Chapter 22

It was mid-November, and the onset of summer only made the exam fever that was in the air more intense. The end of their first semester meant that Luyanda and his classmates would have to sit through six examinations. Emeka, Gina, and Nomsa decided to form a study group and Luyanda, Jabu and Imtiaz were only too happy to join. The next two weeks of exams were intense, marked by several gruelling tests and many a sleepless night. But everything went well, and much to Luyanda’s surprise, he passed all of his modules well. He was relieved, because if he had failed, his parents would have insisted that he quit his part-time job at the museum. He was well on his way to getting the money that he needed to pay off Ma Selina. It was a thought that often crossed his mind, and he found himself thinking about it again as he trudged into the museum early on a Monday morning to put in an extra shift before their weekly meeting (he had to make up for the hours he had taken off to study). He hadn’t imagined that it would take this long to save up some money, and he wondered whether there weren’t any quicker and easier ways for him to get hold of the cash he needed.
An hour later, at their Monday morning meeting, Uru informed them of his decision to mount an end of year exhibition. “It will be called ‘The Healing Herbs of Africa’, and” he added, “our three youngest volunteers will play centre-stage.”
“You don’t mean the three of us, do you?” Jabu asked, glancing at Nomsa and Luyanda. Uru simply grinned.
“But we’ve never run an exhibition before,” Jabu moaned.
“No one knows as much about those plants as you do. You’ve done all the research on them and I’m sure you know them back to front. If any visitors have questions you’ll be the best people to answer them.”
Over the next few days, Luyanda, Nomsa and Jabu had their work cut out for them. They prepared and labelled the pieces, and mounted them in the temporary display section. They were grateful that this exhibition was not as large as the previous one. After a couple of extra shifts, they were able to get through everything that needed to be done and were finished with the job.

Luyanda wanted everything perfect, because he had cajoled his parents into attending. “It will only run for one weekend,” he said to them. “After that, it’s the December break.” The exhibition ran over two weeks, and his parents decided to pop in on the Saturday in between. Luyanda wangled things to make sure that he got to guide the group they were in. During the tour he carried himself like an expert, trying to be serious while avoiding eye contact with his mum and dad.
“That was wonderful,” Maddie gushed when they were finished, and threw her arms around him.
“Mum, please! My colleagues are here!”
“Oh, is Dr. Uru around?” Devon asked. “I would love to meet him and the rest of your colleagues.”
“Promise you won’t embarrass me?”
Devon crossed his fingers and grinned.
“Promise!”
Luyanda rolled his eyes.
“Let me go and see if he’s in. Give me a minute.”
He rushed over to Uru’s office. The door stood open. He popped his head inside but there was as no one there.
“He’s not in,” Luyanda announced, as he rejoined his waiting parents. Just then, he spotted Uru walking in. Yisa and Amina were with him. “Hang on. There he is. Let’s go say hi.”
Luyanda led the way. Uru raised a questioning eyebrow as Luyanda and his parents approached.
“Morning Doctor,” Luyanda said. “Hope you have a minute. I want to introduce you to my parents, Maddie and Devon.” For a split second, Uru’s face went blank. He quickly recovered himself and extended his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you”
“Nice to meet you too,” Maddie said, shaking Uru’s outstretched hand. Uru gave Devon a curt nod.
“I have to leave,” he said abruptly, spun around, and strode off. Yisa and Amina hurried after him. Luyanda thought he saw a gleam of displeasure in their eyes, but he couldn’t be sure.
“That was awkward,” Maddie said.
“Tell me about it,” Devon added.
“They’re weird sometimes,” Luyanda explained.
“I guess we should get going,” Devon said. Luyanda walked his parents to the door of the museum. As the door slid open, Keita came strolling in.
“Luyanda!” Keita exclaimed. “I was hoping you’d be on duty today. I didn’t want to miss the final exhibition of the year. Is it true that you’re one of the guides?”
“Yes, I’ve still got a couple of tours to do.”
Maddie cleared her throat .
“Oh, sorry,” Luyanda said. “Professor Keita, my parents. Parents, Prof Keita. He takes us for Pre-Colonial Studies.”
“Pleasure to finally meet you, Mr and Mrs Michaels. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“All good, I hope?” Devon asked.
“Yes, for the most part,” Keita replied with a mischievous wink. “You have a fine young man here. You must really be proud.”
“I hope he’s been making good contributions in class?” Maddie asked, shooting a beady eye at Luyanda.
“Model student. He told me that you both work in IT security?”
“Yes,” Maddie answered, “but in two completely different fields.”
“So how did the two of you meet?”
In a few minutes, Devon, Maddie and Keita were deep in an animated conversation about how Maddie and Devon met at a trade convention, fell in love and got married. When the three of them started discussing their favourite hotels in Bali, where it turned out that they had all been to, Luyanda cleared his throat.
“Sorry, but I think I’d better be getting back.”
“Yes, you do that,” Maddie nodded without so much as a glance in Luyanda’s direction as Keita recounted his own adventures backpacking in Bali. Luyanda shrugged, and slinked away, leaving his parents and Keita laughing and chatting away at the museum’s entrance.
“Hey, Michaels!”
Yisa and Amina stepped towards him as he walked past them on his way to the exhibition area.
“Why didn’t you tell us about…,” Amina dropped her voice to a harsh whisper, “…your parents?”
“I don’t know. Maybe because it’s none of your business? I don’t know anything about your parents, do I?”
“It’s not the same,” Amina said.
“What’s not the same?”
Yisa stuck a finger in his face.
“This changes everything.”
“Like what?”
“You just don’t get it, do you?”
“Get what?”
“Come on, Mwindo,” Amina said, tugging on Yisa’s sleeve, “Let’s go.”
“What did you call him?” Luyanda asked.
“It’s none of your business,” Amina replied. “Come on.”
They tramped off. Luyanda shook his head. He did not understand how people could be so narrow minded. He was used to getting surprised reactions from people whenever they met his parents. But he’d never encountered direct hostility.
“I guess there’s a first time for everything,” he muttered, shoving his hands into his pockets and trudging back to the reception for the next tour. He consoled himself with the thought that he wouldn’t have to see Yisa, Amina and Uru for the three weeks of the Christmas holiday.

