All in this heart

As always, the skies and the moon were all visible high above him and he sat down to admire the midnight view and for once, have uninterrupted peace and quite.


The last couple of months have been quite hectic and draining for him, and now that problems were falling by the way side one by one, he found time to look at life’s other pleasures, like the stars and the moon and the crickets sounding away. So now that the world was still and everybody asleep and not a soul loitering in the neighbourhood.

So he sat down in the veranda and thought of the peace of the world, of the hardships of the world and because it is how it is, of his own personal circumstances. In the last few months things have been tough for him, not because he was in trouble, but because of the variables that were outside of his control, but they affected him badly.  


The thing was: hi ex-wife wanted them to have a baby as her present husband could not conceive. And this couple agreed to ask him to father the child.


Tumelo was a traditionalist, a man whoa was born in the womb of strong cultures and a tradition to follow, obey and practise. Even when he agreed to the divorce with his wife it was hard-fought decision because he thought about the well-being of his children and their future. He thought about the scandal the divorce would create: men in the village will think he was not manly enough to see to the needs of his wife, that is why the wife was leaving him. But the opulence he has was all visible to see, so the only reason the wife could be divorcing him, they will make out, would be that he was a weakling in the bedroom.


Although no-one in the village said it, he could see in the faces of those who greeted him that they saw through him. Either his ex-wife was saying so to them he was not sure, but women stayed away from him even though they k new of his wealth. This troubled him. He was sure that other men would never mind him when he was to be with their wives, because they would know he was just a barking dog, no more. Hi own children were still small to understand what was going on, so he was not worried about that aspect, although his ex took them with to be with the new man.


Now they wanted him to father their children, because the man could not do anything about it.

“Come on Tumelo,” Thembi, his ex-wife urged him on. They were visiting Tumelo for the first time to talk about the matter. “You are not losing anything here.”

Tumelo was very good natured and therefore he was at ease with himself maybe that is why his ex did not hesitate to see him with her present hubby right in Tumelo’s house.

“I understand that you cannot have a child of your own,”Tumelo said.   “But it does not mean I should be the saviour.”

Thembi was all fire. “You must speak like that. We are offering you so much money to do this and in the process you are going to benefit more than making babies for us,” she fumed. “You are not stupid.”

“I am lost,” Tumelo pointed out.

“Look Tumelo,” Thembi sighed and shook her head in disbelief. “Donald can you excuse us please,” she said to her husband. Donald looked at Tumelo who looked stoningly back, and then he went out looking hard at his wife.

“Look,” Thembi continued. “I know that I broke your heart, you still love me. That I am happy with, and I understand. “So I am offering you a chance to satisfy your heart and your desires by doing this.”

  “But there is a myriad of men who could this for you…” Tumelo put in.

“I am not a slut you see. I cannot let myself to be with all these men. You are my first love and the only man who has been with me since I was a virgin. Now it is Donald. I cannot be with a man I am not married to.”

“What is his stance in this?”

“He understands and has no choice. He wants children badly because he has never had any children. 
But now that he is married it will be obvious to all and sundry that he is barren. So you gave him a wife, so complete the act, and give him children.”


Tumelo was relaxed about this matter because it meant he held the four aces in the matter, so he was under no pressure to do anything here. He also was over his ex-wife. To him she no longer held any romantic or sexual attractions. “You know I have my own money. And some of that money I give it to you monthly as we speak,” he said, looking intently in her eyes.

“It is not about the money Tumelo,” Thembi advised him, “it is about the children. They have the same mother and a father but a different parents. They will grow up as one thing with the same pair of parents.”        

“When you decided to marry him did you not speak about kids?”

“No,” Thembi threw up her arms. “He did not tell me that he misfires. Don’t get me wrong, he is an ox, but only that he has no seeds to plant.” She made an angry gesture. “He cheated me.”

“So how he agrees that I should do it?”

“If we go outside of us the whole village will know about him and he will be disgraced. He is a man of considerable stature and we cannot allow his dignity to be compromised. Better you than any other skunk out there.”

“Is it not he considers me a weakling?” Tumelo got to pour himself a glass of water. “I hate this you know Thembi?”

“You don’t see the stars here.  You will continue to have me for a couple of months and again in the future when we need another child and so on. You lose nothing here. And you still can have a woman of your choice.”

Tumelo laughed and the laughter brought Donald to put his head around the door with curiosity. Thembi waved him away. With her stern looks Donald could not argue but vanish once more to sit in the veranda.

