shack door creaked open and she walked in.

A big smoke engulfed her and she coughed as a woody spicy scent strangled her nostrils.

"Your progenitors loom over you while they omit yours as though it's a scourge. They do it not to say that they don't accept it but because of the Serpents that obviate them from protecting it. Is that why you seek me?" a voice asked slowly in a deep menacing tone that filled the room with a sense of foreboding.

She shivered afraid and confused about what the woman was saying.

"I don't understand Gogo " she spoke.

"What do you mean that there are serpents around her?" she asked.

"They absorb its fortune and its verve. You seek to protect it but you can't. For it has to find its heart's desire... It's one's promised." The sangoma let out as she shook her beads while she burned impepho.

"Gogo, how can I help her?" She asked as she begged on her knees.

"It needs to take back what had been stolen from it. It needs to punish those who tried to steal from it. Your offspring needs to reclaim it all back." The Sangoma declared as she read the bones she had thrown.

The woman sat on the floor nervously. She was scared and she was nervous. Was her child in trouble? Could she help her child? Everything felt terrifying to her.

The Sangoma crushed down herbs and other stuff that the woman had never seen in her life, she crossed her fingers and prayed that her child be safe.

"Feed this to your child. " The Sangoma spoke.

"You can't tell your child about the serpents that are after her life as they can hear and see you. You must bake this in a cake that your child must finish alone. Once she finishes it. The serpents will be weakened and your progenitors will be able to shield your child until it finds its heart's desire." The Sangoma spoke as she gave me a bag filled with black coloured powder.

"Do it soon or your child will die by the next full moon and your progenitors will punish you." The Sangoma added.

"Thank you Gogo." the woman let out as she bowed.

"How much do I need to pay you?" she asked.

"I do not accept money. I only accept animals. Bring me a newborn calf and a kid." The sangoma informed the woman

[NB: not a literal Kid but a kid as in a baby goat.]

"I will bring them to you later today." the woman spoke as she left.

The woman left the place and went to a farm to get what she needed to. She was then sent to the sangoma before she went back to her house in Bendor.

Upon arrival... She took her phone and called her daughter.

"Kgaugelo, my child." she spoke when Kgaugelo picked up.

"Come home. I need to speak to you." she let out.

"Okay, I will see you in two days then." she spoke before hanging the call-up.