Never Lost

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 18

Mum!’ she shouted on top of her voice.

‘Isn’t that Kundai?’ she asked her husband and quickly got off the bed.

She put on her slippers and he was trailing behind her. The house was so big and when she got to her room, Kundai was sitting on the bed with tears in her eyes. She had been sweating.

‘Mum!’ she hugged her mother as if her life depended on her.

‘Shhhh my babe. Did you have another nightmare?’

Sandra was very much worried about her daughter for the past 2 months. She hadn’t been sleeping well and every time she woke up with a start, she used to tell her mother that she was seeing a girl that looked exactly like her asking her to help her because she was in trouble. It didn’t make sense until one night they found her eyes closed and she was talking to herself, which scared the shit out of them. Kundai let go of her mother and wiped off her tears.

‘She is dead,’ she said in a sad tone.

‘Who?’ she asked with a hint of confusion in her voice.

‘She said that her name was Nyasha before she died. I couldn’t save her mum.’

Sandra looked at her husband and he just shook his head sideways.

‘I am sorry my baby, I am so sorry,’ she said to her patting her back.

Her husband excused himself and went back to their room. He knew that this was becoming too big for them; they had to tell Kundai the truth. Sandra stayed behind with her daughter until she had fallen asleep. She walked out of her room feeling much scared than before. More than ever she had so many questions running through her mind. She opened the door and her husband was sitting on the bed.

‘How is she?’

‘Sleeping,’ she removed her slippers and got inside the blankets.

‘We need to tell her the truth about her real parents.’

‘We can’t tell her the truth Jerome. It’s been 18 and half years since we met those people and we made promises. Never to let anyone find out that she had twins.’

‘Can’t you see what is happening here Sandra? She is seeing things and I don’t know what to do anymore. A therapist can’t help her, we tried that but it never worked. Kundai has to know that we are not her biological parents.’

‘What?’ Kundai opened their door.

She had pretended to be asleep when her mother walked out of her room but woke up to fetch some water when she heard them talking. She walked inside the room and Sandra got off the bed. She was tongue tied and Jerome didn’t want her to find out this way.

‘I am not your daughter? Then where are my parents?’

She wasn’t at all shocked by this. People always told her that she looked nothing like her parents. One time there was a girl who actually told her that she looked like some girl at her college and when she had greeted her, she had thought that it was her. Maybe she already saw this coming and that’s why she wasn’t at all that much moved by the truth.

‘Kundai.’

‘Mum, where are my parents?’

Sandra didn’t want to lose Kundai not now and not ever. She remembered being so desperate to have a child, she remembered when she lost her little girl and Bertha was the woman who had walked inside the room. The woman who had twins. Bertha had sat on the chair in her room.

‘I am sorry, I heard about what happened to your child,’ Bertha had said to her.

‘I don’t know what I did to deserve all of this. I prayed to God to give me a child after 5 years of marriage and she just died,’ she had cried.

Bertha felt pity for her. On the other hand she was planning on giving her one of her twins. After she found out that her mother was involved in a Satanist group and had told Bertha that her unborn child will become the devil’s queen one day, Bertha needed to save 1 of her twins.

‘I want to give you one of my twins,’ she had said to her.

Sandra raised her eyebrow, she was surprised.

‘But you don’t know me,’ she had said to Bertha.

‘I don’t need to know that you will be a great mother to her. I just need to save 1 of my daughters and I am giving her to you. Her name is Kundai and the other one is Nyasha. I shall give you Kundai, because she deserves to be yours. She almost didn’t make it but the Lord saved her,’ Bertha had smiled at her.

Bertha had already talked to her husband and although he wasn’t happy with the idea, he had to agree with his wife because he loved her very much not wanting to hurt her. Sandra’s husband wasn’t up with the idea as well but then seeing how much his wife was hurting and how desperately she needed to be a mother, he just agreed with her. Bertha told Sandra to raise Kundai in a very faraway place. She was never going to meet Nyasha in the near future and the two mothers were not to keep in touch in that way Aretha wouldn’t find out that Bertha had twins. They sure did a great job by not communicating with each other because Aretha never found out about it. Jerome knew where Bertha and her husband resided but had never set foot at their place.

‘So I had a twin?’ asked Kundai when Sandra had finished narrating the story for her.

