Chapter 40

Gamuchira—Accept

Monica held Rudo in the back seat of Mukai’s car. The child still had nightmares, hearing gunshots in her dreams and flinching at the slightest sound. The doctors said it would take some time for her to recover from the trauma. She needed a lot of love, and that was exactly what Monica was going to provide. It was just perfect because Max and Chipo, Vimbai’s children, were now living with Monica, too. They managed to distract Rudo. It was now weeks since the horrific event in the Inyanga Mountains, but Rudo was only slowly shedding the anguish from her eyes.

The newspapers and Zimbabwe’s only TV station, ZBC, had just months before celebrated Chamu and Priscilla and the opening of Primehouse Bank. Now they were full of another story. The morning headline had left Monica feeling sick.

RICH BUSINESSMAN INVOLVED IN SHOOTING IN THE MOUNTAINS. WIFE SHOT AFTER AFFAIR WITH COUSIN.

Monica’s life had come under scrutiny, neighbors and family adding fuel to the fire that was blazing all around them. Stories about Oliver and Monica were now being talked about at bus terminals and tea breaks. Even Robert’s name came up in the newspapers, so that secret was now fully out. But she didn’t care. She still had God loving her and she still had her children. She didn’t need her neighbors’ approval, and she didn’t worry about their stares and whispers. Still, shootings were so rare in Zimbabwe that this particular one had been huge news. Chamu being a household name made the story even bigger.

They drove in silence to the hospital, both women in grief and torment. Mukai was still getting used to seeing Rudo as her granddaughter, and Monica was trying to get used to that idea, too. Neither of them knew what was happening right in front of their eyes. Mukai had not even seen her son falling for Priscilla right under her nose! If only she had known, she might have saved them the tragedy that had become their lives.

They reached the private hospital and took the lift to the intensive care unit on the second floor. Mukai looked at her phone as it beeped.

“It’s one of my clients. Now I check this thing all the time,” Mukai said to Monica.

“Since that time…” Monica said. She couldn’t bring herself to say what happened.

“I never used to check messages because it’s usually clients. Many people don’t leave messages. I wish I had checked it…”

“It’s not your fault, Mukai. Nobody knew what was happening or that he would do anything,” Monica said.

“I even gave Chamu the directions. The last thing he told me was that he was going to Inyanga and he would explain. After that I never checked my phone, and I don’t have an answering machine at home.”

Mukai looked at Rudo and decided to change the subject.

“We are almost there,” Mukai said instead. Rudo didn’t respond.

They reached the reception where nurses in white uniforms and caps stood talking, holding boards. The senior nurse greeted them kindly. Monica held some flowers and Mukai held a bag with magazines and some fruit.

Mukai looked inside the room through the glass. She didn’t know what to think as she saw Unashe sitting on the bed beside Priscilla. She remembered the fear she felt as she drove towards Inyanga with Unashe’s friends and the police they had collected from the Inganga police station.

Seeing them brought back the fear she felt when she realized the big mistake she had made. By the time she got to the house there was a forbidding silence in the mountains. They opened the door and were greeted by a scene that still terrified Mukai to this day. Unashe sat on the ground, holding a limp and still Priscilla in his arms. He was covered in blood and tears. Chamu lay in his own blood on the floor not far from them, his gun not far from his hands.

Mukai shook her head to clear it, and then looked inside again. What kind of life awaited these two young people, Mukai wondered.

* * *

Priscilla opened her eyes and looked at Unashe’s face.

“It’s you again,” she said groggily.

“I’m not leaving you ever again,” he said, tears in his eyes. In the days when Priscilla was unresponsive, he had cried more times than he had ever cried in his life.

“What happened?”

“He shot you, then we fought for the gun and I shot him,” Unashe repeated. Every time she woke up she wanted to know what happened. Her reality and dreams were all confused.

“He’s dead?”

Unashe nodded.

Priscilla looked aside tears falling on her pillow. Unashe felt so grateful. It was incredible that she was alive. Doctors rarely had to treat gunshot wounds, so this had been a horrific experience for everybody at the hospital. Specialists had been called, and the miracle was that the bullet had done very little damage to her vital organs. Now the concern was infection.

“I need to sleep. Go, please,” Priscilla said. Unashe was shocked. He hadn’t expected her to chase him away again. Unashe went outside and gave his mother a hug. Rudo was standing beside Monica, holding her hand.

“Hello, Rudo,” Unashe said. Rudo just looked at him. Monica walked into the hospital room with Rudo. Unashe feared that Rudo would probably always associate him with the nightmare in the mountains. It broke his heart to look at her and not be able to pick her up and show her that he was her father, that he loved her and that he would do anything to protect her and her mother.

God give me patience, Unashe said to himself. He turned to his mother.

“How is she?” Mukai asked.

“She sent me away,” Unashe replied, unable to hide the pain from his mother. “She almost died, Ma.”

Mukai put his hand on his shoulder. No matter how tall and big he looked, he was still her one-and-only little boy, and she hurt seeing the pain in his eyes. There was nothing more to say about the whole situation. They had talked about it for weeks. “Why didn’t you come to me, son? I would have given you my blessing six years ago.”

