Run away bride: should I trust him?

CHAPTER 5:RUN AWAY BRIDE (THE TRACE)

*BACK HOME*

Arjun found Khathu without even trying hard.

Khathu lived in a small backroom in Thohoyandou Block F, near the university. The walls were thin, the door was a weak plywood that didn't lock properly. He had just returned from the garage where he had put Milondo on the quantum to Johannesburg. He was pacing in his small room, phone in his hand, waiting for Bra Solly to confirm that she had arrived safely.

Then the door shook.

BANG. BANG. BANG.

It wasn't a knock. It was a kick.

"OPEN! OPEN THIS DOOR NOW!"

Khathu froze. He knew that voice. Everyone from Tshidimbini to Thohoyandou knew that voice.

He quickly hid his phone under his pillow and didn't answer.

The door burst open. The weak lock broke. Arjun walked in with his two boys. He wasn't wearing his wedding shine anymore. He was in all black, his face sweaty, his eyes red and angry.

"Khathu," Arjun said, smiling that tiny smirk. "My wife's best friend."

Khathu backed up until his back hit the cold cement wall. "I don't know what you want."

"Don't be stupid," Arjun said calmly. He looked around the room — the pile of books, the small two-plate stove, the bucket of clothes. "My wife disappeared today. On our white wedding day. Her i***t uncle says you are the only one who could help her run. So I'm here to ask you nicely. Where is my wife?"

"I don't know where Milondo is," Khathu said, but his voice shook.

Arjun nodded to his boys. One closed the door behind them. The other grabbed Khathu by his collar and slammed him against the wall. Khathu's head hit hard.

Arjun holds him hostage to try and find out if he knows anything about Milondo's disappearance.

"Where did she go? Which taxi? Which rank?"

"I don't know!" Khathu shouted, even though his lip was already trembling.

Arjun hit him. A hard punch to the stomach. Khathu folded, gasping for air. The boys held him up by his arms so he couldn't fall.

"Again. Where is my wife?" Arjun asked.

Khathu coughed. Blood was in his mouth now. "I... I don't know."

He was thinking of Milondo in that white dress with sneakers, running through the mealie field. He would not sell her. Not for anything.

Arjun got tired of hitting. He looked around and saw the lump under the pillow.

He pushed Khathu's bed and picked up the phone. A cheap Tecno with a cracked screen.

"Give me my phone!" Khathu tried to jump for it, but the boys held him tight.

Arjun didn't need a password. Khathu's phone was open. Arjun went straight to call log. He saw it.

_Milondo - 8:42 AM - 3 mins_

_Bra Solly Soweto - 9:05 AM - 1 min_

_Milondo new number Soweto - 11:14 AM - 45 sec_

Arjun smiled. A real smile this time.

"Ah. You are a good friend, Khathu. You even saved her new number for me. 'Milondo new number Soweto'. How sweet."

Khathu's eyes went wide. "No! No, please!"

Arjun copied the number into his own iPhone. 081... He stared at it for a long time, memorizing it. He pressed call. It rang once, then Milondo picked up on the other side, far away in Soweto, saying "Hello?" in her soft voice.

Arjun didn't speak. He just listened to her voice and then cut the call.

"You know what, boy? You are loyal. I respect loyalty. But loyalty to my wife is disloyalty to me."

Khathu doesn't tell him anything but Arjun manages to take his phone and traced Milondo's new number in Soweto.

Arjun put Khathu's phone in his own pocket.

"Please," Khathu whispered. "She doesn't want to marry you. Just leave her alone."

That made Arjun angry again. He hit Khathu one more time, hard on the jaw. Khathu's legs gave up.

When they left, Khathu was unconscious and injured on the floor of his backroom. His lip was bleeding, his eye was swollen shut, his shirt was torn. The room was scattered. And his phone was gone.

Arjun walked out, dialing the new Soweto number again as he got into his Fortuner.

He now knew where his runaway bride was.

---

*SOWETO*

Finally, I settled in a new place and I can't wait to explore different opportunities to get to my dream.

It's my third day in Soweto and I already feel like a different person. I cut my hair. Ma Dineo cut it for me with her kitchen scissors — short, short at the back, like a boy but I like it. I look like a new Milondo. When I look in the mirror I don't see a bride anymore. I see a girl who survived.

Even if Bra Solly and his wife don't have much I can just start a tutoring job... I didn't finish my matric but I was good in English, maths and geography. I was top of my class. My teachers used to say, "Milondo, you will go to university."

I told Ma Dineo about my plan last night while we were cooking pap and morogo.

"Mma, I don't want to sit and eat your food for free. I can teach. I can tutor the kids in this street. English, Maths, Geography. For an amount, then I can save up for a whole year school fees and continue with my education."

She looked at me and smiled with tears in her eyes.

"My child, you think like my daughter. She also wanted to be a teacher. You know what, my neighbor, Mrs. Khumalo, her son is in Grade 9 and failing English badly. I told her about you. She said she will pay you R400 a week if you teach him every afternoon. And there are two more kids down the street."

R400 a week! If I teach three kids, that's R1,200 a week. That's almost R5,000 a month. I could save for school fees in one year and go back to finish my matric. I could really become a teacher. My dream didn't die in that wedding dress. It was just sleeping.

Hmm, I like how freedom smells like. It smells like Ma Dineo's Sunlight soap. It smells like the morning air in Soweto when kids are going to school. It smells like possibility. In my village, air smelled like fear and debt. Here, it smells like I can become something.

But I wonder how everything is going back home. I tried calling my mom's phone again today. Still off. I tried Rendani. She didn't pick up, then she blocked me. Why would she block me?

I know Arjun is a monster, no doubt but he couldn't have killed them all right? He likes to shout. He likes to show his gun to scare people. But he wouldn't actually shoot my father, right? He wouldn't burn our house. He's a criminal, but even criminals don't kill a whole family because a bride ran away... right?

I keep telling myself they are just angry. That's why they are not answering. My father is angry I took the R3,500. My mother is angry I disgraced them. My uncle is angry he lost his R2,000 commission. They will forgive me one day when I send them money from my tutoring.

Right?

Anyways Ma Dineo said she'll show me around here tomorrow. She said the president will be speaking to the nation at the stadium, and we are going there. There is a big event at FNB Stadium, not far from here. She said the whole community is going. She said it'll help me forget small small about everything that happened so far.

I'm so excited to meet new people, hopefully I'll make enough friends. Real friends, not like Rendani who thinks a Fortuner is love.

Tomorrow I will wear my yellow "Dream Big" t-shirt and my blue jeans and go to see the president. I have never seen the president before, only on TV at the spaza shop. Ma Dineo said there will be music, and free t-shirts.

For one day, I want to forget Arjun. I want to forget the white dress tearing on thorns. I want to forget the gun.

I want to be a normal 19-year-old girl in Soweto going to see the president at the stadium.

I didn't know that while I was dreaming about the stadium, Arjun was in his Fortuner driving to Johannesburg, with my new Soweto number saved in his phone, coming to find me.

My phone buzzed. Unknown number. I thought it was Mrs. Khumalo about tutoring.

I answered, "Hello?"

No one answered. Just breathing. Then the line cut.

I felt a cold chill down my back, even though it was hot in Soweto.

Maybe it was just network.