☆☆
Sheila’s Home
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Location: El Deols, Anthanna.
Date : 17 – 08 – 2015
Time: 07 : 42
Henry heard the knock on his door a second
time and it was accompanied by her voice this
time. He rolled out of the bed quickly and ran to
the door like a kid going to welcome his
mother.
He opened the door and saw her smiling with a
tray in her hands. He opened the door wide
enough to let her come in. He closed it as soon
as she got in and followed her. She dropped the
tray on a footstool and sat at the edge of the
bed.
“Good morning Henry,” she said to him with a
smile.
He smiled back, “Good morning.”
He noticed she was well dressed and knew she
must be heading out to somewhere. He
suddenly felt bad because he might not get to
enjoy her company for that day, most times
when she went out she always returned late.
It was only fifteen days after he left the hospital
and nineteen days in total since he had come out
of coma but he was already so used to her
company. Whenever she was in the house, she
made sure he never felt lonely and spoke to him
even when he wanted to keep to himself.
“I see you just woke up,” Sheila said, judging
from his appearance. He was still putting on his
pajamas and his eyes still looked sleepy.
“Yes, I woke up a few minutes ago but I’ve been
lazy to get out of bed.” He replied and sat at the
other edge of the bed.
“I’m about to leave the house, so I brought your
breakfast,” she said. She took a closer look at
his face and noticed that the scar on his face had
begun it’s process of fading away after he began
to apply some skin therapy that was
recommended for him. “How are your wounds
now?”
“Better, I don’t feel any pain this morning. It has
been like that for three days,” he said and
stretched his body in demonstration to her, he
also stretched his legs and shook his ankles.
“It’s okay, stop!” she said with a hand gesture
to emphasize her word. “You should remember
that the bones aren’t strong enough yet and
you’re not supposed to stress them yet.”
“I remember,” Henry said and stopped making
the body movements. “When are you returning
today?”
“Ermm… I’m not so sure but I’m sure I would
return late.” She replied. “Everything you need
would be taken care of by Lesedi and she would
keep you company.”
Henry let out a breath. Lesedi was one of the
maids in the house. They were two, the other
one was called Esther. Lesedi was a young
woman of partial South African descent and
Athannaian. Already thirty one years old, she
looked busty and had a round face and chubby
cheeks, one would mother of several children
even though she was yet to have any.
Henry wasn’t sure that he would enjoy Lesedi’s
company like he did Sheila’s, it wasn’t his first
time of being left alone in the house but it was
Sheila’s first time of promising him of Lesedi’s
company. He however decided to take it in good
faith, acknowledging that Sheila had her life to
live and was only being kind to him, he was not
supposed to take it for granted.
Sheila left and he was left all alone in the room.
He stood to take his bath and wash his mouth
before having breakfast. After breakfast, he
took his plates back to the kitchen and met
Lesedi on his way.
“Good morning sire, you should have called me
to come for the plates,” she said as she collected
the tray and entered into the kitchen with it. He
followed her and stopped halfway. He stared
around the kitchen for a while. He could tell it
was well kept, even though he wasn’t sure he
knew how clean a kitchen was supposed to be, it
still looked good to him. Lesedi and her partner
was doing a great job, he thought to himself.
“Good morning sire,” someone greeted from
behind. He turned back and saw Esther walking
in. She was dressed just like Lesedi, in their
uniform and a kitchen apron.
“Good… Morning,” he answered slowly. “Is
there something I can help you with?”
“No sire, please you don’t have to bother about
helping us with anything.” Lesedi replied him
quickly, turning back with a smile.
He nodded gently and turned back. He walked
out of the kitchen and found himself at the back
verandah of the house where he leaned his back
against the balcony rails, admiring the beauty of
the structure of the house and the environment
in which it was built. Random thoughts came
flying through his mind.
He was alone for close to an hour before
someone joined him there.
“Sire…” he heard Lesedi’s voice and turned
back. Here she was , the company Lesedi
promised him.
He saw the look on Lesedi’s face but couldn’t
tell what it meant. He watched in silence as she
joined him lean against the balcony rails giving a
little space between. “You’ve been in this same
position for close to an hour, and you haven’t
moved,” she stopped to look at his face, her
eyebrows gathering together to form a curious
look. “Or did you change position when I wasn’t
watching?”
