Umendo Chapter 45

Umendo Chapter 45

Siya and Zandie only communicate every now and then, like when there is a crisis or something like that. So naturally I was surprised to see outgoing calls from Siya to Zandie. "Baby, lihlanganisani loZandie?" I asked him. "Why do you ask?", he replied. I told him why I was asking. Before he could react and reply, Faith said that she is the one who had been calling Zandie using Siya's phone because she had no airtime. She told me that she had asked her ukuba amzwele umsebenzi, so she used Siya's phone a few times to call her about a couple of job vacancies. Phew.....I felt stupid and silly for even asking him that. Maybe I was becoming too paranoid, that's what being cheated on does to you. You are always on guard, you become a detective, always on the look out for anything and everything. Once that trust is lost, it takes forever to build it up again, and even when you've built it again, it's never the same. I was ashamed though that Siya's infidelity had reduced me to even entertaining the thought that my friend, my closest friend who had been there for me through it all could even look at My husband that way. I was glad though that I had been calm and collected when I asked him. 

Faith got a job and asked to stay for a month to get her first pay then move out. She worked different shifts five days a week. When she was off, she went over to Didi's. Siya was still not able to perform in bed, he would either go flat way too early, or go on forever when he had a drink. He kept postponing going to the men's clinic. It was all frustrating, but l tried to stay strong and positive. I was against him drinking, but he argued that it was too much to expect him to not drink any alcohol at all for heaven knows how long. So we ended up compromising that he could have a drink once a week. One Saturday, Siya and l went to collect my car, Faith had gone over to Didi's. We met up with Zandie and Francis for dinner to celebrate my new car. We arrived home around 8pm. 

Around 10pm when we were sleeping, we heard a very loud knock. We both looked at each other puzzled. We could hear footsteps around the house, "open up or we will kick this door in", a male voice said. I put on my morning gown, Siya put on a t-shirt and went to open the door. When we got to the door, the same voice said, "This is your last warning. It's the police,  open up or we will break in". Siya unlocked the door and opened it slowly, one of them pushed the door wide open with his boots and with a gun pointed right at Siya. It was oma beret! The ones who wear red berets and look like soldiers. There were about 15 of them wearing bullet proof vests, they pushed their way through all of them with guns pointed at us, we moved back into the living room walking backwards. I have never been so scared in my life, I had been scared when Siya was stabbed, but this! This was on a whole new level! I have heard stories about how ruthless oma beret are, in fact Siya once told me a story about a guy he knew. The guy was one of two suspects in a high jacking shooting. They went to his place where they found him sleeping with his girlfriend, they beat him so hard before asking him about the gun he had used for shooting the victim, then they asked his girlfriend where the gun was. When she told them that she knew nothing, they beat her up too breaking her jaw and knocking out three of her teeth. Whilst they were interrogating them, the accomplice knocked at the door not knowing that he was walking into a death trap. They opened the door and saw that it was the other suspect, the suspect realised what was going on, he tried to run but they shot him more that seven times. He died on the spot. The other suspect seeing this, told them where the gun was. Lapho ke they beat him to a pulp. He was unconscious when they dragged him to their car to take him to the police station where he died fours later. They wrote on their report that he had gotten in a fight with one of cell mates in the holding cells. So as you can imagine, l was scared shitless. I could tell that Siya was terrified as well, he was shaking! 

We were cornered against the wall in the living room by two of them, the rest were walking around the house searching for God knows what. It all seemed surreal. Then one of them, a tall white Afrikaans middle aged guy came over to us and said, "so, where are they?". We looked at each other puzzled, then he said "The drugs! Were are the drugs?!"