by Haden, Ross;
“You are, Parks!” she said, “Your wife phoned me. Why didn’t you tell me?” There was silence on the other end. She could sense him struggling with what to say now that his secret was out.
“You never asked me, baby!” He said it so casually, she couldn’t believe it. “I love you, baby – that’s all that matters. We’ll work something out.” He tried to sound reassuring.
How could he talk of love? How could he switch so quickly to saying they’d work something out, when he had left her alone to have an abortion. There was only one thing he wanted to work out – how to get rid of her baby.
Busi heard her grandmother shuffling about in the kitchen, she heard her pouring water from the tap.
“Shall I fetch you, baby? Shall I come through now?”
“No, Parks,” she whispered.
When they had made love, he had been married. When they had taken that romantic stroll and he had given her a locket, he had been married. He had betrayed her, and his wife. She was aware of her heart slowly turning around, turning inside out, shedding every memory of the love she had had for him. She felt like a trespasser and a fraud. And it hurt so much. She had wanted to believe that their child was conceived in love. She had clung onto that. But now even that had been ripped away from her.
“I need to see you,” he said. And then he said the words that found the chink in her armour: “You owe me that. Just once more, Busi, for the child. I am the father … You owe me that.”
“Yeka, Parks.”
“Please. For all we had together … I’ll meet you in ten minutes. I’ll be waiting at the end of your road. Say yes.”
He was the father. He would always be the father. She did owe him that, she thought.
“Busi! Yeka!”
As she walked towards Parks’s taxi, she heard Unathi. She heard him shouting from the other end of the street. But she was five steps away from Parks’s taxi and she didn’t turn around.
“Remember you are strong, Busi!” Unathi shouted, as he ran down the street towards her. “You are strong!” But he was too late. The taxi took off, leaving dust in his face. Had she heard him?
* * *
Parks took Busi to the sea. But there was no picnic this time, and the sky was overcast. She wanted to huddle next to him for warmth. But she would not let herself. She would not touch him, even though she was freezing. “Womelele!” That’s what Unathi had called after her. She had heard him.
Parks sat up straight and looked out over the ocean. She followed his gaze, watching the squawking seagulls scavenging around a group of fishermen down on the rocks below.
“The baby, Busi. You can’t have the baby – not now, not this one. It will hurt her too much.”
“Hurt her? What about me, Parks?” She turned to him. “What about me?”
“You can’t have this baby, Busi. It will kill her if I have a baby with someone else.”
“You should have thought of that!” she spat.
He tried to put his arm around her. He tried to use those old, sweet, flattering words.
“You are strong, Busi!” She heard Unathi’s voice in her head.
“Busi, my darling, if I could I would leave her and marry you. Please understand that. But we can still be together. We just have to be careful. I really love you, that’s for sure.” He pulled her towards him again. She pushed him away and looked him straight in the eye.
“Uyamthanda yena?” she asked. He fumbled in the pockets of his leather jacket. “I said, do you love her?” She was shouting now.
“Ndinithanda nobabini. Really I do. We can work something out.” He lit a cigarette.
“Forget about me!” Busi said. “I’m never going to be a secret in anyone’s life, least of all yours!” She stood up.
“This will be the end of me,” he said feebly. “This will be the end of my marriage. What are we going to do? What will I do if she throws me out?”
“Can’t you live without her?” asked Busi.
But Parks wasn’t listening to her. “Can’t you go to Jozi, give the child up? I can arrange everything for you.” Then when he saw that she wasn’t necessarily going to do as he wished any more, he stood up and crushed his cigarette in the sand. “I’m fucked!” he screamed. He was striding back to the taxi. She followed him two steps behind. Suddenly she feared for herself … and the baby. “I’m nothing without my wife!” he said. “Don’t you understand that?” He punched his fist against the taxi. “She owns this bloody taxi. She owns everything!”
Busi stared at him. Is that all he could think about? Did he feel nothing for the baby? For his own baby?
“We should have used condoms, Parks. You should at least have done that, knowing you were married.”
“Shut up!” he shouted at her.
Busi was scared of him now, scared of his anger erupting at everything she said. She had to get away from him.
