내 첫 사랑 che cha sarang - Varaidzo Melissa Chidzuu (english readers txt) 📗

all for the best. I don’t know I shouldn’t have done it but you wanted a baby and I didn’t and I acted impulsively I guess. I haven’t been there for Adolph and…”

Shuvai slapped him hard on the face all of a sudden. “The best is what you say! Is that all that you can say after what you did to me without my consent? What kind of a man are you anyway?” She looked at him in disgust as he rubbed his cheek simmering quietly in rage. “Why did you marry me then Alan Chakwana if you did not want me to have children?” Shuvai pleaded for an answer. “So, you want to know the real reason why I married you? Ok, I can now see that you don’t believe that I love you and you’re having doubts. Sure, I’ll tell you what you want to hear,” he dared her. “The truth about why I married you Shuvai is that you looked like a man. Yes, it’s the very reason why I got together with you in the first place. I’ve had beauty queens kneeling before me, begging me to have them but no I chose you because you were different and didn’t intimidate or suffocate me with your looks. I was struggling with my sexuality back then and didn’t want my mother to die with a broken heart because of a celibate son who couldn’t continue the family legacy. But…”

“But what Alan, is that all I’ve ever been to you all these years? Didn’t anything we had mean something to you?” Shuvai was clearly hurt by his response. Some how she had always known that the real reason why Alan was with her was not because of her looks but to hear it like this was like being stabbed. “I don’t want to hear anything more from you Alan. I want a divorce.”

 

“The place feels empty without you so I figured out that the best solution would be for me to come down there and keep you company,” Jonathan told Nyarai over the phone in Father Martin’s cathedral. “No thanks I’m not bored, anyway three is a crowd and you know I can’t resist you because you’re like a cute little puppy. You can only take my mind off the important things so stay away! Why don’t you call George? I’m sure he won’t mind,” Nyarai tried to reach a compromise with her difficult fiancé. He was so aggressive perhaps because he loved her and was also passionate about his work.

“Why do you sound as if you are up to something that you don’t want me to know about?” he questioned her angrily. “It’s not like that honey, I just want us to…”

“Then it’s settled, if things go well I’ll book a ticket on Friday and fly into Algeria on Saturday,” he made all the arrangements himself. Nyarai just held the receiver to her left ear and listened. She clearly remembered what their last argument had triggered and did not want it to happen again. Rubbing her sore arm which had almost healed after Jonathan had pushed her down stairs; she smiled. He had promised not to lay a finger on her again and that’s all that mattered.

Nyarai threw herself on the bed when she got back to the guest room she was accommodated in and stared at the freshly painted ceiling. If only everything was as perfect as the vintage rooms in this cathedral. The thought of going out to the hospital to see the sorry faces of her patients was wavering but the idea of Jonathan joining her was a real nightmare. At this time, comfort only came from being solo and serene. Closing her eyes she listened to the complete silence which could only be disturbed by the whispers of sinners softly confessing their sins and her own thoughts of the future perhaps. The orphans were at school and the widows came later at mid morning, better not waste this precious time. The jeep that would take her to the hospital and then a refugee camp would arrive in two hours. She had earnestly asked Sister Gertrude to call the director of the hospital on her behalf and she successfully had convinced him with her soft spoken voice that Nyarai would not make it in time.

Listening to the song that played at the back of her mind she closed her eyes and got drowsy only to be woken up by another familiar tune. No, she wanted to listen to the first one but the second one got stronger until she realized that it was not in her head but some one was playing it. Oh, she had not heard it for a long time and did not wish to because it brought back so many memories she would rather forget. She had tearfully learnt to play the piano for that particular song because she could not let go. Now fresh tears streamed down her eyes as if a sharp blade had been plunged into her heart. But who could be playing it? Only three people knew that song and two of them were alive this day. Pulling herself together, she wiped her tears and made her way to the auditorium barefoot least she disturbed the musician by the loud sound her boots made on the wooden floor.

David, he could have gotten enough time to catch a flight to see her because it had been five years now since they had physically gotten in touch despite the fact that they sent emails to each other once a week. How considerate of him because she was always moving from one continent to another and what he had done was taking a big risk because there was no telling when she could be on a plane to another continent again.

Eagerly she ran up the stairs that led to the podium and smiled broadly, how she was excited to be seeing her old friend once more. “David, what a pleasant…!”

