Vincent had been arguing with Mpumi about the matter of love. Vincent wanted to have a girlfriend but Mpumi refused to allow him. He argued that he was ready because he was 13 years old. But Mpumi argued back, shutting down the discussion with him at once, “The more reason you shouldn’t have a girlfriend.” Vincent was not pleased with any of that. He started wondering how everything changed and turned out this way. Not so long ago, they were talking about her and now it was him. He got up. He glared at her, and then he stormed out of the room. Dave followed behind him. They both stomped out of the house. “Mpumi,” Dion said, “he might not come back.” “He will. Trust me. He’s only out to breathe.” “But why, Mpumi? Let the child explore his sexuality. He’s only sharing love.” “He’s too young.” “When was the first time you had your first love?” “In kinder garden, actually. But as a parent I cannot encourage that to my child

Dion had been telling Mpumi the story behind his blindness.“What did the doctor say? You will see again, right?”“He said nothing’s promising. He ran as many tests and they all came out negative. I’ll have to accept that I can never see again.”“There must be a way. There must be an operation somewhere.”“I don’t think so. Can’t you see? It was my money that burnt my eyes. Even if there was such an operation, I could never afford it.”“Hey, by next year I’ll be done with my degree. I’ll find a good paying job. I’ll increase on my savings, and we’ll get you operated.”“Yeah, thanks.”She saw that he did not take her word seriously, “Dion, I mean it. I would really appreciate doing that for you, Dave and Vincent. It does not matter how long it will take. Ten years, fifteen years. I just want to try.”

Dion and Mpumi had become comfortable with each other. Now they found it easy sharing their ordeals with each other. Not long ago, the billionaire and the hustle-girl had sworn to hate each other. None of them could predict that they would lean on each other someday.Dion had been curious as to why Mpumi would wake up in the middle of the night and weep. He had thought that she was still mourning the loss of her mother.“I couldn’t care less about that one.” Mpumi said, “She died a long time ago in my heart.” She pulled down the black band round her wrist. She exposed the mark on her wrist. It was a big map birthmark that almost covered her entire wrist. She started fiddling with it. It was a pity Dion could not see it.“I did bad things,” in the quietness, Mpumi had said.“You too?”“I’m way worse.”“What did you do?”“I didn’t deserve him

“Dion, I can tell that this coat is very expensive. Can I ever fit in it? Holding it like this gets my hands shaky.”“Who do you think made that coat?”“A worker…?”“Exactly. Now, I don’t understand how different or low you may be from those workers to not be worthy of handling that piece of cloth. You are worth more than my closet combined. Now, go to work.”She wanted to leave but not yet, “Dion?”“What?” he had to be rude.“Thank you,” she finally left the room.The days passed on like that, Dave was becoming more and more distant, Vincent was receiving more and more attention from home and from school, Mpumi was getting tired and weak, Dion remained as he was—piling himself with loads of work to cover the gap in his time. It got to a point were Mpumi would not be seen for days in that household, obviously due to work and lessons.

Mpumi cut through her classes to get home. The young woman was exhausted. She did not care anymore about the work she would be missing for the rest of the day. She had herself clenched to herself, perhaps, protect from the cold. She wanted to get home and get a quick nap and then got to work afterwards. Her morning shift was long done, now two more jobs to go. She would have to go stand in the Pakistan man’s shop by five and then head to the garage at seven to stay the night there.-**The clouds are darkening. Please don’t rain on me. I’m tired. I’m hungry. I’m ill. I just want to get home, and lay down. **-She held onto her chest where she grimaced with pain. Soon enough, she felt striking pain on her chest. She paused and endured. She tried to breathe gently, that trick always worked for her, well, at least she thought. Before she knew it the rain began pouring. She did not attend to it now. She had bigger problem that needed her attent