Everything in Azania City came to a halt over Christmas.
Luyanda tried to keep busy at home during his three weeks off from university. It was a failing battle. Soon he found himself going to bed at three or four in the morning after spending several hours gaming. The next day would be a complete waste. He would wake up, shower and have breakfast around midday. His mother's frustration grew little by little, as did her nagging: “Why don’t you clean the garage? Why don’t you do the garden? Why don’t you wash the windows? Why don't you do some spring cleaning?”
“Because it’s summer, mum,” he drawled, yawning and turning over in his bed in reply to her most recent suggestion that he do some spring cleaning. When she asked him to go grocery shopping though, he jumped at the chance. Maddie had never quite taken to having robots select her fruits and veggies.
“Those drones don’t care at all about quality. They pick up whatever’s within reach.” Luyanda had been looking for an excuse to go to the mall without arousing his parents’ suspicions. He wanted to surprise them with presents that Christmas. They weren't expecting him to get them anything because they knew how broke he was.
His museum stipend had come to the rescue. A few days earlier, the university had deposited three thousand afris into his account. He needed two thousand to pay off Ma Selina. That left him with a thousand to spend on his parents. He wanted to get his father a fancy cologne that he himself would be able to borrow from time to time. For his mother, he had settled on an elegant pair of earrings, but he wasn’t too sure of their size and he wanted to see them in person. So he took his mother's beaten up hovercar and headed down to the mall, and bought them presents after he was finished grocery shopping. As he trudged back to the parking lot, he wondered whether he shouldn’t fly over to see Ma Selina. He regretted not having gotten either Ma Selina’s or Gigi’s phone numbers. He would probably have to go to the police station and start from there. Would they even remember him? Unlikely. He suddenly felt indecisive about the whole affair. Perhaps it could wait a bit. At least until the new year. No one liked being disturbed during their Christmas vacation. He pushed the thoughts out of his mind, hopped into the hovercar and returned home. After wrapping the gifts and hiding them away in his wardrobe, he felt quite proud of himself.