“We were scared of the family’s reaction,” he said.

Unashe tried to explain as they prayed for Priscilla’s life. Unashe’s life had flashed ahead of him, bleak and miserable without the love of his life. He did not want to live without her.

“Give her time,” Mukai said.

“I don’t know what I’ll do if I lose her, Mum. I was a foolish boy. She’s everything to me.”

Mukai couldn’t even understand that kind of love, but Monica did. Oliver was as obsessed with Monica as Unashe was with Priscilla. What was it about these women that they had more than one man willing to kill for them, but she had none? There was this vulnerability and delicacy in their beauty that made men want to protect them, want to perform the impossible for them, and yet for the wrong man it made them want to hurt them, as in the case of Oliver and Chamu. Chamu wanted to devour Priscilla, make her his property at whatever cost. Even the cost of his own life.

Unashe turned and looked into the room and saw Priscilla’s smile as she held her daughter on her bed, carefully so as not to upset her healing gunshot wound.

Mukai smiled seeing her granddaughter, love welling up inside of her.

She turned and saw Robert Chigoni walking down the passageway towards them. A young girl dressed in jeans and running shoes walked beside him. This was going to be an interesting visit.

* * *

Priscilla looked up at the door as Robert walked in. She looked at the girl next to him and her confusion grew. Robert greeted Monica and Rudo before turning to Priscilla.

“How are you? I came as soon as I heard you were awake,” Robert said.

“You have been here before?” Priscilla laced her fingers with Rudo’s.

“Every day,” he said and turned to the shy young girl behind him. There was something familiar about her. Priscilla felt like she had met her before.

“This is my oldest…my second daughter,” Robert said, clearing his throat.

“Nyarai, this is your older sister, Priscilla,” Robert said. Nyarai walked forward and shook Priscilla’s hand. She had tears in her eyes.

“I nearly didn’t meet you,” Nyarai said, smiling through her tears.

“It’s good to meet you,” Priscilla said and smiled weakly.

“We want you to come home when you are discharged. Carol, well, she would like to meet you properly, now,” Robert said. Priscilla had to swallow the knowledge that his wife had changed so drastically.

“I’ll have to see,” Priscilla said, and then turned to Nyarai. “So what do you do?”

“I’m at university in Philadelphia. I’m studying computer science,” she said. “I came home for summer break.”

Priscilla waited for the twinge of jealousy, but it didn’t come. She just smiled and asked a few more questions. Still, she did envy Robert and his “oldest” daughter’s relationship. She talked to him like a friend and even leaned against him as if for protection. He was her father, too.

* * *

While Robert talked to Priscilla, Monica came in with some disturbing news. Priscilla could see it in her face.

“What’s wrong, Ma?”

“Somebody else just insisted on seeing you. I told him no.”

“Who?”

“Sidney.”

Priscilla felt her heart beat faster. What was Chamu’s brother doing here? They had given the nurses strict instructions not to send in any of Chamu’s family. Lina had wanted to come in, but probably to kill her, not see how she was doing. The only other people she had been forced to talk to were the police and investigators.

“I’ll see him,” Priscilla said.

“No, Pri,” Monica insisted.

“It’s okay, Ma.”

Sidney walked in looking sad and worn out, though he wore a dark suit that made his handsome features more distinguished. The tie seemed to be choking him, though. Robert and Nyarai walked out.

“How are you?” Sidney looked at the room filled with flowers and baskets of fruit.

“I think I’m going to live,” Priscilla replied quietly. She felt uncomfortable when their eyes met briefly.

“I’m sorry about what happened to you.”

“It’s a sad time for everybody. Sorry about…”

“If only I had told you the truth, none of this would have happened,” Sidney said.

“Don’t blame yourself, Sidney. I remember you tried to tell me in your own way.”

“Brother Chamu didn’t want us to tell you anything. He said it was his life and he could do whatever he wanted.”

“Thank you for coming, Sid,” Priscilla said as a way of dismissal. “I really need to rest.”

Sidney shifted uncomfortably on his feet, hands in his pocket.

“I know this is not a good time,” Sidney began, a strange light entering his eyes. Priscilla somehow knew she didn’t like what he was going to say. She felt her defences go up and her wound begin to throb.

“What is it, Sidney?”

“I just want you to know that I’m here for you, if you need me. I can take care of you and in time, when the time is right, I hope you will be able to love me just as much as I have always loved you.”

Through his speech, Priscilla started to feel light headed. Was he crazy? His brother was barely cold in his grave and now he was declaring his love. The audacity!

“Sidney. I wish you the best in your life, but I don’t think we can ever speak again. I’m feeling weak. Please leave.” Though her voice was weak, the meaning was clear in her eyes.

Sidney walked out just two minutes after he entered her hospital room, but Monica was worried. Monica walked in and watched tears roll out of her daughter’s eyes.

“What did he want?”

“I don’t know. But I hope I never see any of them again.”

“You won’t.”

Eventually Monica sent everybody home so Priscilla could rest. Rudo lay by her bed, stroking her hair and giving her little kisses. When Unashe asked if he could come in she sent a simple message to him.

“No.”