“Okay, Parks,” she said, “I’ll meet you to talk about it later. But I have to go to school now. I have an appointment with Mr Khumalo.”
He looked relieved, like he had won. “I’ll fetch you afterwards,” he said. “You’ll be there?”
“Yes,” she lied and he believed her.
But she knew that it wouldn’t be her waiting for him outside the school. It would be Mr Khumalo. Because now she was going to tell him everything about Parks. Yonke into.
Chapter 21
When Busi got home she was cold and exhausted. She felt ill. “Where have you been?” asked her granny. “You should be looking after yourself.”
That’s what she was doing, thought Busi. She was looking after herself. She wouldn’t let Parks hurt her any more.
“Did you see him? Were you with him?” asked her grandmother.
“It’s okay, Gogo. It’s over,” she said. “This time for good.” Her granny hugged her close.
“I’m proud of you.”
“I’ve made such a mess of things,” Busi said.
“Yes, you have. Things would have been very different if you hadn’t fallen pregnant. It is going to be very difficult. And you are going to have to be strong, and you are going to have to make a lot of sacrifices. You are lucky you have good friends, and you have me. Not every pregnant girl has family or friends she can count on. Sometimes it breaks them. You are going to have to grow up fast, my girl. Now go and sleep. You need it.”
There were tears on Busi’s cheeks as she closed her eyes, but for the first time in days she slept deeply.
* * *
She woke to a chatter of familiar voices – her friends had come to visit. “We were waiting for you to wake up,” said Lettie. “Your granny told us everything.” They all hugged Busi.
“Are you okay?” asked Lettie. Busi nodded.
“It’s over with Parks,” she said. And she started to cry. Lettie hugged her.
“We’ll be there for you,” she said.
“Now that it’s over with Parks, maybe you can think more clearly about the baby,” said Asanda. It was true, thought Busi. But then her granny put her head around the blanket that hung between the bedroom and the kitchen. She sounded excited.
“Your mother phoned while you were sleeping,” she said. “She’s bought a ticket, and she’s coming down to see you.”
“Thank you, Gogo,” said Busi as her grandmother returned to the kitchen, leaving the girls to talk. But really Busi didn’t know how she felt about her mother coming. They would fight – she knew it. If she decided to keep the baby, she wanted to look after it. She wouldn’t let her mom take it. What kind of a mother would I be, thought Busi? Would I cope? Would I leave my baby with someone else and run away?
“I don’t even know how I would raise a child on my own. I have no income. Besides, I have to go to school …”
“Sizakunceda,” said Ntombi, “… whatever
you decide.”
Busi smiled. She had good friends. But it would be tough. Whatever she decided, it would be tough. She looked around the small room. There was someone missing.
“Where’s Unathi?” she asked.
“He’s coming,” said Asanda, “don’t worry.”
“You have a real talent for reading people’s minds,” laughed Lettie.
“And I have a real talent for falling pregnant,” said Busi.
“You have lots of talents,” said Unathi. He had come in quietly. “You don’t know half of them yet.”
* * *
When the girls had left, Unathi stayed behind. Busi turned to him. What could she say?
“I’m sorry, for everything.”
“It’s okay,” he said, putting his arm around her. She felt his warmth against her. She felt safe. “It’s going to be okay. Whatever happens, I’ll be there.”
“Unathi?”
“Yes?”
“I heard what you said when you ran after the taxi. You said I was strong.”
“It’s true, Busi,” he smiled. “Never forget it!”
The end
Copyright © Cover2Cover 2011, 2012
ISBN 978-0-620-50944-2
e-ISBN 978-0-992-20172-2
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher, except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act, Act 98 of 1978.
Cover design: Robin Taylor
Cover models: Phumza Kibi and Mzolisi Mandla
Editing: Sandra Dodson and Clarity Editorial
Cover2Cover is an exciting publisher producing novels for African teens. If you enjoyed Sugar Daddy, look out for other titles in the Harmony High series:
Broken Promises
From boys to men
Jealous in Jozi
Too young to die
Two-faced friends
Find out more about Cover2Cover at: www.cover2cover.co.za or by email: [email protected]
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