It is the 13th of October 2001, four woman stay
in the same neighbourhood in two different houses. It is already heading
towards 9am and there are no signs that they will be waking up anytime soon. Yesterday
night was a very long one, Selina reunited with her daughter after a long week
in the hospital while in the other house for the first in a very long time Ruth
had a companion. They slept for another two hours before Ruth was awakened by a
knock at the door. It was the post man. ‘A letter for me’ said Ruth in amusement.
‘Usually I deal with emails’ said jokingly to the post man as she said her
thank you.
For fifteen years Ndumiso Gumede has been a postman. For the
past years he has delivered over ten thousand letters. Ndumiso leaves his home every
day at 3am. He gets to the office and puts the, to- be delivered mail in his
mail bag and heads to the neighbourhood. His letters have brought joy and bad
news at the same time. More often when he delivers at the door people read the
letters to him through their expressions. One day a lady fainted in front of
him when she received a letter while some time ago a man gave Ndumiso money
just for delivering a small box. Usually Ndumiso does not care he is just doing
his job. Today has been an easy day and he is left with one letter to deliver. He has to deliver the envelope in person so
he heads towards the door and knocks. Anele opens the door and just like Ruth
is surprised to see the postman. It is the end of the day for Ndumiso he bids
farewell and leaves.
It did not take Anele time to open the letter. She tore it
apart and started reading. Selina was awakened by the breaking of glasses and a
loud scream. She quickly got into her wheelchair and went to see what was
happening. Anele was crying and Selina tried to comfort her. After a while
Anele was calm and she spoke. ‘My husband of thirty years whom I have been
faithful to all these years has turned out not to be what he was’. 'I am
finished' said Selina in her heart had Anele found out about her little secret?
she wondered. ‘I am told that Raymond has a son with another woman, a long time
ago when I was pregnant before I miscarried Raymond changed his will had made a
vow to our son that if he makes it alive he will own everything. I had experienced a lot of miscarriages that
is why Raymond made such a foolish decision. When he died he never changed what
he wrote. Now this woman wants everything to herself.’
Ruth had just finished eating when she set donw to open the
letter. Just like Anele none of the
letters carried any good tidings. For Ruth crying was not her thing, she went
upstairs to where Taka was sleeping and set next to her. Taka woke up and asked
if everything was ok. She said ‘no’. ‘I just received a letter from the doctor,
a couple of months ago I did a test to check if my body was cancer free. And the
results have come'. She kept quiet for a while then blasted in tears 'I am gonna
die, I have cancer’
Chapter 8 will follow #keep reading
written by Hawulethu Patrice Dube
a saxjaz7 production
all rights reserved
follow me @hawulethu
No comments:
Post a Comment