mula- short for mulamu which means sister or brother in law.

Chapter 3

Salifya

I do not remember the last time Xo was this excited over tech.

“I am beginning to wonder if you took the bots because it was a good tactical call or because you wanted to geek out over them.” I said.

“Both,” he retorted, his eyes still on the one of the bot’s CPU which he was dissecting. He had been like this all week, barely got enough sleep. Kuleza had all, but moved in. He would fly home at 3 am.

My eyes surveyed the lifeless human looking cyborg lying on Xo’s desk. I perched myself on Xo’s desk. “When do you intend to sell these to the fence like you said you would?”

“Soon. The owners keep trying to turn on the trackers.” Kuleza replied from the adjacent desk.

My eyes zeroed in on Xo. “Soon huh? So this sleep deprivation and eating at your desks will continue for another week.”

Xo put his tools down and faced me. “We are working to wind up tomorrow.” He draped his hands around my waist.

I pushed his hands off me. “Okay.” I walked out of his workroom and into our bedroom.

Xo followed me. “You are upset with me.”

I sank into our bed. “You finally noticed.”

“I don’t understand why. Don’t you want me to find out more about this tech?”

“Of course I do.” I could not believe he could not see it. “Go back and find out more about this tech.”

He looked at me shocked. “What am I missing here?”

“Meals, my antenatal appointment, a bath.”

“I completely forgot. Today is Thursday isn’t it?”

“That was yesterday.”

He sat beside me. “I am sorry I let this swallow me babe. I am going to wind up tonight and get something to eat and come sleep.” He kissed me on the cheek. I watched him walk out of our bedroom.

Who was this person? Three years ago I would have cared more about Xo getting as much information from the bots, than him accompanying me to my appointment or having meals with me. But now Xo was part of me as much I hated my reliance on him, I wanted him next to me.

“Happy second trimester!” Anganile cajoled, giving me a hug. She handed me a basket.

We both sat down on the hospital waiting room chairs. Xo joined me at my side, sandwiching me between himself and Anganile.

“Thank you.” I went through the basket. Inside it was a gift card for a maternity clothes shop and a wrapped gift.

“You will be needing to use this soon. You are starting to show.” Anga said.

“You said you could no see anything.” I glared at Xo.

“I really couldn’t.” Xo retorted.

Anganile chortled, “With his man eyes he could not.”

“Then we really need this shopping trip. Most of my clothes are tight.”

“Open the second gift.” Anga said.

Inside it was a doppler. Anga explained that you use it to hear the baby’s heart-beat.

“Thank you.” Xo said.

“I know Xo will abuse this device,” I chortled. “Thanks.”

“Mrs Ndhlazi the doctor will see you now.” The hospital’s Artificial intelligence announced. We all made our towards my obstetrician’s office.

Khetiwe gave me a clean bill of health. She also told me to take it easy and stop lifting weights. Xo had snitched on me to illicit the lecture I got from her and Anga about not taking it easy. After the lecture I started regretting taking my sister in law as my doctor. Khetiwe offered when Xo announced to his siblings that I was pregnant a week ago.

“The doctor I was seeing is about to go on holiday. So I have to find someone else.” I foolishly told her, when she asked me who my doctor was.

“Pick me.” She said. I knew I could not say no without hurting her. So I agreed.

“What? You are not coming shopping with us?” Anga asked.

“I have a lunch I can’t get out of.” Xo replied sheepishly. Xo was meeting his father’s wife for the first time.

“Just like men, only here for the glamorous stuff. What’s next Xo? Slipping out on her appointments?” Anga teased ruthlessly.

Xo just chuckled. I smirked, he deserved this after missing last week’s appointment.

“See you later babe,” he kissed my cheek. “See you later mula.”

I got into Anga’s pod. She had come all the way from Nkhatabay to attend my antenatal appointment and take me shopping.

“How are you?” She asked.

“I am better now that the fatigue is gone.”

“You are glowing.”

“Really?” I blushed.

We went to five shops. After we finished one, she would say one more.

“C’mon Sali, don’t tell me you are picking the grey top.”

“You’ve seen my wardrobe. I only wear beige, burgundy, white, black and grey.”

“You say that like it is a good thing.”

“How was the lunch?” I asked.

