You are in control...Or, are you?
It is pouring cats and dogs and the sounding of the showering rains reminds Qhawe of his warm bed as he looks through the window, seemingly a man deep in thought. His inner conversation with himself is interrupted by a little cute voice “daddy, daddy” as little Naledi grabs his pants, “you promised to read me bed time story” Qhawe sighs as he seems a little unpleasant by this disruption from his 5-year-old daughter.He bends down and lifts her up, “I know sweetheart, but this is not a good time, daddy is a little busy right now. But I promise I will read you your favorite one tomorrow. Better yet, I will even role play, how’s that?” he says as he puts the visibly disappointed Naledi down. She turns around in dismay, dragging her puppy doll out the door.
“You know this is not how you want to raise your kids” a voice coming out of the in-suite bathroom says. Nothemba comes to Qhawe and holds him from behind. “What are you talking about?” a seemingly confused Qhawe asks as he continues to look through the window.
“You know your kids must learn that if they make a promise, they must live up to it.” Nothemba says softly. Qhawe turns around to protest, “huh, huh, huh…” Nothemba interjects’ “You have been doing a lot of that lately babe and you know it.” she says. Qhawe sighs and keeps quiet. As she moves to the mirror, Nothemba sits on the bed and takes off her earrings, “Now baby I know it’s been a very stressful time for you lately and you know also that I have your back always but…” she thinks for a second.
Qhawe once again turns towards the window in quietness he listens as his wife speaks, “work is not the only life you have love. There is me and the kids as well. We also need you and your precious time.” Nothemba says with a measured and soft voice of a smart negotiator.
Qhawe comes over to her, kisses her in the forehead, “I hear you, malady” he says with a smile as he goes out the door. In quietness Nothemba, visibly pleased with herself knows that she had broken through to her husband. She bets if she had continued with a day job she would have done great as a negotiator.
Qhawe goes down stairs and enters the brightly decorated cute room full of puppy dolls and lots of pink baby items. Naledi is not asleep just yet. She turns around and sees daddy. She wants to jump and hug him as her eyes brighten, but then remembers that she is still mad at him. Qhawe, knowing that her daughter is just acting up comes over and sit next to her.
“Sweetheart, I know I say this all the time, but I am really sorry" he says. "I know lately I haven’t been keeping my promises but can I just make one last promise?” Naledi stares into her daddy’s eyes with a cute keenness. “I know I shouldn’t treat you like a little baby anymore, because you are not” Qhawe says as he thinks Oh my God, what am I saying? Of course she’s a little baby! “Go on, don’t let me interrupt you” Naledi says with her sense of humor. “What I’m trying to say princess is that at the moment I am going through a difficult for me to…what I am trying to say is that I will make it up to you and your brother. That I can promise.” Qhawe says with a smile.
The relief he has when he sees Naledi smile with sense of belief that her daddy was telling the truth. “Don’t worry daddy, I know you will.” she says with a smile. Qhawe kisses her in the forehead and says “I love you baby girl.” as he walks out the door.
“Can I switch off the lights now?” he asks on his way out. Naledi nods. Qhawe goes to the next room, opens the door but his son, 8-year-old Mholi-weSizwe is sound asleep. He thought its best if he doesn’t disturb him. Besides Mholi tends to think he is a grown man now and doesn’t need to be checked on at night and given forehead kisses.
Qhawe enters the bedroom and finds his wife Nothemba sound asleep. He tucks himself in and kisses her in her hair and whispers in her ear “I love you, malady” then he holds her tight from the back as he falls asleep.
***
In the morning, the cold brought by the pouring rains the night before is making everyone seem unenthusiastic about the day ahead except Nothemba who by the look of things has been up a long time ago because the smell of a delicious breakfast could have awakened anyone, she is a great cook.
Nothemba, a qualified investigative journalist, is a dedicated stay-home mom, who, in agreement with her husband decided that staying home for now and look after the home is better and when the time is right she may go back to work. Qhawe, they reckon makes enough money as a construction company owner so there is no rush. Besides, it is not like she is completely doing nothing. When kids have left for school, she has enough time to work on her book.
“Naledi, Mholi” she shouts as she pours a lemon juice for her husband who seems to be struggling with fixing his tie this morning, unusually so. “Am I the only one enthusiastic about this morning or what?” she says looking at Qhawe with a smile.
“Naledi, Mholi, come down please. Your breakfast is getting cold.” she shouts again as she takes her apron off. “Damn it” shouts Qhawe. He is battling with the tie. “Relax baby” says Nothemba as she comes over to him to help. “Everything will work out. Have you forgotten that we serve the God Almighty? Nothing will go wrong. You got this.” she reassures her visibly distracted husband with a kiss in the forehead.
