Dysfunctional Family - Season 1 - Episode 39

Episode 4 years ago

Dysfunctional Family - Season 1 - Episode 39

She hurriedly descended the stairs and for the first time in so many years, actually asked God to rule in her favour. She couldn’t have possibly become a murderer in the blink of an eye, could she? It had been nothing but a terrible accident.

Sandra reached the landing where Tracy lay as if lifeless. There was blood oozing from the cut she’d sustained on the forehead.

“Please be alive,” Sandra prayed in a whisper, crouching before Tracy and turning her over to feel her pulse.

She couldn’t feel any and that got her in panic mode.

Sandra rose and ran fingers through her hair, her emotions scattered all over the place.
“Oh my God, I’m a murderer. I’ve just killed someone.”

She glanced up the flight of stairs that Tracy had come rolling down only but a few minutes ago and decided it was time to bail when she saw no one coming. It’d be better if no one placed her at the scene of the murder.

The police and people in the building would obviously assume Tracy had tripped and fallen down the flight of stairs by sheer accident.

As fast as her legs could carry her, Sandra begun her descent into the lobby and out of the building. She was profusely sweating by the time she got to her car and hit the road. Her mind kept on reeling her back to her fight with Tracy.

Once upon a time she’d contemplated ending Tracy’s life but now that she thought she’d done it with her two bare hands, she actually realised she was an emotional wreck as she was dead scared.

With one hand on the steering wheel, Sandra reached for her phone in her purse and called her father who picked up sooner than she’d expected.
“Sandy.”
“Daddy, I..I think I may have just killed someone. I am so scared..am going to jail, aren’t I?”
“Calm down, sweetheart. Where are you?”
“On my way home.”
“Okay, I reckon you take deep breaths as you drive home and then you can explain what’s going on..Deal?”
“Deal,” said a frantic Sandra. “I didn’t mean to do it, Dad.”

Enoch calmed his daughter a bit and she hang up, promising not to do anything stupid.

Once home, Sandra went straight to her father’s bedroom where she found him eagerly waiting for her.

She ran into his arms and broke down on his shoulder.

“Ssshh,” Enoch shushed her. “Tell Daddy what’s going on..”

“It’s Tracy,” Sandra spoke, her head still buried in her father’s shoulder. “I went to her office to tell her to enjoy her relationship with Lubesha while it lasts and before I knew it, we got into a hair pulling match and the next thing I see is Tracy falling down the stairs. She fell so badly, Dad, I could literally hear her bones breaking. And then there’s the blood..oh gosh, she’s dead.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?”
“How can you say that when am certainly going to jail?”

“Hey,” Enoch cupped Sandra’s face and softly said, “Not when am still alive, Sandy. Besides, it was a mere accident. Now go to your room and take a shower or something but please act normal, like nothing has happened.”

Enoch got ready for his meeting as soon as his daughter was out of his room and he was out of the house half an hour later.

Sandra on the other hand had showered and had even tried taking a nap but she couldn’t just seem to fall asleep. She was dead worried about Tracy so she turned on the radio and tuned in to reliable local radio stations when it came to news.

The news for 4 PM past without Sandra hearing anything related to what had happened earlier and music begun playing. Sia and Kendrick Lamar’s ‘The Greatest’ was playing when she started dozing off just to be awakened by someone yelling in the living room.

“Where is she?!”
“Lubesha?” Sandra bolted out of bed and put on bed slippers. She and her father stayed in a fancy bungalow so she was in the living room in no time.

“Why all the yelling?” She inquired.
“You devil!” Lubesha screamed, taking long and quick strides towards Sandra and before she knew it, his hands were wrapped around her neck and he was squeezing every ounce of air out of her.

The maid who’d been trying to stop Lubesha from barging into more rooms came to Sandra’s aid but Lubesha jabbed an elbow into her belly and she retreated, wincing.
“I’m going to kill you,” he angrily told Sandra with clenched teeth. “I swear if anything bad happens to Tracy, I’ll single handedly murder you in broad daylight!” He let go of her neck and she began to constantly cough.

“What..what the hell’s gotten into you, Lubesha? What are you talking about?”
“Don’t you play games with me, Sandra,” he pointed a threatening finger at her. “The receptionist described you very well and besides, there’s CCTV in the lobby so you’ve been busted. I’ll make sure you get arrested for this!”

“It was an accident!” she desperately blurted out, her neck still hurting. “Tracy and I got into a fight and she accidentally fell, I didn’t push her.” the part about not pushing Tracy was a lie.

“Save that explanation for the courtroom,” that being said, Lubesha stormed out of the house.

“What the hell are you still looking at? Don’t you have work to do?” Sandra vented her frustration on the maid. “My friend, will you get your sorry a-s out of my face before I fire you!”

“I’m so sorry,” apologized the frightened maid before going away and leaving Sandra alone in the living room.


☆☆☆
Lubesha had had some free time off work and he’d decided to utilise the time by visiting his favourite cousin Donald Junior. He’d barely gotten to Donald Senior’s house when he received a call from Tracy’s workplace informing him of Tracy’s accident.

Lubesha whose mind had become disturbed by the terrible news did a u-turn and was on his way to the supposed hospital Tracy had been rushed to.

He arrived at the reception and asked the receptionist how Tracy was doing and he was told she was in the O.R.