Xo was lying down on the couch, with his ear on the other side of the doppler listening to the baby’s heart. “I was so nervous babe. I could not even eat. From the way Dad speaks of her she sounds tough. She started out asking about my work and you. She even asked me how far along you were. I didn’t know she knew that much about us.

‘Your father speaks highly of you.’ She said taking a knife and a fork. ‘He is proud of the man you are. Sad he had no part in shaping you.’ I looked at my food not knowing what to say. ‘When he told me about you. I hated you.’ She cut her steak into tiny pieces. ‘But I realised, you and I were the same. Victims of our loved ones sordid choice. Even though we bore their act like mud on our skin, we were victims. You more than I.’

‘After that, I started to eat my lunch feeling freer.”

“I am glad you enjoyed the lunch,” I said. Ipyana came that evening, just after six pm.

“This is a neat gift.” Ipy said listening to the baby’s heartbeat. “I was looking forward to coming with you and Anga to the doctors but something came up at work.”

“What happened?” Xo asked. Ipy moved away from the doppler. I put the Doppler in a drawer on our sitting room table. Xo had already used it five times this evening alone.

“We got hacked. It took all day to trace the hack. It was some P.I who wanted our attention.” Ipy pulled herself into a sitting position.

“What for?” I asked.

“He gave our detectives thirty-nine deaths to solve. He claims they are homicides but they are all natural causes. Here is the strange thing. They are all powerful figures in government and the private sector that died in the last five years. He thinks there is a serial killer.”

“Is someone investigating them?” I asked. In KUA we often used poisons to kill people in a way that appeared as natural causes.

“Everyone thinks he is a conspiracy nut so no.”

“You believe him?” Xo asked.

“Five years ago that’s when Waranda consolidated power. What if these are Waranda hits. We know that Waranda has a lot of allies maybe this is how they got them.” Ipy retorted.

“Look at you, Sherlock Holmes.” Xo said with a smile.

Ipyana laughed. “Could you solve them?” She placed the usb, where she had been lying to listen to the doppler. I nodded, picking it up. “Thanks. Xo what did you find out about the war-bots?”

“They are manufactured here and made of Quentocin. As we saw they are resilient to regular blasters. They only way to kill them is to use heavy duty weapons. They are meant for war…robotic soldiers. Very illegal like Fya.” He explained. “Kuleza says they are programmed like Ulumba and Mzengeli to complete missions even involving death.”

“That’s scary.” Ipy said.

“It is. Anyway, I sold them to a fence in Tete so it can’t be traced to me.” Xo said.

“Hey Ama,” I had seen her two weeks ago but she hugged me still. Some people think Vwato, the corresponding scarification marks mothers and daughters sear on their skin in the shape of womb, brings them closer together especially adoptive daughters. Daughters with Vwato on their skin visit more often, mothers visit often too. Vwato calls them to each other they say. I don’t know if the Vwato, Ama and I share, brings us closer.

“Hello my dear.” Ama released me from her embrace.

I sat down on her green couch. “Ama who did you tell I am pregnant?”

“Just your Aunty Lusekelo and Aunty Tasokwa.” She answered as she sat next to me. “Why?’

“Aunty Rumbani and Aunty Tafadzwa both congratulated me at the seed store.”

“Salifya you are starting to show,” she said gently as though she was speaking a child.

“Xo told me this outfit hides it.”

Ama laughed. “To men, but you are in Kaulimi, surrounded by women who have been pregnant before. They can detect it not just through your bump.” Her fingers gently gripped my now apple width tummy. “Has the baby started to kick?”

I nodded.

“The baby wants you to feel its presence.” She smiled. I enjoyed our fortnight lunches at her house. It was a chance to tend to her flower garden and talk.

“I’ve been able to determine that twenty out of the thirty nine suspicious deaths Ipy gave me were homicides. All them were killed with a variety of untraceable neurotoxins the type that KUA and ZUA use. I was only able to trace them on the virtual autopsy because…because I am familiar with them. I agree with Ipyana’s theory that they were killed to be replaced with puppets. In the flash are the names of their replacements. Please confirm Ipy’s theory.”

Ama took the flash and placed it on her table. “I hope you are both wrong.”

“Me too.”

Ama went to the kitchen and checked on the food she was preparing for lunch. I followed her to see if she needed help. She was done. We dished our food and sat down in the dinning room.