“What if we don’t succeed baby?” Qhawe asks with a low voice as he sighs. But they get interrupted by their two kids coming down the stairs. “Oh wow, we are happy for you having finally joined us kids. Please hurry up, now your breakfast is getting cold.” Nothemba says as Naledi and Mholi sit down. They don’t look like they want to go to school. Mholi is a quiet boy, in contrast to his little baby sister who thinks she’s miss ‘Know-it-all’. He is shy and he always looks like he’s late for something important.
“Please be done by the time I come back from changing so that I can take you to school. And please, please don’t make me wait.” Nothemba says as hurries upstairs to the bedroom. “Yes mom…” says Naledi. ”Honey…” shouts Qhawe, “I'm out. I will call you wen when I get to the office okay? I'm trying to beat the traffic…”
“Okay baby…drive safe…” a distant voice says.
At the office Qhawe enters the reception in this state of the art building, true to its construction style. When you come through the door you face the reception area and just above the receptionist, in big letters it reads IKUSASA LESIZWE Inc.
“Good Morning Grace…” greets Qhawe with a smile. “Good Morning Mr. Nkosi…” Grace responds with a broad smile but Qhawe quickly interjects, “Would you please stop calling me that? Whatever happened to just ‘Qhawe’?” he says as he walks ahead but Grace blushes and says, “Oh sir, I left a few messages on your desk…” with a more serious face this time. Qhawe turns around and says, “here we go again…” as he rolls his eyes before entering his office.
This office is full of Qhawe’s pictures on the wall…pictures of his family. The first thing he does is picking up one of the notes that Grace left on his desk. He reads as he goes around to sit on his swinging chair, but before he could sit down there’s a knock on his door. “It's opened…” Qhawe shouts.
“Hey man, how are You? I hope you had a huge breakfast because we have very long day ahead of us…” a voice of a man says as he enters the room. “Eish man, I actually didn’t have that chance bro time just flew by…I thought I'd just grab something on the way.” Qhawe says as he sits down on his chair. Then man picks up the phone on Qhawe’s desk and dials. “Hey Grace, it's Themba…can you please organize a few muffins and two coffees for us? Thanks darling.” he says as and hangs up and then grabs a chair.
“Are you ready or What, man?” Themba asks as he raises an eyebrow while he seems a little excited about something. “Well, I have prepared as much as I can be on the logistics and operational side of things. I hope you are ready on the legal side of things man…” a nervous looking Qhawe says with a sigh.
“As much as I could be ready man…” Themba says with an assuring smile. Themba is Qhawe’s long-time friend who also happen to be the legal head of the company, in which he also has shares.
A moment later there's a knock on the door, “Sir, here are your muffins and two coffees as you requested.” Grace says as she puts a tray on Qhawe’s desk. “Thank you Grace, I’m starving…never had anything at home.” Qhawe says as he strengthens up on his from his chair. Grace nods with a smile as she walks out the door.
“Look man…nothing will go wrong.” Themba says as he takes a sip of this deliciously smelling coffee. “Besides, this project, unlike the others isn't just about the money but about development and helping the community we grew up in.” This is good assurance for Qhawe to ease him up. Themba is one person he trust and relies on for advice of any kind.
“Even from back in the day, remember?” Themba continues, “We have always said that we will DO something to develop this place with the help of God. So relax you got this…no, God got this. He smiles at Qhawe who brightly smiles back at him without saying anything to It lest he jinxes it.
After a little while of planning and strategizing important points Themba stands up and says “Well my friend let me go get ready, see you in the boardroom in, say in 10?” as he walks out. “Yeah sure thing,” responds Qhawe as he leans back on his chair.
He remembers that actually he was interrupted by Themba while reading the notes, one of them is from his wife Nothemba. He quickly picks up the phone and starts to dial, but he pauses for a second thinking maybe he should not call now. He will call after the meeting or in between breaks. He then drops the phone and heads to the door, off to the boardroom.
***
In the afternoon, Nothemba is in the kitchen getting ready to start supper when someone opens the door. “Honey” shouts Qhawe, “Honey, where are you? I’m home” Nothemba shouts back, “Over here baby” but before she could finish, Qhawe grabs her and lifts her up and kisses her.
Nothemba screams “Oooh baby what happened?” Qhawe burst out with laughter of joy. “Babe you won’t believe it.” He kisses her again, “We got the tender baby, and we got it.” He squeezes her tight. Nothemba screams out of joy, “Oooh baby I’m so happy to hear that, glory be to God. Didn’t I tell you He’s got your back?” she kisses him back, “I’m so proud of you baby.”
Qhawe smiles, "forget cooking baby, we are going to dinner, where are the kids?” he asks as he goes looking for them. Nothemba watches in excitement as she has never seen her husband this happy in a while.
Please log in to submit a comment.