“I’m afraid that’s all I can disclose to you, sir,” the receptionist had ruefully told him.

He turned and came face to face with Laura, Tracy’s cousin. It had been so many years since he’d last seen her but they were able to recognize one another nonetheless.
“How’s Tracy?” Laura asked Lubesha.
“All I know is she’s being operated on,” he replied with a shrug.

“Who’s this?” A tall and rich looking man appeared beside Laura who swallowed.
“This is Lubesha, uncle.”
“Oh,” Tracy’s father brushed past Laura and went to inquire about Tracy’s condition from the receptionist.

Lubesha was old enough to tell Tracy’s Dad didn’t really like him and him staying at the hospital causing congestion wouldn’t help so he walked out the building and got into his car. Where to?

Being a reporter, his intuition told him there was more to Tracy’s accident so he drove straight to Tracy’s workplace where he bombarded the receptionist with a myriad questions.

“Look here, Sir, so many people come here and I can’t exactly recall exactly how they were all dressed and such, can I?”
“That’s not what I’m implying,” Lubesha was argumentative. “All I’m asking is you recall if someone walked up and down the stairs a few moments before and after Ms. Fulilwa’s accident. Any vague memory can be of much help,” in the years that he’d worked as a reporter, Lubesha had learnt to always follow his gut which right now was yelling at him, telling him Tracy’s accident was no ordinary accident.

The attractive receptionist racked her brain. “Now that you mention..I think I saw someone..” She went into a frenzy, gleefully describing someone who looked and dressed like Sandra except Lubesha knew it was indeed her.

“Thanks a lot for your cooperation,” and he was out of the building, headed south and was at Enoch’s in no time where he gave Sandra a piece of his mind.

From there, Lubesha went back to the hospital where luckily, Tracy had regained consciousness and only Laura was by her side. Laura excused herself saying she had to go inform Lubesha Junior his mum was doing better and make him get ready for his visit to his mother in the evening’s.

Lubesha took a long glance at Tracy who lay looking frail on the bed, a bandage wrapped around her head.

“Hey, I thought the worst had happened to you,” Lubesha sat and caressed her face.
She smiled. “Apart from sustaining two fractured ribs, a now stitched up cut on my forehead and a broken arm, am as good as new.”

“Laura looks happy..”
“She is happy. She and Sylvester are both happy in their marriage such that they might as well pass for my second favourite couple in the world. Jay-Z and Beyonce being my favourite of course.”

“You’re crazy,” he chuckled and deciding he’d done enough stalling, said, “How did you really fall, Tracy?”
“Sandra happened,” she revealed with a deep sigh. “Followed me over to my workplace, talked trash cause that’s the only thing that comes out of that trash can she calls a mouth, I retaliated and alas, we are pulling one another’s hair! Everything happened so fast, Lubesha. Last I remember, I was banging my head hard against the steep stairs and it was lights out for me.”
“She pushed you, right?”

Tracy gave Lubesha a quizzical look and shook her head. “I know where you’re getting at…Look, it was nothing but an accident. I even thank God I’m the one who fell cause heaven knows I wouldn’t be able to deal with the guilt of being the cause of someone’s miscarriage. Sandra would definitely have had one after falling down those stairs.”

He couldn’t believe someone could be that empathetic but in the end he decided to let it go.

“I’m letting this one go, Tracy, though the next time Sandra even dares to lay a finger on you I swear I won’t be held responsible for what I’ll do to her!”


☆☆☆

A devastated Sandra drove straight to the hospital where she’d made an appointment with her doctor earlier that day. Lubesha strangling her the previous day had really annoyed her to the fact that she decided to abort the baby she was carrying. What use was using the baby as leverage if Lubesha wanted to have absolutely nothing to do with her the mother? What use was carrying a baby for nine months and going through labour just for her to become someone’s baby mama cause that’s all she’d ever be to him, his baby mama!

“You sure you wanna do this?”
“Yes..” She breathed, spreading her legs. She was lying on a comfy bed in her doctor’s private ward. “Flash this thing out of me already!”

The procedure went more smoothly than she’d anticipated and Sandra went back home feeling low. She’d taken a bold step and decided to pin all the emotional pain she was going through on both Lubesha and Tracy.
“I’ll hit them where it stings most,” she promised herself as she lay on the bed to take a nap which she really needed after what she’d just done.

She only slept for like an hour before she received a call.

“Yes?”
“How could you?”
“How could I what?”
“Abort my baby, how could you?”
Her heart racing, Sandra sat up in bed. “I don’t know how you came to learn about my abortion but the only explanation is that you’re stalking me and FYI, the baby wasn’t yours.”

“Tell yourself that one more time and you might as well believe it.. You and I both know that baby you were carrying was mine and you had no right to kill it without my consent so-”

“Who’re you talking to?” Sandra heard his wife’s voice on the other end and the line cut.

A nervous Sylvester swallowed and hurriedly locked his phone, “No one important.”
“Okay,” Laura yawned, stripped herself naked, grabbed a towel which she wrapped around her body and stepped into the shower.

“That was close,” Sylvester muttered with relief.

“Aren’t you joining me?” called Laura from the shower.

He smiled and threw his phone on the bed. Sylvester stripped himself naked too and joined his wife in the shower.