Her questions revealed two things to Henry; the
first was that she had been watching him which
he believed was probably on the instructions of
Sheila. The second was the fact that he had truly
been standing in the same position without
moving any part of his body until she joined
him. He had his bum leaning against the
concrete rails, making his waist to down to his
feet slightly slant. His arms were folded across
his chest and his feet were crossed over each
other. That was how he had positioned himself
since he got there and he hadn’t moved any
other part of his body except for his neck, when
he turned to look at Lesedi.
He folded his arms and uncrossed his legs, he
stared at Lesedi with a questioning look. “Yes,
I’ve been standing like that since I came here.
Am I supposed to have changed my posture? Is
something wrong with the posture?”
“No no no,” she replied with a smile. “It’s just
the way you stood rigidly without shaking. It
looked so firm, like somebody who had
undergone a military training. A normal person
should have moved or changed position”
“Military training?” He chuckled. “Well, I don’t
know about that. I just found myself standing
like that.”
Lesedi also chuckled. She knew she could be
right, with the man’s physical features and the
way he had been caught moving and standing on
various occasions, he could have been in the
military at a time in his life. She knew a little
about him and how he had lost his memory, she
had heard it from Sheila and Tom while they
were arguing about him once in the house.
Apart from that, she knew nothing else about
the man except that he was Sheila’s guest.
“So Lesedi, tell me about yourself.” Henry
broke the silence.
Lesedi smiled and looked at his face. She rarely
found anyone asking to know more about her.
“Well… I’m Lesedi Zuma born of a man from
Pretoria South Africa and a woman from El
Deols in this country…” she began and went
ahead to talk about how she was left to be on
her own from an early age and how she
survived up till when she met Sheila. She added
some details which he was yet to know about
Sheila.
“So Sheila is nice to everyone,” Henry said
thoughtfully.
“Yes, she is a really good woman.” Lesedi
replied pleasantly.
“And do you know that man that came home
with her some days ago?” Henry asked.
The smile on her face vanished immediately and
was replaced by a frown. She knew he was
referring to Tom. She preferred not to talk
about him. Nobody was in Tom’s good books
and discussing him with someone else could
only make matters worse.
“I’d rather not talk about him,” she said trying
to force a smile.
Henry knew she was forcing the smile. “Why?”
He probed further.
“Ermm…” her face was contorted with a smile.
“Sire, I’m sorry I would have to leave you now. I
have to take care of the laundry and I would be
back after then.”
“Hmmm,” Henry shrugged, he wondered why
she was scared to talk about Tom.
“Are there dirty clothes in your room?” she
asked, hoping to get away hurriedly from him
and avoid answering questions about Tom. The
last time Tom had caught her discussing with
her colleague about him, he had asked Sheila to
do away with her, not considering the fact that
she wasn’t saying anything bad against him. It
had turned into a heated argument between him
and Sheila and got resolved several days after.
Since then she always avoided him like a plague
whenever he was in the house.
“Well, I have my pajamas and a few clothes. I
was hoping to do the laundry myself since I’m
not busy with anything.”
“I’ll take care of the clothes.”
“I’ll come along to help you,” he offered.
“No please, I’ll do it alone by myself.” she said.
Henry didn’t press further. He noticed she was
no longer comfortable discussing with him.
“It’s okay, I hope you come back later.”
She bowed slightly and quickly hurried away. He
watched till she was out of sight. He turned
around and placed his elbows on the concrete
rails, taking a view of the beautiful garden. He
had taken strolls around the garden several
times since he began to stay in the house.
He took in a breath of fresh air. He realized he
was missing Sheila more than he imagined he
would. She never got tired of talking with him
whenever she was around and always answered
his questions pleasantly. But he had learnt from
his discussion with Lesedi that even though
Sheila had always answered his questions
truthfully, she never gave him more details than
he asked for. She had told him about her family
when he asked but never told him how wealthy
and well known her father was in the country.
She also never told him she was the CEO of her
own company. He smiled to himself as he
wondered how she could be so humble despite
her father’s wealth and influence.
17 : 38 PM
The day had been a long one for Henry. he
managed to make it less boring by engaging
himself with some of the books he found in his
room and with the apple phone Sheila had
gotten for him. Lesedi had come back like she
promised but he was already busy then having
newly discovered a website, youngicee.com ,
where he could read thrilling fiction stories. He
was just playing a crime game on the phone
when an advertisement popped up showing the
banner of a tough looking man and woman both
holding guns and looking ready for war. The
picture had caught his attention and gave him
some strange kind of excitement that he could
not explain. He clicked on the banner and was
led to the fiction stories website.
