Читать книгу Dance of the Heart - Sibusiswe Dhuwe - Страница 3

7

Nomvula was at her wits’ end. Things had progressed from bad to worse since the morning. Mpho had been cranky as anything all day.

It had started at breakfast. Mpho put her spoon in her bowl of cereal and stirred it morosely, then she started spooning it onto the table.

“Please stop that, you’re making a mess,” Nomvula asked.

But Mpho continued as if not a word had been spoken.

“Mpho! Did you hear me? I said . . .”

“No!” Mpho screamed and lashed out with her hand, sending the bowl and its contents to the floor. Then she sat there staring mutinously at Nomvula.

Not having expected such an extreme reaction from someone usually so even-tempered, Nomvula was taken aback. She sat down and leaned towards the child.

“Sweetie, what’s wrong?”

Mpho sat back in her chair, folded her arms and with her head lowered, remained sullenly quiet.

“Are you feeling sick, my baby?”

A tear trickled down Mpho’s cheek. Nomvula gathered the little girl up in her arms and held her tight, rocking her gently back and forth. Sometimes all a body needed was some comfort. Nomvula prayed that Mpho’s mood would lighten. But it didn’t.

* * *

A while after lunch Mpho started crying. What had started out as whimpering and whining now turned into full-blown wailing. Nothing Nomvula did could persuade her to stop.

Frantically Nomvula felt the child’s forehead, but there was no sign of a temperature. She tried to feel Mpho’s stomach to check for any signs of tightness or discomfort, but the little one squirmed and wriggled out of her arms.

“I want my daddy!” Mpho wailed.

Nomvula’s stomach was cramping and her head was beginning to ache – a steady thumping at her temples and behind her eyes.

“Mpho, baby, it’s all right, stop crying now.” She took the child in her arms and gently patted her back. So far this job had been too good to be true; reality had to kick in sometime. Nomvula felt close to tears herself, but she fought to remain calm. If Mpho sensed she was no longer in control, her chances of quietening her down would be next to nothing.

“Ssh! It’s okay, honey, hush now.” Nomvula walked up and down with Mpho in her arms, patting her back and fervently hoping the rhythm would soothe her. The little one finally fell asleep amidst hiccups and sniffs.

Everything was fine for the next hour until the telephone rang. Nomvula rushed to pick it up, but she wasn’t fast enough. Mpho sat up on the sofa, and finding herself all alone, began to cry again.

There was no one at the other end of the line! Nomvula could have screamed.

“It’s okay, I’m here.” She tried to pick Mpho up, but this time the little one refused to cooperate.

“I want my daddy!” she yelled, and followed that up with more wailing.

Nomvula was not mentally equipped to deal with this. She stared helplessly at Mpho. She didn’t want to phone Daniel and admit that she really wasn’t coping with the first crisis involving her charge, so she proceeded to try and cajole Mpho with all her favourite treats: ice cream, pizza, juice, more ice cream. But all in vain.

“Oh, oh, oh, oh! I’m afraid nothing will work when she’s worked herself up into a state like this.”

Nomvula turned to see Daniel putting his briefcase down and shrugging off his jacket. She was ashamed to admit that she was desperately relieved to see him. He gave her a reassuring smile and walked over to scoop Mpho up in his arms.

“Daddy’s baby having a bad day, huh?” He spoke softly to Mpho and wiped the tears from her cheeks.

“She’s been like this ever since this morning. I just can’t seem to get through to her.”

Nomvula hated herself for sounding so weak and defeated, but her stomach was cramping fiercely, her lower back was killing her and her head was pounding.

“You okay? You don’t look so good.” Daniel sounded concerned.

She didn’t want him to think she couldn’t cope, but the concern in his voice was her undoing. It was the first time in as long as she could remember that Nomvula voluntarily admitted she couldn’t manage on her own. Suddenly she understood why Mpho wanted her daddy; she too wanted someone to hold her and chase away whatever it was that was bedevilling their day. His presence alone was reassuring.

Daniel put an arm around her shoulders and gave her a friendly squeeze.

“It’s all right,” he said, guiding her to the stairs. “Go and lie down. I’ll take Mpho out for a bit; that usually does the trick.”

“Are you sure? I mean, I shouldn’t just dump my responsibilities . . .”

