Never Lost

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 2

Two months passed and Nyasha hadn’t started going to school. Varsities had been opened and she was supposed to register but Linda wouldn’t let her do that. She made sure not to let Nyasha step outside the house. Whenever she left for work, she made sure to lock the door so that Nyasha will be stuck in the house. That day Nyasha had no pads and she had just started her menses. Linda had left her room locked and there was no way she was going to get some extra pads. She didn’t know what to do but took one of the dish towels in the kitchen and had to use it as a pad.

When Linda came back home at around 8pm, she was experiencing the period pain and she always felt that every month she started her menses. Linda just walked past through without saying a word.

‘Auntie please, help me,’ said Nyasha as she struggled to walk.

She had stained the dress she was wearing. Linda looked back and saw the blood on her legs. The dishtowel she had used as a pad was already wet with blood.

‘What the hell did you do?’

‘I started my periods today and I didn’t have any pads. I used one of your dishtowels,’ she honestly said.

Something she had been taught by her mother was to never lie. Nyasha could have lied in this kind of situation, if only she knew what kind of a person Linda was. Just after she had told her about the dishtowel, Linda got close to her and slapped her hard on the cheek. Nyasha could feel her cheek burning from the slap and Linda had left a scar. With tears streaming down on her cheeks and with the coldness in the room. Nyasha was made to bath with cold water while Linda was standing in the room watching her.

After that as a punishment for using her dishtowel which she referred to as disgusting, Nyasha was made to sleep on the floor with no blanket. At least she had been given the pads but the night seemed to long for her as she was experiencing the pain and coldness at the same time.

Morning came and Nyasha was feeling much better. Linda gave her some little money to buy herself some pads and asked one of her drivers to drive her to the grocery shop. Nyasha did some shopping and went back home. Linda’s mother called that very night asking Linda if she had let Nyasha to go and register at the varsity, afraid that her mother might get angry at her, Linda lied to her. She told her mother that Nyasha had already registered. After talking to her mother, she went to Nyasha’s room who was busy reading the bible. Nyasha quickly got up when Linda walked inside the room.

‘You will go with my driver tomorrow and enroll yourself at a college.’

‘Thank you very much Auntie,’ thanked Nyasha with a hint of happiness in her voice.

She was happy that finally she was going to school and she just couldn’t wait to tell Rutendo on whatsapp. Linda clicked her tongue and almost left the room but she came back. She wasn’t just going to leave without saying any hurtful words to Nyasha, was she? That was unlike of her.

‘I honestly don’t know what my mother sees in you. You could have died along with your parents. Can’t you see that you have become a burden in my life?’

Was she even supposed to respond to her? Nyasha didn’t say anything to her and she received a slap just by keeping quiet.

‘I am talking to you,’ said Linda as she grabbed her hand and started shaking her with so much force that when she let her hand go, Nyasha slipped and fell down with her back while in the process banging her head on the tile floor.

She remained in the position while struggling to get up. Linda just walked out of the room and banged the door. Nyasha struggled to get up.

When she finally did, she felt the massive pounding on her head and lay on the bed. She spent the whole day sleeping because of the headache. She had actually been hurt. Hours passed by and her headache was becoming worse by the day, Linda had gone out with some friends when her mother arrived at her house from South Afrika. She hadn’t told Linda that she was coming, her visit was meant to be a surprise and she didn’t exactly come to visit. She opened the door and the house was quiet. There was no sign of Linda or Nyasha in the living room.

‘Where should I place your bag?’ asked the driver she had come with.

‘On the couch,’ she responded without looking at him as she had been busy looking around, ‘I will be upstairs,’ she referred to the drive who was still standing in the room.

‘Okay,’ he said taking a seat on one of the sofa.

Aretha walked upstairs and checked her daughter’s room, she wasn’t there. She tried another room and that’s where she found Nyasha with hands on her head sitting on the bed. Nyasha had only met her grandmother twice but she still remembers her face. .

‘Grandma,’ she said with a low tone.

Her eyesight was blurry and still her head was still hurting, she had never experienced such kind of pain before. This wasn’t just the headache but she felt as if something was just happening to her.

‘What’s wrong?’ asked Aretha as she sat on the bed with her granddaughter.

