Name: Man of God
Author: Miracle A.N

25

25
THE MOHLALA HOUSEHOLD
Ntando parks the car in a burry and comes in busting making his way to the basement. He finds the bishop sleeping after hours of screaming. He slaps him once waking him up and unties him. The confused half sleepy man rubs his face in confusion and anger.
Bishop: what was that for?
Ntando: we have a problem!!!
Bishop: oh really?
Ntando: now is not the time to be petty… we have to do something. We need a plan.
Bishop: so mow you see it… After I’ve done told you we need to get the bodies out of this house!!!
Ntando: you think this is about the bodies?!?! I don’t give a flying **** about the bodies, they can rot in here for all I care. But we need to survive! I think that girl is onto us.
Bishop: what are you talking about?? Can’t you calm down so I can understand you?
Ntando: I am calm!! I am calm!
Bishop: okay, okay… you don’t have to shout at me! Just tell me slowly what exactly is happening. Who’s this girl we’re talking about?
Ntando: the girl from office.. Reitumetse. She’s onto something and it just doesn’t feel right with me.
Bishop: what?! How do you know that?
Ntando: is that what you’re curious about right now? In this situation? You’ve gotta be kidding me.
Bishop: sorry.
The bishop wears a worried look in his face as his mind wanders off already thinking the worst that can happen. His body shivers at the thought. He gets up from the chair and slowly leaves the basement looking all haggard.
Ntando: and now?
Bishop: sitting here and worrying won’t fix the problem. I have to go and find out just how much the girl know, that’s if she knows anything.
Ntando: what the hell?!?!
Bishop: then what?! Do you have a better plan. If not then, it would be very wise of you to let me handle this the only way I know how while you do some cleaning. The bodies—you have to get rid of them. She might have called the police on us for all I care. Just get rid of the bodies, I’ll be back soon and we’ll talk.
Ntando looks at him with doubt at first but let’s things be. Things have become stickier in just a short space of time. He watches the bishop as he leaves while he wonders just how the hell did he not manage to suspect that Reitu was onto something. Her attitude was always off, especially when the bishop was around. Although that was not evidence enough to suspect her, it was a step in the right direction. He rubs his face in frustration and hurriedly follows after the bishop after realizing that Seipati is still in that car.
He runs after calling out to him as he approaches the front yard.
Ntando: wait!! The c-car .. there’s someone in the car.
Bishop: what?!
Ntando: earlier I took the car and I—
His eyes widen as the least of his expectation suffice right before his eyes. Seipati comes out of the car looking all lost while she rubs the rest of the sleep she had off her eyes. She looks around for a few seconds and realizes she’s at an unfamiliar place. Her eyes roam reading the faces around her, she exhales after noticing she recognizes the faces. She approaches Ntando shameless passing the bishop who is just as confused while standing next to the car.
Seipati: I fell asleep I’m sorryy… but what the hell—you should’ve told me you’re related to the bishop! I’m so embarrassed right now.
She whispers into his ear as her hands clutch around him locking their arms together.
Bishop: and this? This is how you handled things? Really?
Ntando: I’ll deal with it!
The bishop shakes his head and gets in the car and drives off not giving a care of what’s about to become of Seipati. If this is what it’ll take to fix things then so be it. It is her family after all who pushed them into this point.
Seipati: what was that about?
Ntando: just family stuff, come on in.
Ntando trudges upfront as anger consumes him. Things have just gotten way out of hand now. Seipati follows after Ntando not convinced a little bit about what he just said.
THE MALEKA HOUSEHOLD
Boipelo pulls herself together and wears a smile on her face as she welcomes the bishop in her house. She serves her tea and baked goods as she awaits to hear the reason for the bishop’s visit to her house because not even one has he ever shown up not even for Itu’s funeral.
Boipelo: I’m sorry the house is a little shabby, I haven’t had the time to thoroughly clean. I’ve been sick.
Bishop: you don’t have to explain Mme. I came up unannounced in your territory, and don’t worry about the house. It is alright.
Boipelo: oh… how have you been Man of God? And Mam’ Bishop?
He clears his throat and takes a sip of the tea before answering the question that caught him off guard.
Bishop: fine.. we’ve been fine. But that’s not why I am here, I came here to meet your daughter—I have things to run past her.
Boipelo: oh Reitu—she’s not home. She kept early this morning.
Bishop: err… do you have any idea when she’ll be back?
Boipelo: these kids don’t tell me anything so I don’t really know.
