Echoes Of The Heart

Episode 4

In a battle of the mind and the heart, it is the part that’s more vulnerable that concedes first. For Sibusiswe, it was never a question of which part won over the other for if she had to live, the two parts had to exist in harmony. But when love comes, it neither knocks nor seeks permission, and it certainly knows no boundaries.

Sibusiswe had clocked a month at M&M Law firm and she took delight in having survived without much event. Apart from the constant game of hide and seek she played with Martin and Ted, Sibu stay at the firm was free of drama.

You were born unlucky and you will die unlucky. The very blood flowing through your veins is the curse that will live with you till the day you die. How could she ever forget her aunt’s ominous words that haunted her through the night and day?
Despite being the only family she had, Aunt Tafadzwa treated Sibu like her greatest nemesis. Months would go by without the two talking to each other unless there was something the thirty-eight year old woman needed from her; then she would call to shamelessly announce her demands, like she did one Friday afternoon.
Sibusiswe was attending to a client on the work line when the first call from her aunt came and so she ignored the call. Only twenty minutes remained to lunch tie, I will call her then, she had reasoned as she did her best to ignore the vibrations.
Unfortunately Aunt Tafadzwa went on to give her fifteen more missed calls before she could finally run outside to take the sixteenth call. She could only imagine the rage rising up her aunt’s oesophagus, ready to explode the moment she answered the call.
“What the hell is wrong with you? Do you have any idea how long I have been trying to get in touch with you?” Sibusiswe had to slightly pull the phone away from her ear to keep the enraged woman from blasting her eardrums.
“How can you change jobs without telling me? Do you think you can run away from me just like that?” her aunt unleashed her fury, sparing Sibu no chance to return the favour. “Where the hell are you? Come to the gate right now. These idiots won’t let me in unless I tell them I have an appointment.”
The idiots in question being the two security guards stationed at the gate who worked under strict instructions to only let into the building identifiable people and those with appointments. Aunt Tafadzwa definitely did not fall into either category.
Sibu’s eyes widened in surprise and trepidation, “You are here?” She asked the obvious question, taking a few steps forward to get a clear view of the gate in the distance but since the massive gates were closed, she could not see anything apart from the two guards seated in their booth.
A loud bang on the gate sent her running in that direction. When she got closer to the gate, she gestured an apology towards the visibly upset pair of men in uniform before removing the card which was hanging around her neck, holding it to the machine and waiting for the small gate to open.
The moment she stepped outside the building, she was met by a woman glowing in rage. Sibu was not sure if the red stamps all over her face where a result of the cold or the effects of the skin lightening creams eating away at her melanin.

Dressed in a chitenge wrapper with a matching top swallowing her whole upper body, Aunt Tafadzwa grabbed Sibu by the ears and dragged her to the side, away from the gate.
Reasoning that protesting would only get her in more trouble, Sibu could only lower her head to cushion the pain if only just slightly as she was being dragged. She lost her footing for a moment and a shoe came off her foot in the process.
When her aunt finally came to a stop, Sibu almost breathed a sigh of relief but her joy was short-lived because upon releasing her ear, she was slapped hard across the face with such force that she went tumbling to the ground.
Wide-eyes, she reached out her hand to touch the assaulted area, slowly rising up from the ground in embarrassment. Apart from the guards and a car parked on the other side of the gate, there were no people in sight.
What would happen if any of her colleagues saw her like that?
“That is for making me wait out here in the cold and subjecting me to that kind of treatment by your guards.” The angry woman snapped, fuming from ear to ear and daring the guards with her eyes to try and interfere in her business.
“Is that a new watch you are wearing?” Aunt Tafadzwa roughly grabbed Sibu’s hand to examine the wrist watch.
With tears welling up her eyes, Sibu struggled to keep her mind working against the ringing sound coming from her ears. Everything was happening so fast.
“What the hell is going on here?” Someone grabbed Sibu’s hand from her aunt’s painful grasp.
It was Martin. He had her shoe in his hand.
Where the hell did he come from? Sibu thought. “Martin,” was all she could manage as she wished for the ground to open up and swallow her whole.
“Who the hell are you and why are you causing a scene in front of my father’s firm?” Martin fired at the woman with vengeance. “Guards!” he turned towards the two guards who had been watching the scene wide-eyed through the glass screen of their booth.
They quickly fumbled out of the little room the moment they were summoned.
“What the hell are you doing while an employee is being physically abused right in front of you?” Martin snapped, his hand still holding on to Sibu’s.
“Martin please,” Sibu pleaded, desperately trying to free her hand from his grasp but Martin would not let go.
“Who do you think you are to interfere with how I choose to discipline my niece?” Aunt Tafadzwa retorted, sizing him up with her lips curled tightly.
“She is your aunt?” Martin turned his gaze twowards Sibu.
She nodded. “Yes she is so please don’t interfere and let me handle this myself. It is none of your business. Please…just pretend you did not see anything, I am begging you…please.” The pleading look in her eyes tore at Martin’s insides. What was really going on?

Martin searched her face and all he could see was fear written all over her features. He wanted to take her into his arms if only to keep her from trembling so much. He could feel the dread coursing through her body from her hand.

Is this the same woman that had defiantly rejected him numerous times?