Having two daughters, Nyasha was her only grandchild since Linda was still not yet married at 30. She touched her forehead to check her temperature and it was extremely hot. Aretha knew exactly what to do, what to give Nyasha to ease her pain.

‘I am coming back,’ she said and left the room.

Nyasha had been sitting when her grandmother walked in on her. When she was out, she lay back on the bed and closed her eyes. Aretha walked to the kitchen and poured a glass of water. She took what she had in her purse and chanted some weird words that she only understood. After that she poured in the cup what she had in her plastic and mixed it well so that Nyasha couldn’t see any substance. She smiled as she walked back to her room. Diablo hadn’t forsaken her after all. She thought because of the distance, nothing will ever work on Nyasha but Linda had done half of the job for her when she pushed Nyasha. She walked inside the room and made Nyasha sit so that she could drink the water. Nyasha reluctantly took the water in one go and after that lay back on the bed.

‘You will be fine,’ Aretha patted her back as she fell asleep.

She only got out of the room when Nyasha was fast asleep. She went to prepare dinner while murmuring to a song in a very happy mood.

..

Nyasha walked to a non-endless road while wearing a black gown and carrying a bowl with blood in it. She was being followed by some men and on both her sides were people kneeling down as she walked to what seemed like an altar. She could see the man sitting on the chair in a distant and a black owl on his head. She was feeling very scared and trembling with fear while carrying the bowl in her hands.

‘Nyasha,’ she heard her mother calling out her name from the women kneeling down on the floor.

They were in red garments, very different from hers.

‘Mum,’ Nyasha stopped from her tracks and looked around thinking she was going to see her mother, ‘I can’t see you,’ she said out loud, ‘the room is dark and I can’t see you.’

‘Nyasha don’t go.’

‘Pa,’ that was her father’s voice.

‘Don’t go to him Nyasha or your life will never be the same again,’ said her mother’s voice.

She didn’t understand what was going up until she took a step back and looking at the back, the men following her had disappeared. The women kneeling down on the floor had also disappeared. The man sitting on the chair coolval stories had stood up and the owl had disappeared. He was naked and still Nyasha couldn’t see his face.

‘Don’t hurt me please,’ she begged with tears in her eyes and dropped the bowl in her hands on the floor.

The blood spilled and that got the naked man very angry. Nyasha closed her eyes and started praying while standing there like a statue, she prayed for what was happening to her to be just a dream. She felt the air surrounding her turn into light and opened her eyes. She was in a different place now and could see a woman and a lady facing at the altar with their backs on her.

‘Hello,’ she said out loud.

They looked back at her and when she realized they were her parents, she tried running to them but couldn’t move her legs.

‘We are sorry Nyasha,’ they said in unison and disappeared.

…

She woke up calling out her parents and she had been sweating. Aretha heard the shouts and left what she was doing. Nyasha had been sleeping for 3 hours now and it was already 10pm when she woke up. She was sitting on the bed crying out loud while holding her blanket so tightly. When Aretha yanked the door open, she screamed even more.

‘Nyasha, it’s okay. It’s me,’ said Aretha as she walked to her.

‘Grandma,’ Nyasha quickly got out of bed and hugged her grandmother as if her life depended on her.

Aretha smiled, the medicine was working and soon Nyasha will belong Diablo.

…

‘Nyasha!’

The wife belonging to Nyasha’s uncle, Rumbi woke up screaming out loud when she saw Nyasha in her dreams surrounded by a group of people wearing red. Her husband who was outside frying his groundnuts came rushing in the hut when she heard his wife screaming. She was now sitting on the bed with tears in her eyes.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘Nyasha,’ she cried out loud.

Nyasha’s uncle didn’t know what to do. She knew his wife was a dreamer but she had never reacted that way in all of her dreams. He took her in his arms and held her so tightly.

‘The dream must have scared you,’ he said inwardly and just patted her back.

She was feeling scared of what she had seen. She couldn’t do anything for Nyasha. She didn’t tell her husband what she had seen in case he worries about her. She promised herself that she was going to talk to Father Marima about the dream. If only she knew what would happen to her the next following day, then she couldn’t have thought out loud.