‘Yes, my child. Are you mad at me?’

Kundai walked to her mother and hugged her.

‘If my biological mother wanted you to protect me then she did a great job mum but now I need to go and meet my parents.’

‘That will be impossible,’ said Jerome and Sandra looked at him with a questioning look.

‘Why?’ asked Kundai.

‘Because they passed away,’ he said with a lump on his throat and Sandra didn’t know.

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ asked Sandra,’ how did you find out?’

‘I was always in touch with her father. I had to at least let him know that Kundai was growing well.’

Sandra sat down on the bed with tears in her eyes. She had always wanted to meet Bertha and still thank her for everything but now that she was done it was impossible.

‘I am sorry Kundai. I have failed you as a mother; I am so sorry mum,’

‘It’s okay mum. We will just go and see who is there,’ said the innocent Kundai.

She loved her parents very much and wished she had met her biological. The next following day, Kundai woke up to some bad news, Nyasha had been found dead and Thelma already had known of her death. This was too painful for Kundai, the fact that she had felt it and now what she had seen in her dream was actually her next reality. This was more painful than finding out that her parents were actually not her biological parents, you can imagine the pain she was going through losing both her parents and her twin sister. It was heartbreaking and Sandra was there for her so was her husband. They actually set to go for the funeral which was taking place at her village.

*

No one could ever forget the beautiful face; no one could ever forget the beautiful voice. Nyasha’s uncle, brother to her late father was hurt to the core. His wife was now okay after she had been cursed by Aretha. He had failed his brother by just sending off Nyasha to town. With the help of Simba, Shane and Sam, Thelma was able to locate her relatives and Nyasha was to be laid to rest just next to her parents. Rutendo’s mother was at the funeral and had already told the now depressed Rutendo about the sad news. Each one of them blaming themselves for her death, each one of them crying out loud and feeling the emptiness in their hearts. Nyasha was just too young to die and she didn’t deserve to die that way with no one by her side.

‘It’s my entire fault,’ cried Thelma.

Thelma cried more than anyone else at that funeral. She cried because she had seen Nyasha turn into something else. She had let Diablo change her. She cried because she had failed her, because she had failed Aretha. She was a failure and that’s what she felt about herself. She could have run away with her.

‘Stop blaming yourself Thelma,’ said Shane who was also hurting.

He had met Nyasha too. Everyone was just hurting and it was just a painful sight to see. Father Martin had travelled all the way from town to her funeral and he wasn’t the only priest at the funeral. They were plenty of them who had met Nyasha. Many people came to the funeral even Eva was also crying. She wasn’t in good books with her but she never wished death upon her. Thelma had so many questions that ran through her mind. Now that Nyasha was dead. What about the people she killed? Was God going to forgive her? Thelma was answered by Father Martin as he was preaching.

‘Her evil deeds and her sins shall be forgiven.’

They prayed for her soul to rest in peace, for her sins to be forgiven for she wasn’t herself when she was alive.

Kundai got out of the car with her parents and they walked inside the church. Some of the people were literally confused because she looked exactly like Nyasha.

‘Nyasha,’ called out Thelma, ‘Am I seeing things now?’ she said getting up and ran to hug Kundai, ‘but how,’ she broke the hug.

‘I am not Nyasha but I am her twin sister,’ she smiled weakly.

Thelma just hugged her as if her life depended on her. Nyasha or not she just wanted to hug her. None of the people at the funeral, not even Nyasha’s uncle knew that Bertha had twins. This was going to be explained after the funeral. Seeing her twin sister in that coffin broke her heart into million pieces. It was her; she was the same girl she had seen in her dreams. They so looked alike but the only different was that, Kundai had her mother’s black spot just on her right cheek, that’s the only difference they had. The people in church just continued sniffing as Kundai cried her twin sister.

‘I swear I will find out what happened to you. I will make them pay for hurting you like this,’ she whispered and let go of her hand.

As she turned and looked at the door, she saw Nyasha at the door smiling at her as she waved her hand at her with her parents standing behind her. Kundai smiled and Father Martin noticed what she had seen and smiled at himself. There was a good spirit, a conqueror and a fighter in her, he thought to himself. Kundai went to sit down next to Thelma and they were already acting as if they knew each other.

Nyasha was laid to rest.

.