“So this has no emotional ramifications Thembi?”

“Not at all sweetie. I am what you know and I am familiar with you. What is new? You know what I like and I do know what gives you a kick.”

“Tell him to go away. You are sleeping here tonight.”

Thembi could not believe her ears that her ex-husband still had the hots for him. “So you still lust after me?” She asked sarcastically. But she got up quickly and moved to the door.

But Tumelo stopped her in her stride. “He must leave payment with you first.”

Thembi stopped in her tracks. “My holy grail, what payment?”

“Do you think I will just do this for free? I am not stupid. You want to protect his dignity, so you pay for that service as well.”

“So now you are a whore Tumelo?”

“Take it or leave it, I don’t care how you look at it. You want my seed you pay. You want me to shut my mouth you pay too.”

Thembi sat down and kept still. After a while she asked softly, “Ok, how much?”

When he told she nearly hit the roof. Donald had to come into the house considering the noise she made. “He wants to ruin us,” she told him. “How can we afford this,” she asked indignantly.

“Let us be civil about this Tumelo,” Donald pleaded softly, although there was an edge to hi voice.

“I am being civil,” Tumelo said,” otherwise I could have kicked you out of my house long time ago. “You take my wife from me and then you have the will to come into my wife to ask me to make love to her. You are a worthless jerk.”

Donald glared at him. “You can not talk to me like that. I respected you. I did have an affair with your wife, she asked me out. So I asked her to divorce first before we could do anything. I respected you, please respect me.”

“I repeat,” Tumelo said, “I hold the four aces.”

No one said anything to this while Thembi said away from them, looking from one to the other as if she was auctioneer considering a decision what to buy.

“So you are useless and cannot babies, and I can do them for you. You want me to keep this matter under the carpet, that I can do, no problem there,” Tumelo said with authority. “I will only do this for my kids so that they have same kid blood although with different parents. But the two of you must pay for what you did to me. You hurt me and scandalised me. You cost me a place in this community and I became a laughing stock. So, as fate would have it, it is payback time now.”

Donald looked at his wife and nodded. “I will pay. This matter has dragged out of control and we will not be able to contain this any further if we abandon it now,” he said then looking at Tumelo, went on, ”Go on, have my wife and make us babies, but don’t take too long. You have three beautiful kids, so I know that you are quick about it.”    


Tumelo laughed heartily at the supposed warning, which he took for a compliment. “I intend top take my time. Every month you put something in the bank for me and every second night she creeps into my bed for fun.”


That was about three months ago and as Tumelo sat under the skies twinkling stars he felt drained out. Drained not by the burden the assignment carried, but by the emotions it carried with it. With every visit Thembi grew closer and closer to him and lately she wanted to bring their kids with as well. She even would not want to hide the fact from the neighbours, something which Tumelo did not encourage.

“What does he say about this?” he asked her

She ran a finger along his face. “He has no choice,” she said softly in a whisper. “He wants children and thinks that as soon as we have any that will entrench his tentacles in me.” 

“The way you grasp me tells me you are still into me,” he said into her ear.

“Don’t kid yourself, sir,” she kissed her lightly on his cheek. “I am an Oscar-winning actress.” 

Although he was seeing someone else who did not know about this bizarre situation, and this person giving her pleasure, there was something intriguing about the Donald-Thembi proposal. It was fascinating yet emotional challenging and he was not sure of the future as it is. There other problem was that what if Thembi was not keen to be pregnant wand was deliberately not conceiving?

So he sat there on the veranda and found that the time was going on to past three. He has been sitting there now for three solid hours.

It was fun, he conceded, but somehow we need to know why is Thembi not conceiving yet.

“This is a dilemma,” he told her.

She smiled and asked, “So you don’t want a marathon, you want a sprint to the end?”

“This is emotionally draining to me Thembi. I must make sure I do not miss the appointment and you must sure you pay me. It is not good for us all.”

“But when I am here you enjoy me,” she said with a smirk on her beautiful oval face.

He too grinned. “Let stop this debate and get on with it. Come here.”

“I am divorcing him Tumelo,” she said when he hauled her out of the sofa. “I am your wife, remember? I African tradition married people never divorce, they are just estranged.”

As he sat ion the veranda once more, Tumelo was bound to make a marital decision once. His wife’s divorce from Donald was finalised earlier that day and she was sleeping in the house with the children. The decision to be made was simple, to marry her wife again or to continue with this arrangement?

“It is not unAfrican to live with a woman without consulting with home affairs isn’t it?”