Page 14 - The Mending Season

she saw me, her forehead wrinkled both out of irritation and exhaustion. I never could stir up a warm reaction from her.Her first question was the one I hated most from adults, “Is anyone home?”I mean, I was almost thirteen! But it was as if nothing but my ears were standing in front of her! A look from her at my hands on my hips and I quickly let them drop and stood up straight.I finally realised that I had not just imagined her always looking displeased with the world. All those times I remem­ bered her coming home bitter after having left a job were as real as the stench from the rubbish heap at the corner of our street, which even now came seeping through the windows. She dragged her body past mine, showing affection with only one quick, smooth stroke of my newly relaxed hair.“What did they do to your hair?”she muttered, and moved on without waiting for an answer.I stood in the middle ofthe kitchen stroking my hair back into place. It was my first relaxer and I was proud ofit. “When the other two come,” I thought, “111 never sleep.”By the time Mmamane Malebone and Mmamane Mabatho arrived home from work, I had tired of watching people from the lemon tree and was sitting on the living room sofa trying to decide which song I should ask for when I called the TV show Sidlalela Intsha (We Play for the Young). When I saw the aunts, I spoke like a comrade announcing that the police were coming. “Shes back!” I half whispered, half yelled. Mmamane Malebones eyes widened and I saw her swallow hard.“//<??!” she said. Mmamane Mabatho marched past me towards my bedroom, knocking and opening the door at the same time. “Hao\ Malesedi, what brings you back?”Mmamane Malesedi had started a new job only six months before and the aunts had spent the past two months marvel­14