“So why don’t you want people to know you are pregnant?” Ama asked, raking the remaining rice on her plate to one place then scooping it up into her mouth.

“I am vulnerable. I cannot move as fast as I cou...”

“Who have you been sparring with?” she asked in an alarmed tone. I looked at my plate. “It can’t be Xo, or Ipy…it’s the cyborg isn’t it.”

“No one will train with me.”

Ama glared at me with her widened eyes. “For good reason too.”

“I can’t manage to stay the whole nine months without sparring with anyone.”

“You have to. For your baby. What if the robot punches you in the stomach?”

“It won’t. It knows I am pregnant.”

“Oh Sali,” she was shaking her head. She gave me a long lecturer about the dangers of what I was doing and how I needed to relinquish some of my freedoms. “I am just glad you don’t drink anymore otherwise I bet you would be…”

“I would not put my baby in such danger.”

“And what are you doing sparring with the cyborg.”

“It’s different, Ama.”

She rolled her eyes. “Anyway, one thing that bothered me about Muhlabase and his accomplices arrest was that they never found the money they made selling pillemotions, running the brothels and their other enterprises. And that they never found the Qs they made. So I have been trying to find the answers to those questions. I don’t know if it is even connected but I found an auction for Qs. It could be other Qs, it could be unrelated to Waranda but it’s worth the shot.”

“Yes it is.” I retorted, happy the lecturer had come to an end.

“You still awake?” Xo asked as he entered the sitting room with Fya whose body was a collection of bruises and scrapes. It was strange seeing ‘myself’ wounded and yet not feeling the pain.

“I’ve been reading what Ama found on the auction and doing my own research.”

“You wanted to make sure I made it home alright.” Xo smirked, trudging towards me. Fya left the room.

I avoided his gaze. “That’s part of it.”

“I am okay babe.” He sat next to me on our beige couch. Anganile helped me redecorate Xo’s house when we got married. She managed to combine me and Xo’s styles together.

“Fya took quite a beating though. You should not have locked her. I would have been able to train her.”

“She is a robot she will be fine.”

I wish my mother had not told him I was training with Fya.

“How is your back?” Xo placed his hand on my belly.

“Not hurting anymore. The baby is kicking a lot.”

“That’s cause the baby can tell Daddy’s home.” Xo smiled.

“I want to know the sex of the baby.” I was tired of referring to the baby with gender neutral pronouns.

“No, you owe me this one babe.”

“I won’t tell you if I know. You know how I hate uncertainty.”

“No babe, you promised.” He got up and went to get dinner in the kitchen.

“Lusayo made us find out the sex of the baby.”Amama rolled her eyes. “It’s part of me making it up to him for not telling him. We are having a boy. I hate finding out the sex of the baby. Lusayo says I am old fashion. It’s true I am, I believe parents should find out on the day the baby is born. I saw Sayo smile when the doctor told us. He does not want to get attached to the baby. The last miscarriage I had hurt him pretty bad. It hurt both of us but I am more willing to open my heart to hope and love. We both agreed not to tell Salifya in case anything happens. We were about to tell her last time, when the baby died.” She exhaled and reclined on the grey couch she was sitting on. Her eyes were glistening with tears. “It’s a colossus. I cried when Rudo told me that. Another miscarriage. I was so hopeful this child would be a pygmy. Rudo says I should not give up yet. I managed to carry Sali for seven months maybe this time I will be lucky too.” She rubbed her belly. “Don’t leave me little one.” I closed the tab and put it back in the head board’s drawer. I got out of bed and put on my jogging outfit. Moving slowly, not to wake Xo. He was fatigued from last night’s raid.

My doctor and Xo both think I should cut down on the kilometres I jog. I intend to in the third trimester when I start getting tired again. I wish I could cruise through the next five months and deliver. Ama said I should feel blissful. I do feel that, when I feel the baby kick, move when I hear the baby’s heart beat and when I see the baby’s ultra sounds. But I am also afraid. You live this long relying on your agility and skill, being without them is frightening. I stopped to catch my breath. Before pregnancy I could jog this route without stopping this frequently. I was about to resume my jog, when something pinched my neck. I tried to turn around but my limbs plummeted towards the ground. A tranquiliser!