The bishop cusses under his breath grinding his teeth together. He pushes the tray away from him and stands up preparing to leave. Boipelo looks at him reads his face.
Bishop: I have to go. I’ll try to contact her later and see if she can come see me.
Boipelo: is it anything urgent? I can pass the message to her…
Bishop: its confidential so I can’t really tell you. Thank you for the warm welcome. I really must dash. See you on Sunday.
Boipelo: I—wi-
Boipelo holds her stomach as she coughs covering her mouth with one hand. The bishop looks at her as if wanting to ask if she’s okay. Before he can even utter a single word she falls on the floor with blood all over her hand and mouth. The startled man takes a step back from her and inspects her from afar. He tries calming down but it just doesn’t work. There’s just been a lot of people dying this week in his presence so mentally he is very unstable. He approaches her and shakes her slowly leaning towards her to check if she’s still breathing. He accesses a faint pulse and immediately runs to his car to prepare it to transport her to the hospital. He goes back to the house and suffers on his own as he tries to transport the woman to the car, his nerves shooting out of the roof.
KWANELE’S PLACE
Kwanele softly and carefully runs Reitu’s back trying to calm her down after watching the video the got from Namisa.
Reitu: I don’t know why I’m so worked up when it’s not even my sister. I’m sorry.
Kwanele: no one understands you better that I do. You were there for me too when I was a mess. And thank you for that.
Reitu: I just can’t —I can’t make sense of all this… why? Why are humans so evil?
Kwanele: wish I had an answer to that.
Reitu: so… do we have enough? This should be enough, right?
Kwanele: with this… we do. Now he can be charged with murder topped with fraudulent acts.
Reitu: how’s everything looking then? Life sentence? Is that even possible?
Kwanele: I can’t say but—I need to talk to someone about this.
Reitu: who?
Kwanele: Gina from work?
Reitu: so you’ve been feeding her info about all this?!
Kwanele: just to be a move ahead of the enemy. I mean we dint know what can happen…so I—
Reitu: so while you were busy telling me not to utter this to a soul you still went behind my back and shared every single detail with some chick from work?!!? Why do I feel so betrayed all of a sudden??! You too? I did not expect that from you… not you.
Kwanele: I don’t get why you’re so worked up about this!! I had to!! Those people are dangerous… what if something happened to me? What would happen to you then? You were so desperate for this… we did it and now you’re angry at me that I thought of your safety and put you first before everything else??
Reitu: I don’t want to fight you—I dint want to fight. I’ll leave.
Kwanele: Reitu!? REITUMETSE!!!
His word fall into thin air as Reitu ignores him and goes for the door slaming it behind her as she leaves the place fuming. He falls back into his couch and calls Gina to discuss things further and also to prepare for arrest.
THE MOHLALA HOUSEHOLD
Seipati muffles and wiggles trying to get off the chair she’s tied to. The man he trusted with all her being turned on her. She watches him with tears as he paces up and down looking to be in deep thought. He keeps checking his phone every now and then.
Ntando: ****!!! ****!!! ****!!!
His voice gets louder and louder each passing cuss scaring her further.
Ntando: this is all your fault!?!? This is all your goddamm fault, had you done your work better.. had you played your role better I wouldn’t be in this mess!??! You wouldn’t be in this mess too!! You brought this upon yourself!! And for that—you’re not leaving this house unscathed. You will pay for this!! I will make you wish you never met me!!
Tears flow off her eyes like the Nile. Her heart beats out of her chest as her breath hicks here and there. She sits there wondering what her sin is and why does she have to be the one paying for something she doesn’t even know.
THE MALEKA HOUSEHOLD
Reitu throws her bag to the side and gets under covers feeling betrayed and angry. She tries to force sleep by nothing comes. She rationalises with herself and gets ahold of her phone to try and call or text Kwanele. She looks at the contact for a long while and slams the phone back under her pillow. She gets comfortable and organizes her thoughts thinking back to her conversation with Kwanele. Her phone rings bringing her out of a trance. She retrieves it and reads the caller ID, takes a moment to herself before answering.
[On call]
Bishop: this may be an inconvenience to you and I’m very sorry but you have to come to the hospital right away!!
Reitu: what?!?
Bishop: your mother has been admitted…I can’t talk long. Just come.
[call ends abruptly]
Reitu gets out of her bed faster than the light and leaves the house looking like a mad woman. She texts Seipati on the way feeling a little bad that she didn’t check on Boipelo when she came back from her own adventures. Her heart races like mad and her anger builds up again, her head going haywire with thoughts and many what ifs that may just jinx everything.