He gave her a gentle push.

“Go on. You’ll have time enough to deal with Mpho’s difficult days. You don’t look up to it today. Now go,” he ordered and Nomvula obeyed, grateful for the reprieve.

* * *

“Hi.”

Nomvula opened her eyes to see Daniel sitting beside her on the bed. It always took her some time to come to full wakefulness, so she was not unduly alarmed at finding him so close to her.

“Hi. What’s the time?” she asked sleepily.

“It’s a little past eight.”

Nomvula shot right up. “Why didn’t you wake me? Where’s Mpho?”

“Relax.” He gently pushed her down with a hand on her shoulder and then promptly withdrew it. “She’s bathed and tucked in for the night. I thought I’d let you rest for a bit; you looked beat.”

“Did you give Mpho her supper?”

Daniel smiled in amusement and Nomvula realised what an inane question that was. He knew better than anyone else how to look after Mpho.

She felt stupid and said, “Sorry.”

“Don’t be silly.” He waved off her apology.

“Do you want to come down for supper? I believe Botle’s special today is some kind of curry.”

Nomvula wouldn’t have minded making supper herself, but she was an unpredictable cook at best and thought it better that she should cook only when absolutely necessary.

She looked quizzically at Daniel as she realised that he was quietly studying her face. “What is it?” she asked.

“Don’t you miss it? Working in the city, I mean.”

She thought for a minute.

“No. Actually, I don’t miss it.”

“Not even on a day like this?”

She smiled ruefully. “We all have our bad days. In a way I totally empathise with Mpho. There were days when I also just wanted to bawl my eyes out . . .” She paused for a moment of reflection, a somewhat sad smile on her face.

“And?” Daniel prompted.

“Somehow it was just easier to push all that down to a place where I couldn’t access it. I had this crazy idea that if I pushed hard enough, it would all go right down to my toes and eventually wear through the soles of my feet and into the ground . . . Bye-bye, sadness.”

“It doesn’t quite work like that.”

“I know. Pain has a way of hanging around.”

They were both quiet for a while, lost in their own thoughts.

Nomvula wondered why she had felt compelled to confide in Daniel like that. The words had just seemed to come from her of their own volition. Something about Daniel invited confidences.

“So what do you do for fun?” he asked finally.

“What’s that?” she replied.

Daniel looked puzzled for a moment, then a slow smile spread across his face.

“Ahhh, I see. Amajokes.” He leaned across and tapped the end of her nose with his forefinger. “Before you know it, you’ll be laughing out loud.”

Nomvula couldn’t help but smile. “I do laugh,” she protested.

“I’m talking about laughing out loud. Not from here.” Daniel stroked a finger down her throat. “From here.” His hand settled below her breast for a brief moment and then it was gone. “The kind of laughter that makes your tummy muscles hurt.”

Something did a quick somersault in the pit of Nomvula’s stomach.

“I can laugh like that,” she said, and then soberly added, “Or at least I used to.”

Daniel was quiet for a moment. He gave her hand a comforting squeeze, sensing that now was not the time to delve into the past.

Then he raised himself up from the bed. “So are you coming to eat?”

“I’ll be right down,” she said.

“Good.”

He left and she quickly checked her hair and make-up, then joined him downstairs.

“So, how are things going with the merger?” Nomvula asked while they were dishing up.

“Things are finally moving. Bancroft doesn’t have a leg to stand on now.”

“And this is what you really want?”

“I’ve been working on it for a year now. Parscope has a much wider distribution network than we could ever hope to achieve at Modise, and for the past four years we’ve been their main supplier of electronic components. So it makes sense to merge.”

“I guess it also adds up to millions of dollars?” Nomvula teased.

Daniel smiled, his brown eyes warming up and crinkling slightly at the corners. “And best of all, it frees me to go and annoy the guys in product development with my presence.”

“Ag! Bosses like you can really ruin a person’s plans for a little R & R at work,” said Nomvula laughingly.

“Do I ruin your plans?” he asked softly.

“Of course not. This is your home.”

“And I want you to think of it as yours too.” Daniel was looking at her intently and making her feel a bit hot.

Nomvula didn’t know what to say, so she mumbled a quick thank you and stuffed a forkful of samp and bean curry into her mouth.

Why was this man stirring up all these feelings in her?