#12 Tumiso le Kagiso
“Prolific marafuka.” “ awu Bountiful ninja,” he replies. And the entire group laughs. Who greets like this vele. Tumiso and Themba’s (T&T) vocabulary challenge is getting a bit out of hand. It’s been a month since they started. I remember because it’s been a month since uSma passed away. Tumiso was devastated. They were in Cape Town on their annual boys trip when they got the news – uSma was caught in the crossfire when a fight broke out outside of a night club. Sonic, her brother, had managed to keep her alive until they got to the hospital where they were met by their father and aunt.
The vocabulary challenge started when Kagiso, T&Ts friend, walked into the room shouting “LUXURIATE honey, luxuri-fucken-ate. Who knew that abelungu been having a word for le self-care-self-love movement all along.” He reached the back of the couch and jumped to sit between T&T. “Fuck it, the movement feels like another hand me down now,” he said and then notices the silence and the tears. “Shall we Luxuriate T?”, “ why yes T, I think we should give it a whirl,” Tumiso replies with a smile as he wipes his cheeks. The room goes quiet again and Kagiso decides to stand up. “So, tell me,” he asks with one hand on his hip. “Sonic just called, uSma got shot outside Lux Liqu last night. He said the funerals is likely to be this coming weekend,” says Themba. “Fuck,” Kagiso and Tumiso say under their breath at the same time. Kagiso sits down again and hugs Tumiso with his right hand. Seconds later, the room echoes with Tumiso’s loud cry. All three of them had never heard a cry like it before. But when they heard it, Themba and Kagiso instantly understood the pain that Tumiso was feeling. Another crack had formed in his heart.
Tumiso and his family arrive at Sma’s house. There aren’t a lot of cars so uantiMbonge signals for them to drive in. Umalume Isiah flashes a smile and instantly feels a sense of importance. Anti Mbonge is sitting on a low bench in the varenda. This wasn’t her plan but she came out when she heard that the Sihlobo’s were on their way. Malume doesn’t speak much Zulu but this doesn’t stop him from piecing together words to convey greetings and condolences. Amused, Anti replies in Kwanongoma Zulu. Malume accepts the challenge and strings together more Zulu words to thank them for allowing Tumiso to come see uSma before the funeral. Tumiso, his younger sister and his father all follow malumes lead, just as they had weeks earlier when Tumiso came to pay ilobolo. “Mwelase,” Anti calls and a little girl comes running. She instructs her to take Tumiso into the house. “… and ask uSamu to make tea for our visitors.” “Yebo anti,” she replies as she takes Tumiso’s hand and they walk over the threshold.
The house is not big, but Mwelase’s stories about who else has been here make it seem like they walked for hours. “… uncle Cidwell gave me money and even sisi Nina also gave me money, but uanti said I must give it to her to keep for me,” and just as she says that, Tumiso sees uSamu sitting near the door in the bedroom where Sma’s body is. His heart starts to beat fast, but he decides to walk past her. uSamu is Sma’s identical twin sister, it is nearly impossible to tell them apart, especially when they’re talking. Their mother was pleasantly surprised when she found out that she’d be having twins. There hadn’t been a set of twins born in the family since their mothers great grandfather. And because of this long lapse in time, the recipe for the “Yamawele” herb tea was lost. Not even uanti could remember it. Grandparents used to brew it for mother’s who were pregnant with twins – they’d drink it to help with gestational diabetes.
As soon as Tumiso got into the car, he texted T and Kagiso, asked them to meet him ekhaya. After speaking to Sma and getting a bit of closure, uSamu had returned to bring him some tea and they had a short conversation. “ … why was Sonic out with uSma? Wasn’t he on-call that weekend?” he asked and the reply sent him into a rage. So much so, that he doesn’t talk during the drive home. His parents make an assumption and don’t bother him with questions about his well-being. When they get into the house, they find Kagiso already waiting on the balcony. He greets and they ask to be excused. “Kagiso, tell me everything about Nina and please don’t lie to me.” Tumiso asks as soon as he parks the car near the corner shop.
Noma the writer 