BROKEN PROMISES
(Episode 4)
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As she lay there she thought of the
three promises she had made to
herself on New Year’s eve three
months ago. First: to enter the
singing competition and go all the
way to the final. Second: not to go
out with a guy unless he was kind
and respected her – not like the
guy Busi had dated in the holiday,
who had seemed the real deal –
too good to be true – because he
was too good to be true. He was
good looking and clever, but he
had left her with a broken heart
and a broken arm after he had
pushed her and she had tripped
and fallen hard. If Ntombi and
Asanda hadn’t run when they
heard her cries from behind the
sports shed at school, things might
have been a lot worse. But when
they appeared Ebenezer had left
her and run – a coward at heart.
The third promise was to find her
dad and bring him home. There
was no way that she was going to
let Zakes move in with them and
pretend to be their father.
Ntombi woke up from a nightmare
in the middle of the night. In the
dream she was wearing a long
pink dress with lots of frills and her
friend Asanda was putting a tiara
with plastic flowers in her hair.
They were in the changing rooms
at the church hall where the
auditions were going to be for the
Teen Voice competition. First
Ntombi thought she had won the
competition and she was really
excited. She was ready to walk out
on the stage in front of hundreds
of people and be given flowers and
a recording contract. Pink wasn’t
really her colour, but who cared,
when she was about to become a
pop star? But when she walked
out into the hall there were no
screaming teenage fans and no
sign of a microphone. In fact the
hall was full of men and women
dressed in suits and formal dresses.
And there at the back, next to the
door was her mother. She was also
dressed in a huge pink dress, with
more frills and lace than Ntombi’s.
For a second Ntombi thought that
this might be her own wedding,
and that at any minute the
handsomest, coolest guy was
going to appear, walk towards her
and announce that he was her
fiancé. But then Zakes walked in,
and Ntombi realised that this was
no fairytale wedding and she
definitely wasn’t the princess. She
was a bridesmaid at her mother’s
wedding to Zakes. The dream had
just turned into a terrible
nightmare.
Her mother was smiling and
kissing Zakes. He was smiling that
fake smile. Before she knew it her
mother was calling her to the
bridal procession. Her sister
appeared in an identical pink dress.
The whole thing made Ntombi feel
sick.
“What’s wrong, Ntombi?” Suddenly
her mother had the face of a witch.
“Can’t you be happy for us?”
“Just wait.” Zakes gripped her arm
and led her away so her mother
couldn’t hear what he was about
to say. His breath was warm and
stank of beer as he lowered his
voice.“There’s no escaping from me
now,” he said. “You will do exactly
as I say or there will be trouble. I
am the boss in your house.” He let
her go and she rubbed her arm; his
fat fingers had left marks on her
skin. She watched as her mother
took Zakes’ arm and walked up the
aisle and up the stairs to the stage
where a priest was waiting to
marry them.
Ntombi had to do something to
stop them – nobody else was. She
tried to run but her feet were
glued to the ground. She opened
her mouth to scream but no words
came out. Zakes took the ring and
was about to slip it on her
mother’s finger.
She must have made a noise when
she woke up because her mother
was standing next to her bed.
“What’s the matter, baby girl?” she party dresses for teens
said. “Did you have a bad dream?”
She wasn’t a witch. She was the
loving, kind mother Ntombi had
known before Zakes came along.
All Ntombi could say was, “You
came back.”
“Of course I came back. And I want
to thank you for cooking supper
and looking after your sister last
night. I had a really good time
with Zakes. You know things are
going very well with him. I
wouldn’t be surprised if…”
“No,” Ntombi said quickly. So it
was true he was going to ask her
to marry him.
“I was going to say, I wouldn’t be
surprised if he asks me to his end-
of-year work party.”
“At the car dealership?” Ntombi
asked warily. She was sure there
was no car dealership. Or else that
it was a front for something else
that Zakes was up to. Something
illegal and dangerous. She had
heard talk in their neighbourhood
that he was in some shady
business. Whenever his cell rang
when she was around, he switched
it off without answering it. Once he
hadn’t seen her come up behind
him while he was talking, and he
had shouted at her.
“Never do that again, sneaking up
on me like that when I’m on my
cell.”
But her mother wouldn’t listen to
the rumours. She said that people
just wanted to bad-mouth him
because he was successful.
“Zakes says it’s going to be the
whole national team of sales reps
at some smart hotel. I can’t wait.”
Her mother sounded so proud of
him. Ntombi’s heart sank. Nothing
had changed.
“Thanks for the tea,” was all she
said.
“It’s a pleasure.” Her mother
hesitated. Ntombi waited. She
knew what was coming.
“Zakes has invited me out
tonight…”
“But Mama, you went out last
night, and the night before.”
“I know. But he wants me to meet
a friend of his, who could get me a
job.”
“You have a job.”
“A better one. Please, Ntombi. I
promise I’ll do something nice with
you on Saturday. I promise.”
Ntombi looked at her mother: she
sounded like a teenager herself,
pleading like this to go out with
her boyfriend. And making
promises she couldn’t keep.
To be continue.
