Umendo Chapter 2

Umendo Chapter 2

When l'm nervous and anxious, ngiyagijinyiswa yisisu. My mum is the same. My stomach was growling and rumbling so loud, l couldn't hold it anymore. I had to go. There was a toilet by the corner in the cell. There was no toilet paper and l had to do my business in front of everyone.Eish, imagine!  I asked my cell mates if they had toilet paper or wipes. Lerato shouted for the officer to give us some toilet paper. She asked me if l had any money? I gave her R50, one officer came with a roll and took the R50. The most expensive toilet paper i have ever bought, 1 ply futhi for that matter. Anyway 2 ply for what umuntu esestoksini, l will have to wipe twice. Tip I got from Trevor Noah's uncle. I took it and wiped the toilet surface area, I squat and I just let it rip. I apologised to the girls, but I just had to. I had no appetite at all, so I didn't worry about eating that night. My husband was nowhere to be found. At first his phone was going through with no answer, but now it was not going through at all. The phone that l had left with my bag had most of my contacts, it was my main phone. This one was a simple Nokia with no internet or Whatsapp, l used it to call ekhaya mostly. I didn't want to stress my parents, but at this point I had no choice. I didn't know any of my friends' number by heart and none of them were saved on this phone. Vele the only phone numbers I knew by heart were my parents landline and my mother's cell phone. So I called back home. It was around 10pm, my mum answered. She could tell that something was wrong just from my hello mama. "Kutheni mntanami?", she asked worried. I told her that l had been arrested, "yuuuuuu, Nkosi yami bantu umntanami, iGoli yangenza mina". I could hear my father asking what was going on, he took the phone from my mum and asked me what was going on. I explained to him exactly what had happened. He asked me where my husband was, I told him that I couldn't get hold of him. He said he was going to call my uncle (his younger brother), and my aunt (my mum's young sister) and tell them what was going on. I told him that I couldn't stay long on the phone as l had to save the battery. I hung up with a heavy heart because I could here my mum crying and praying  on the background. 

I couldn't sleep, not because the floor was too cold and hard, and the thin blankets which we had to share were stinking and itchy. I just couldn't stop thinking about why l had been arrested in the first place. It made no sense to me. And where was my husband? Were they going to interrogate me? Torture me and force me to confess under duress? I have read stories whereby interrogators torture suspects and force them to confess, and the suspects do because they don't want to suffer anymore. What if they did the same with me? I remember when I was young, $5 (Zim$) went missing in our house and my mum beat the crap out of us, me and my 3 siblings. She told us that she wasn't going to stop until someone confessed. I couldn't take it anymore and I ended up confessing to a crime I didn't commit. My punishment was to do everyone's chores by myself for a whole week. 2 days later my mum came home from work and told us that she found her $5 in her work drawer. She apologised and asked why l confessed to something I hadn't done. I got away with a lot of things the following weeks. 

Ashley said that since tomorrow was a Saturday, it meant that we would be spending the weekend inside. Can things get any worse? So I was going to spend the weekend here for something I didn't even know? I eventually drifted to sleep around 3am. I still hadn't heard anything from my husband. I didn't know whether to be angry that he hadn't called back or be worried about him. I was woken up by a loud bang around 8am. It was another police officer. She gave us some mints and water in a bowl. It was for washing our faces. I thanked God that I wasn't on my period. I got a call from my aunt saying that she was coming over to see what she can do. Another girl who was about 18 came to join us that morning. Her name is Sharon. She told us that she was arrested for shoplifting. She seemed to be on her phone a lot typing impatiently. That afternoon she got a call and she mentioned the name Lumki, Lerato asked her if she was speaking to Lumkile Mbatha, to which she agreed. That's how I got to know that cop's name, the one who arrested me. I was surprised as to why Sharon would be speaking to her. She told me that she knew her and she was asking her to get her out. My aunt called later that Saturday afternoon and told me that they couldn't do anything until Monday. My uncle called and told me the same thing. Still no word from my "husband". I wasn't too surprised because he has pulled stunts like these a few times,then resurfaces after a couple of days with some lame excuses.