Sibu took advantage of Martin’s befuddled state to free her hand from his grasp, stealthily moving away from him to stand in front of her aunt. “I am very sorry aunty,” she put her hands together and raising them up as if in prayer, she rubbed them up and down with her head shoulders hunched forward as she begged her aunt for forgiveness.

Martin could not believe what he was witnessing. “What do you think you are doing?” He was eyeing her contemptuously.
He reached out to grab her hands and stop her demonstration but she quickly tossed his hand away, continuing her show of obeisance to her aunt.

The guards seemed at a loss for both words and actions. They just stood at attention with only their eyes moving from Sibu to Martin.
“If your family wants to put up a show, I suggest you move it far away from these premises,” Martin warned, his face tightening to the point of uniting his perfectly shaped eyebrows into one straight line.
Without saying a word, Aunt Tafadzwa pranced angrily to the other side of the road with a nervous Sibu following closely behind.
Martin was shaking his head slowly in disbelief as he watched the pair cross the road. And just when he thought he had seen enough drama, Sibu went straight down on her knees the moment they were out of the road. She remained in that position with her head bowed down as her aunt went on a tirade; poking Sibu’s head every now and then as she continued talking. He could not make out what was actually being said but the body language was enough to cause indignation to rise up his spine.
“What’s up with those two?” A girl in a school uniform joined Martin by his side. She was watching the scene unfolding across the road with lividity. “Shouldn’t that woman be arrested or something for abuse?” the teenager asked. “How can something like this be happening in front of a law firm?”
“Don’t look at them Mwiche,” Martin put his hands on the girls shoulders and turned her around. “Watching them will only make her feel even more like a victim. It’s their family matter, there’s nothing we can do. You need to go home now. Mum will have a fit if she discovers you didn’t go straight home from school.”
Mwiche chuckled. “That’s exactly what Clement said a minute ago.” She said, waving her hand at the driver waiting in the car just a few feet away.
Martin looked around to see if there were any other people in sight apart from them and the guards. He felt some form of relief when he couldn’t spot a soul in sight apart from the vehicles passing through the road.
“But are you really going to let that girl get treated like that?” They both turned to look across the road. Sibu was now up on her feet, slightly bending to wipe the dirt off her jeans where she had been kneeling. She then straightened her back, removed something from her jacket and handed it to her aunt.
“Did she just give her money?” Martin’s little sister asked, looking very shell-shocked.
“I don’t know what’s going on there but whatever it is, it’s very twisted.” Martin was shaking his head. “Let me escort you to the car, I can’t look at that s–t anymore.” He took his sister’s hand and led her back to the car.
After saying goodbye to Mwiche, Martin went back inside only to appear a few minutes later in his car. He parked on the spot where Clement had been parked and he waited for Sibu to finish her case with the mad aunt.
Martin didn’t need to wait for long because after receiving the money and delivering a bit more of her onslaught verbal diarrhoea, Sibu’s aunt had turned around and walked away, leaving Sibu alone to nurse her wounded pride.
Martin could hardly recognize the eighteen year old girl standing across the street looking so dejected and defeated like a leaf on a hot summer’s day.
That girl was not the feisty young girl that always stared down at him and challenged his manhood every chance she got. That withered looking girl made his heart ache to a point of no return. Instead of envisaging holding her naked body all through the night like he always did, the girl in front of him made him want to hold her tightly in his arms and drive her pain away.

When five minutes had gone by and Sibusiswe had not moved from the spot her aunt had left her, Martin got out of the vehicle and walked to where she was.
Sibusiswe kept her eyes glued on her aunt’s retreating figure as a storm of tears poured down her eyes. She was fixed on the task at hand that she did not hear Martin approach because the next thing she knew, he was grabbing her hand and leading her towards his vehicle.
“Don’t even try to fight me,” Martin warned her sternly as he quickly got them across the road. He opened the front passenger door and shoved Sibu inside before she could further protest. “Belt,” he instructed before banging the door and moving to his side of the vehicle.

By now Sibu had stopped crying and was starring wide-eyed at Martin.
“Where are you taking me?” She asked, finally resigning to put her seat belt on since Martin had already set the car in motion.
“I am taking you to a place I know you will love,” he replied nonchalantly.
Sibu bolted up in her seat. “Have you lost your mind? I have a job to attend to Martin!” she yelled at him.
“Calm down, I already asked Peggy to take care of it while you are gone.”
“What?” He was impossible.
“I told her that my father sent you on an errand so you don’t have to worry about anything. I can tell what’s going through that mind of yours.” He chuckled lightly. “Relax,” he reassured her.
Martin put on some music and Mozart’s
Requiem in D minor filled the car.
Sibu reclined her seat and tried to relax. “Wake me up when we reach wherever we are going.” She la!d back and closed her eyes as the music filled the air.
Martin got her cue and raised the volume slightly.
After driving for a few minutes, Martin watched Sibu take off her pumps and raise her feet from the floor of the vehicle only to curl them up on her seat. Before she could completely hunch herself into a ball, Martin noticed the tears.
Had she been silently crying all along? He wondered, not sure if he should say something or remain quite. He was not very good with touchy-feely things. The only time women ever cried in front of him was when they were either cussing him for breaking their hearts or begging him to take them back. In both instances, he never cared much about how they felt. He was sure of his feelings so he didn’t need to know or understand theirs.
But what was this situation? How the hell was he expected to respond?