Echoes Of The Heart

Episode 23

“I just need you to tell me what’s wrong with you.” Sibusiswe implored him. “I know now for a fact that you are sick but I don’t understand why you won’t tell me what you are suffering from. Is it that bad?”
Martin walked over to her, took her hand into his and led them to sit down. “Sibu, Sibu, Sibu….” he said whilst playing with her hand over the table. “There’s that look in your eyes…one minute I can swear on my life that you love me…and the next minute, you treat me like a plague you wanna avoid for life.”
“Stop trying to change the topic Martin,” Sibu said forcefully.

For a moment, Martin paused whatever he was doing with her hand and just held on to it like that, starring hard at their hands entangled together and yet it was so clear his mind was somewhere else.
“If you don’t tell me, I know someone somewhere who would be willing to tell me if I begged him properly.” She threatened him.
And then very slowly, he led her hand to the table, carefully placed it down and withdrew his hands under the table. “Yes I am sick Sibu,” he finally admitted, suddenly sitting up straight and delivering the devastating news in the most casual tone he could cook up. “I have a kidney problem and the doctors think getting a transplant is the best thing for me.”
Despite her implorations, she never really expected him to come out with the truth right away, but looking at Martin standing there, there was an unsettling feeling that had crept up on her and she couldn’t get rid of it.
“You are serious, right?” She was studying him closely.
Martin was looking at her bemusedly. “You need to learn to trust me, Sibu. Why would I lie to you about something like this?”
“Then why do you look like that?” She was gesturing towards his whole demeanour.
“What, you want me to be all sad and feeling sorry for myself just because I have a terminal disease?” He asked.
“Not exactly,” she replied. “But you don’t look sick at all and you act like there is nothing serious going on with your health.”
“It’s not that serious, yet…” he answered nonchalantly. “And I have been doing enough to keep things under control.”
“You mean like partying and drinking?” She said sarcastically.
Martin only laughed in response.

And then a thought crossed Sibu’s mind. “Your conversation with the doctor that night…and what Ted just said…does it mean you don’t want to have surgery?” The expression on her face had suddenly turned serious.

Martin had dreaded this moment but it had finally come. “I told you about the disease Sibu but that’s all I’m gonna say.”
“Why won’t you have surgery when it will help you live? I just don’t understand that. Is it because you haven’t found a donor?” She asked.
“Tell me something Sibusiswe,” Martin leaned his back against his chair. “Why are you so concerned about my health or my wellbeing in general?”

The question was so unexpected and Sibu struggled to give a response right away.
“Because we are friends,” she had finally managed. “I am just concerned about you as Ted is.”
“There we go again, Ted.” Martin bleated. “What’s up with you and Ted? Are you sure nothing happened between you two? Why does he feel the need to call you all the way from there and then talk about me?”
“He didn’t call to talk about you, don’t be so conceited.” She replied. “And just like the way you and I are, he too is a friend.” She was now up on her feet and ready to go.
Martin got up as well. “So does that mean you slept with him too?” he asked.
If looks could kill, Martin Mwewa had just been turned into a fossil.
“You said just like us,” he shrugged his shoulders innocently. “Okay,” he moved closer to her and closed the distance between them. “It was a bad joke,” he placed his hands on her shoulders and much to his surprise; she did not flinch or protest like she normally did whenever he initiated physical contact. She was just looking at him with the same murderous expression on her face.
It was Martin’s turn to feel uncomfortable. He dropped his hands from her shoulders and put some distance between them. He was looking at her suspiciously.
“You were not planning on hitting me in the balls were you?” He asked, looking down at her foot which was busy tapping the floor.
“I am going back to work,” Sibu said to him before turning to leave.
“I met your aunt over the weekend,” Martin’s announcement brought her to a complete stop.

