Chapter Fourteen

"Munzi, what are you doing here?" Kensi asked after she opened the door. Munzi was shocked by the coldness in her little sister's voice. Sure she had left and she wasn't supposed to but you couldn't blame her if you'd walked in her shoes.

"I came to visit mother and father." She said unable to call them mom and dad. They had lost that right when they had refused to believe that she was innocent.

"Who's at the door?" Munzi and Kensi heard their father ask from the living room. They both tensed. Their father was an unpredictable man. Anything could happen now. Unsure of what to do, Kensi moved away from the door and let her sister in.

"Father." Munzi said after walking down the hallway to the living room. She took everything in while waiting for her father to respond. It was just like she remembered it. The dark wooden floors, beige walls and green chairs. The white ceiling and big windows with dark green curtains. It had a homely feeling to it. Not in a cosy way but in a beautiful fresh way that let you know that you were home after a long day of hard work.

"Kamimiu, is that you?" Her father asked standing up and walking towards her. She placed her bag down. When he raised his hands, she quickly placed hers above her head to protect her face from the blow expecting a slap. It was out of habit since her mother used to strike her every time she was angry. Instead of a slal, her father gave her a hug. Munzi was beyond shocked. Never in her life had she hugged her father nor had she expected to do it. She hugged him back awkwardly.

"It's me father." She said after he let go.

"Let me look at you my daughter. I haven't seen you in so long." Her dad said holding her at arm's length and looking at her face with a smile of adoration. He gestured for her to sit.

"How have you been?" He asked and she shrugged sitting in the same spot she had claimed years ago.

"I've been good. Where's mother?" She asked not wanting to talk to him anymore. He might be hiding something from her waiting for her weak moment to drop the bomb. She couldn't risk getting her heart broken by him again.

"She's in the kitchen. Kensi, why don't you go get your mother?" Her father said looking at his youngest daughter. She placed Munzi's bag on the floor near the staircase.

"Okay father." Kensi then said walking towards the kitchen. Munzi looked at her father trying to figure out what was going on. She had expected to be lashed at and maybe even given a good beating but she was getting the opposite. Something was not right.

"Munzi." Her mother called out less than a minute later. She was wiping her hands on her red and white dress. That somethings never change, was Munzi's thought as she looked at her mother's dress. It was almost as old as she was.

"Mother." She dared to say getting up from her spot.

"I see you came back. How is school?" Her mother asked and Munzi had to try very hard to not let out a sigh of relief. Her mother was still mean so maybe everything was going to be okay.

"It is good. I'm starting my second semester on Monday." She said wondering what her mother's reaction would be. They hadn't seen her in over a year and she had only spoken to her father once after leaving. And that was to accept the money he had offered.

"Good. Supper is ready." Her mother said and walked back to the kitchen.

"I'll go freshen up if that's okay." Munzi said hoping that they had kept her room.

"Take the room next to mine." Kensi said as Munzi picked up her bag and started walking up the staircase.

"Why not?" She asked stopping to look at her sister. Her room was across Kensi's.

"Your room was converted into a guest room." Kensi said. Munzi lowered her head in disappointment and then let out a smile.

"Okay. I'll be right back." She said rushing up the stairs.

After getting to the room she had been directed, she placed her bag on the bed and lay on it. Wondering if she had made the right decision coming back. If she had never left, she would be married by now and probably with a child and expecting the other. All the time she had spent in school would have been wasted. She didn't understand why people saw it as mandatory for a person to stay home after highschool. All her friends were now attending school in a polytechnic college. All of them learning something to do with farming. Those who didn't make the cut to go there were married and working on the farms picking tea. She felt bad for them. There was a whole world out there waiting to be explored. But then again we are all different. Not everyone can dream that big. She got up and went downstairs for supper.

"Come sit next to your sister." Her father said from the head of the table. She smiled and obeyed.

"Can you pass me the food please." She said looking at her mother and stretched her arm to receive the bowl of biriyani. It was one of her favorite foods. She took two serving spoonfuls and dug in.

"Munzi how is Elino?"  Kensi asked.

"It's good. Just lots of pollution." She answered smiling. More from the food than from the fact that she was having a somewhat normal conversation with her sister.

"How many more years of school do you have?" Her mother asked.

"Only three and three months." She said taking another bite of the delicious rice. Her mother was a really long cook when she wanted to be.

"That's a long time." Her mother said but Munzi caught the meaning behind those words. It meant that Munzi wasn't getting any younger. She should have been reproducing by now. If not then in a few months after the polytechnic. You'd think she wasn't just nineteen turning twenty in seven months.

"It's really not. I mean after that I only have to learn for four more years to get my PhD. I was actually thinking that while in school I could start my own pharmaceutical company." She explained excited. That was the life she was aiming for. To study and work hard in her twenties to become a billionaire. Then do fun stuff like taking a culinary arts course and diploma in law. Buy her own house and have a gym in her thirties and maybe have six kids in her forties. It was the perfect plan. If God willed it then so it would be.

"What about marriage and kids? Don't you want that?" Kensi asked looking at her like she had grown horns.

"I do want that but I feel like I'm too young and I'm still not capable of being a mother. I don't think I can take care of a kid well right now." She explained adding more food to her plate.

"You are nineteen. Most of your age mates are engaged. Do you want your younger sister to not get married?" Her mother asked. Traditionally, the younger sister couldn't get married before the elder sister. She knew that she wasn't making things easier for her sister but she knew that she could also be saving her. Kensi was only sixteen years old. She shouldn't have been thinking about marriage and kids. And she shouldn't have to do it just because society expects her to. It made her angry how people live like the world owes them something. They couldn't just accept that some people were different.

"I'm sure she will find someone who loves her enough to look beyond the flaws of our family." She said loosening the tight grip she had on her spoon. Her parents snorted.

"You still believe in that bull crap? Love doesn't matter when it comes to marriage." Her father said sounding amused that Munzi would even think of such a thing. Munzi didn't feel offended at all. Some people were just too set in their ways to see it any other way.

"I know that marriage can exist without love. Like yours and mother's." She said taking a huge bite of the food. It was the last one.

"You will be respectful young lady. We are still your parents." Her father said banging his hands on the table and getting up. He gave her a disappointed look and left. Her mother followed him. Kensi just looked at her and shook her head before leaving for her room.

"That went better than I expected. At least now I know where we all stand." Munzi said to the air after they all left. She cleared the table and did the dishes before going to bed. She had only tomorrow to do everything she needed. Maybe coming back here wasn't such a bad idea after all. And she switched off the lights.