He was already busy reading an action story on
the blog when he heard the sound of Sheila’s
voice. She was already close to his room.
Though he was hesitant to leave the story he
was reading, he managed to put down his phone
and sit up. He heard a soft knock on the door.
“You may come in,” he said.
The door opened gently and she walked in
slowly. She managed to put a smile on her face
even though she looked tired from work.
“Hey Big man! Don’t tell me you locked yourself
in all day,” she said, raising her brows
mischievously.
“No, I actually spent more time outside today.”
“Good,” she smiled again. “Okay, I need to take
a shower and deal with some other things now.
I’ll call for you in thirty minutes.”
“Okay,” he smiled and watched her walk out
before returning to his phone. He continued
with the action story he was reading. He
discovered he was more interested in the
fighting and gun scenes. It felt so real to him
and he found himself clenching his fists
occasionally and positioning his fingers like
someone who wanted to use a gun.
Thirty minutes passed by and Sheila wasn’t
back. It was so unusual of her, he thought to
himself. He waited for an extra ten minutes
before he decided to go look for her.
He stopped when he got out of his room, trying
to decide whether to go look for her in direction
of her room or to the main living room. He
finally decided to go look for her at the living
room and advanced in the direction.
It was a large house and he had to go through a
major hallway and a smaller one before getting
to the main living room. He was close to the
curtains covering the living room from the
hallway when he began to hear some sounds. He
couldn’t tell what was happening exactly, but he
knew the voice heard was Sheila’s. He moved
closer and the voices became clearer, he could
also hear the voice of a second person.
Sheila was laughing so happily as if she was
being tickled.
“But you know we are in the living room right?
Can’t you just…” she was saying before she
burst into another round of laughter.
Henry stood at the entrance of the hallway and
watched Sheila and Tom continue their romance
on the sofa. He felt like turning back
immediately but somehow he felt glued to the
spot. He watched as Tom covered Sheila’s lips
with his.
“Argh!” He shook his head in a sudden
movement as the picture of a woman flashed
across his mind.
He remained there with his eyes closed, trying
to keep the picture which flashed through his
mind but he couldn’t keep nor retrieve the
image.
He opened his eyes to find Sheila staring at him
and disengaging from Tom. He realized the
sound he made attracted their attention.
“What? Is he why you’re getting up?” Tom
asked in a disgusted tone as he looked back and
saw Henry. He was annoyed that Sheila was
disengaging herself from him because Henry
was seen watching them.
“Oh! I’m sorry Henry, you have to forgive me
for not keeping to my promise.”
“No, it’s fine. I’m sorry for interrupting you,”
Henry quickly said and turned back
immediately, feeling somewhat embarrassed. He
walked back to his room.
“What? You want to go with him?” Tom scoffed,
his anger clearly written all over his face.
“I’m sorry Honey,” she turned back quickly to
Tom. She sat on his laps to prevent him from
getting up. “I’m sorry, I had promised him I was
going to call for him in thirty minutes time but
you came and I totally forgot him.” she
explained, looking again in the direction of the
hallway.
“And so what?” Tom raised his brows.
She looked at his face again. “You know he’s not
supposed to be neglected, I have to help him
recover faster.”
Tom sighed. He was getting tired of the
attention she was giving the stranger already
and he wasn’t willing to understand her actions
anymore. Solely because of the stranger’s
presence in the house, he had reduced his visit
to Sheila’s place and only visited once since he
got to the house. Now that he had decided to
visit again, he was dividing their attention.
“Give me a minute Tom, I’ll be back.” Sheila
said and kissed him on the forehead as she got
up from his lap and hurried towards the
hallway.
“Sheila!” he called but she only reaffirmed that
she was returning soon without looking back.
“Are you leaving me for him?”
She stopped at the curtain and turned back
briefly. “I only need to apologize, I’ll be back
here in a minute.”
Tom stared at her without knowing what
response to give until she got out of sight in the
hallway.
He was furious! He wasn’t going to have
anymore. He picked up his car keys and
bounced to his feet, he glanced towards the
hallway before he stormed out of the house.
.
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