Domestic Disturbance

By Mateso Kazembe
[published in the Weekend Nation of 07/03/09]

Something huge at Kabudula’s home was amiss. Everything, as he trudged into his house from work, indicated that there was a very big problem. His wife, Naliyera, had her head cupped in her hands with a gloomy expression covering her face. She had not heard the car and she was unaware that he was in the house. His daughter, Chisomo, managed a quick glance at him but swiftly looked away blinking away tears.

Kabudula felt panicky and was instantly engulfed with a helpless sensation. He had no clue of where to start from as a horde of questions buzzed in his head. What had happened? Who had died? Why hadn’t he been informed of the death if that was the case? Or may be Chisomo had goofed her MSCE examinations despite his numerous sermons admonishing her to work hard. He immediately dismissed both “schools of thought” when Chisomo came to him crashing on her knees, sobbing bitterly and begging for mercy. Her face was contorted. Streams of tears cascaded down her beautiful face. She had been crying for hours.

“Dad, I’m…I’m…so…so sorry,” she said meaning every word and came apart as if she had thrown a piston in one of the valves of her heart. She looked sick with guilt and Kabudula’s confusion was accelerated a plus. Naliyera now brought back to her senses by Chisomo’s actions, hastily stood up like someone who had sat on live coal and screamed: “You shouldn’t forgive this cockroach. She’s shamed this family and has to be punished.”

Kabudula was unsure of what to do or say. He was getting more confused and restless every additional second. He longed with ill-grace and impatience to know what had happened; just to get a tip of the iceberg of what this madness was all about but to no avail. Chisomo continued her sobs and Naliyera’s mouth was still zipped. He felt like screaming: “can somebody tell me what the hell is wrong here!” but thought against it. Instead, he turned to Chisomo and said: “It’s okay dear.” The only right thing he could do anyway and raised her up.

“Share with daddy your problem. I’m your father, not so? Your problems no matter how colossal are mine too. Say it darling, we’ll handle it together as a family.” Kabudula said with the best caring and considerate tone he could master and Chisomo was nodding her head like a little girl as he pronounced every word. Upon noting that this trick was working, he absently took a handkerchief from his breast pocket and wiped her tears which were still flowing. Naliyera was still silent but appeared more restless than ever before. Her mouth snapped open to say something but Kabudula looked at her with an expression of “you better keep your mouth shut” and she obeyed.

There followed a silence lucid as crystal. Chisomo had cooled and any moment she looked like talking and this was encouraging for Kabudula.

“I’m…I’m…I’m…” Chisomo broke the silence, stammered and looked down biting her index finger. Kabudula encouraged her to speak with an expression he had perfected over the years to extract vital information from people.

“I’m…I’m…pre…pregnant…dad,” she confessed with a sorrowful mien and Kabudula felt his heart melting. The shattering revelation struck him like a series of blows to the stomach. He was shocked to the marrow and for a moment, he could not blink or move a muscle trying to digest the dreadful news. He had heard that the first pain from a bullet wound was numbness, but strangely, he felt the same thing.

“Oh, my good Lord Jesus Christ!” he snorted helplessly, “Pregnant? Why Chisomo, why? Tell me you’re joking.” This time he laboured to produce the words. His daughter had just turned 15 and now she was pregnant. That hit him really hard. His dignity and pride were wounded.

“I told you she has to be punished, didn’t I? She’s absolutely disgraced this family. What didn’t we give this fool? Everything, didn’t we? But see what she’s done.” A bitter Naliyera lamented after eons of silence.

Anger came to Kabudula in black waves. Naliyera was right. Chisomo had bloated the family’s copybook with her act. He had tried as a parent to provide everything she needed to her, but she had opted to repay him with “this shame” -a shame that would pitilessly cripple his status. He, as a church elder, had chastened other parents mercilessly whose kids had fallen pregnant for deficient upbringing but today he was in a similar predicament. Chisomo had failed him terribly. Now, those people he had lambasted would enjoy every minute of this. This realisation drove him mad and bitter.

“Why did you do this, Chisomo?” He asked shaking his head sadly in incomprehension and commenced flouncing about the room gripped with a black rage. His thoughts were the confused orders of a ratted army as he felt too far eclipsed and alienated to be reasonable. A pain that even faith would never relieve bivouacked in his heart.

“I’ll show you that I’m really pissed.” He seethed prowling with raging fury, “I’ll make you wish you had never done this,” he promised shaking like a delirium patient and headed for the bedroom. He came back with a belt dangling in his right arm, but Chisomo had disappeared so was Naliyera.

“She…she bolted away when you went into the bedroom,” Naliyera informed him struggling to get her breath back. “I chased her but couldn’t catch her. I don’t know where she has gone to.”

“I don’t care,” Kabudula said. His breathing was rapid. “Wherever, she has gone let her rot. How dare she disgrace this family? How dare she?”

Three days passed; Kabudula was unconcerned not in the slightest sense of her whereabouts. He kept on saying “let her rot.” But after a week, his anger cooled down and uneasiness gripped him. Where was his daughter, he almost asked himself loudly. On the tenth day, he was more than desperate to know of her whereabouts.

“If not for you Chisomo would have been here,” he screamed an accusation at his wife as guilty-conscious struck him.

“Don’t shift that crap on me,” Naliyera retorted back, “you’re the one who threatened to beat her. Not me!”

“But you told me to punish her,” Kabudula defended himself and added in resignation: “Anyway, the thing is we both didn’t act wisely.”

“I’ve realised that kids sometimes do things you don’t except them to do,” he reasoned regretfully, “We acted as if her being pregnant was the end of everything.”

“I don’t care now what people will say,” Naliyera added with vigour, “but Chisomo needs our support more than anything in this world. She’s needs a companion. She needs someone to give her comfort and hope. I regret my earlier actions.” She confessed with virile eloquence.
“Let’s go and look for our kid,” Kabudula commanded at last