Sibu immediately turned back around and walked back to where Martin was standing, his hands back in his pockets as a satisfied grin appeared on his face. “Figured that would get your attention,” he said.
“Are you kidding me?” An angry Sibu shouted.
“Oh no, I wasn’t lying about your aunt. I really met her on Sunday. She called and said there was something she needed to talk to me about. Tell me, is that woman your real aunt?” Martin asked, for the umpteenth time.
“What did she say to you?” Sibu’s voice was husky and shaky.
“There, that look again.” Martin was pointing at her face. “You always get like this whenever your aunt comes up. You act like she is more of a nemesis than aunt.”
“What did my aunt say to you Martin?” She repeated the question, this time placing emphasis on every single word.
“Nothing important, she said she was curious about me and just wanted to know me better.” He lied and she wasn’t buying.
“You lying to me means that she said something worse,” Sibu muttered. “Why won’t you tell me what she said to you?”
Martin had somehow successfully landed himself into a hole. “Because it’s not that important Sibu,” he said. “She just wanted to know how far our relationship has gone and she said something about being on my side and looking out for me if you give me a hard time.”

Sibu still looked unconvinced. “I know my aunt and I know for a fact that that does not sound like anything she would say…well, maybe she might have said something in those lines but I know there is something else she said to you that you are not telling me.”
“Sibu….” He tentatively reached out for her hand.
“Never mind,” she said dismissively. “Even if you don’t tell me, I will find out.” And with that, she turned and walked away.

Left behind, Martin brushed his hand through his hair in frustration.

“How did that happen?” He scolded himsef.
Just like she had promised Martin, Sibusiswe went directly to her aunt’s house that evening after knocking off from work.
“I knew you would bring yourself home soon,” Aunt Tafadzwa passed the snide remark the moment she opened the door for her. That phrase had unconsciously become her welcoming remark to Sibu.
“Why did you ask to meet Martin aunt and what did you tell him?” Sibu had offered herself a seat and she went straight to the point the moment she was settled down.
“Typical Bemba man,” Aunt Tafadzwa said as she too sat down to face her angry niece. “They all talk too much.”
“Aunt,” Sibu called out to her, a grave expression on her face. “For how long do you intend to run my life like this? What do I have to do that will satisfy you and make you leave me the hell alone?”
“I am glad you asked that question my dear,” her aunt replied. “You claim to have done enough for me yet here I am still languishing in poverty. My friends at the market are busy upgrading and they now own shop yet all I have is that small stand which isn’t even mine to begin with.”
“And how is that my fought?” Sibu asked. “I gave you money to start the business ; did you also want me to take care of every little thing for you?”
“Have you forgotten that you are the reason my family is this poor?” Aunt Tafadzwa asked. “If not for you…and if not for all the hospital bills I had to pay for your recovery, my children and I wouldn’t have to depend on you for anything.”

She always knew when to bring up those words in a conversation and after so many years of using them, she had come to master their exact effect.

Sibu sighed heavily and let her head fall back on the sofa. She had no more fight left in her. Every conversation she had with her aunt somehow always led to this particular conversation.

How was she supposed to win an argument when she was disadvantaged from the get-go? There was only one person who knew what happened that day and that person was bent on using that information against her till the day she died.
“You said that if I marry him,” Sibu sat up straight and had a new kind of resolve in her eyes. “That if I send my cousins to school and set up a business for you then you will let me go, right?”

Aunt Tafadzwa was grinning from ear to ear. “Yes, yes, you’ve thought wisely my dear.” She was nodding her head excitedly as she spoke. “Marrying a man like him will set you up for life.”

More like set you up for life, Sibu thought to herself but loudly said. “I will marry him,” she announced to her very delighted aunt. “But only I get to decide how much money you get from that family,” she added before her aunt could say anything. She could tell she was itching to give her five cents on the topic.

“You will not under any circumstances make any financial demands from Martin or any member of his family,” She went on. “If I hear that you contacted any one of them behind my back, I will cancel this arrangement and disappear from your life, to hell with the past and all that talk about penance. Have I made myself clear aunty?”
Aunt Tafadzwa didn’t look pleased at all with the terms that came with it. “The way you sound…and the way you are looking at me, who can tell that you are my niece? Tsk.”
Sibu stood up. “After draining me of my blood and sweat, do you still think that there could ever be such a relationship between us?” She said. “To me you will always be the person that put a price on my mother’s life and made me pay every cent of it using my blood.” She then picked up her handbag and left the house.