Nyarai froze but the musician almost jumped out of his skin. “Ah…Dr Kahari, what…what are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be… at the hospital?” he stammered not even aware of what he was saying. Nyarai just stared at him with tears streaming down her eyes as she shook in disbelief. She wished she would wake up from this dream because eleven years were too much a handful to be a practical joke. Slowly she walked over to the blind bald man with an unkempt beard and gently ran her fingers down his face. “August…che cha sarang,” she whispered. “My first love,” she continued under her breath.

 

Josh wanted to slam the phone back on the wall but took a deep breath. “What do you want you jerk?” he retained himself from shouting. “Please Mr. Winters; I need to talk to her just for a minute!” Jessie pleaded. “She’s about to leave for school…”

“PLEASE!” a desperate cry was heard from the receiver. Josh looked at Monica who seemed not interested in the call. Looking at the clock on the wall, she resumed her game of solitaire on her palmtop. “Monica; some one is one the phone for you,” he could not hide the hesitation in his voice. “Oh really, if it’s Mr. Barbers tell him I haven’t got anytime to waste talking to him,” she answered coldly.

This is what Josh hated the most, being caught in the crossfire. Picking up the receiver again he decided to give Jessie a piece of his mind. He had nothing to lose and definitely he never really liked him as he always pictured him as a dark cloud in Monica’s life. “Listen Barbers,” he began. “You can’t expect to treat a woman the way you did and come waltzing back thinking she’s going to dance to your tune. Not my daughter, she’s not cheap. If you ever come close to her my boy I promise you that I will break your neck with my bare hands,” he slammed the receiver back on the wall.

“Oh Daddy, thank you,” she embraced him. “Anything for my baby,” Josh whispered kissing the crown of her head. Monica took a hanky from her school blazer and blew her nose quickly wiping away her tears too. “If you don’t feel like going to school you can…”

“There are mock up exams and I can’t miss them. I’ll be fine you don’t have to worry too much about me,” she reassured her anxious father. “Unless you want to be…mother hen?” she added with an impish smile. “Ha, ha very funny young lady. I’m too much of an amateur to deserve that title. I’ll drive you to school then, no buts,” Josh took her bag on the couch and led the way outside.

 

“If life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Just leave it like that because if you try to smart aleck yourself out of this whole situation you can only get hurt again. Look, if this Winters kid really loves you she’ll forgive you and accept you for who you are and…”

“You shouldn’t have screamed like that!” Jessie shouted in annoyance as Dakota rubbed the salt in. “Don’t blame me for your carelessness, you should have thought of that before you pulled me into the bathroom you junkie!” she snapped. “Wake up and smell the coffee because you’re stuck with me and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. I forgave you when you slept with Annabelle, Miranda, Jasmine and Andile, why can’t she do the same?” Dakota mocked him. “Don’t flatter yourself, you think I belong with you!” he ridiculed her. “Dakota, you are twenty-three years old and a loose woman without morals,” he added. “Oh, and what does that make you Jessie? The pope I guess!” she returned the comment. “I’m just like you I guess, rotten and pissed off at the same time. I had so many chances of becoming a better man but I tossed them all in the trash. Now I’m a junkie without any control over my body,” he said sadly. “And Monica…”

“Now, now don’t be crying on me Jessie. I hate that sulky face of yours. Here, have some coke will you; I bet you’ll be hype and dancing around in no time,” she took a small packet out of her bra and threw it at him. “No, I can’t do it!” he pushed it aside. “I just want to go and lie down for a bit Dakota; if possible I don’t want to wake up ever again.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Eleven

Joseph switched on the car radio as soon as Monica threw her bag into the boot before slipping into the back seat. She loved to listen to the radio discussions on the news station as they went through the day’s headlines in the paper. Since home seemed to be a long way as usual, she normally enjoyed the dreaded drive because of the show Tatenda Mukuyi and Simon Dube always put on. Sometimes she found herself participating in the discussions through the messages she sent using her palmtop.

Stretching out on the seat; her usual habit (if she hadn’t driven herself to school of course) she closed her eyes and listened attentively to the discussion which had been going on for may be five minutes now.

“What do you think of this whole Barbers boy issue? I don’t quiet understand the reason why he could do such a thing. After all it was no secret that he was waiting to pounce on the family fortune once the old lady kicked the bucket,” Tatenda posed a question to Simon who always chuckled sarcastically before answering. “It was just a desperate cry for attention which turned into a tragedy. A spoilt brat like him has always been lost in the limelight of the clubs, picking up any girl he wanted instead of grooming himself to take over the empire. I’d also like to believe that he was