The next day, they put up the Christmas decorations all over the house. “Lu,” Maddie asked as she stuck a wreath to the door, “Why don’t we invite that nice teacher of yours over for Christmas dinner?”
“You mean Keita?”
“Professor Keita,” Devon admonished from beneath the Christmas tree, where he was gluing it to its base. “You kids have no respect. In my day —”
“He’s the one that insists on us calling him that.”
“So will you ask him?” Maddie pressed. “I remember he told us that his entire family is in Tumbutu.”
“Okay,” Luyanda nodded. “I will.”
“I’d be delighted,” Keita beamed as he and Luyanda discussed the invitation over their pads. “I didn’t have any plans other than to share some Christmas pudding with my grumpy old neighbour Mrs. Small. She’s got tons of cats, smells of medicine, and is always complaining, so I’d much rather spend Christmas with you.”
“It’s confirmed then,” Luyanda said, “see you at six pm on Christmas eve. I will send you the address.”
Promptly at six pm the next day, the doorbell rang. Luyanda found Keita standing at the door, carrying a large Christmas pudding and a bottle of wine.
“Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas to you too. You’re right on time.”
Luyanda took Keita’s gifts and showed him into the house.
“Merry Christmas, Sunny.” Maddie gave Keita a hug, and Devon pumped his hand enthusiastically.
“I hope I’m not too late?”
“No, no, not at all,” Maddie replied, “Please come in.”
They all sat down to dinner. Soon, they were laughing their heads off as Keita entertained them with anecdotes gleaned from years lecturing in various universities. “But what about your family,” Maddie mentioned. “You said that all of them are in Tumbutu. Do you often go up to visit?” Keita’s face fell.
“No. Not much. They’re not very close family. Cousins and aunts and the like.”
“But what about your wife? Don’t you have kids?” Luyanda wanted to kick her underneath the table, but she was seated too far away. Keita didn’t answer.
“You lost them in the war?” Devon hazarded.
“No. Not in the war,” Keita replied, a faraway look in his eyes.
“It was afterwards.” He cleared his throat and stirred in his seat. “Tumbutu City had just been rebuilt and refounded with it’s own government. The new library was to be the biggest attraction - the pride of the city. The plan was to get a lot of income from tourists. I lived there with my family. So did the other librarians. Then a fire broke out. It swept through half the library and the staff quarters. My wife and my two girls got trapped in our house. I wasn’t home at the time. I had stayed in the office, up working late because the filing system had crashed and I was trying to get through the buggy security system. Then I smelled smoke. When I came out, everything was burning. I couldn’t get into the house to rescue them. I listened to them scream for a long time. Then - they stopped screaming.”
He stared out the window, his face an expressionless mask.
There was an awkward silence around the table. “I’m so sorry to hear that,” Maddie said, reaching across the table for Keita’s hand.
“I do often wonder what the girls would have looked like today, if they’d survived. But,” he perked up suddenly, “that was more than thirty years ago.”
“I’m sure they would have been beautiful,” Maddie said.
“Yes, I’m sure they would have. They were lucky enough to take after their mother,” he added with a chortle. The others joined in, and the rest of the night sped by, marked by jokes, anecdotes and more laughter. Before they knew it, their pads struck twelve. Keita rose to his feet.
“Well,” he said, “I must be on my way. Thank you for the most pleasant Christmas dinners that I have had in a long time. This beats Mrs. Small’s endless complaints and annoying cats, I can tell you that!”

The next morning, Luyanda woke to shrieks of delight coming downstairs from the living room. He rushed downstairs to find his mother in her dressing gown, unwrapping the present that Luyanda had bought her. His father trudged in sleepily, wrapping his gown around him. “What’s all the noise about?” he asked with a yawn. “What’s for breakfast?”
“Oh, Devon,” Maddie leapt into his arms and gave him a big kiss, “You shouldn’t have.”
“Oh, I’m not sure I did. What are these?” He looked at the package that Maddie dangled in front of him.
“The earrings you got me!”
Devon shook his head. “I didn’t get you any earrings.”
“If you didn’t, then who did?”
Luyanda cleared this throat.
“Lu?”
Luyanda nodded. “I thought I’d get you guys something for Christmas this year, seeing as I recently got my first ever pay cheque.”
Maddie wrapped him in a big hug.
“What about me?” Devon sulked. “Where’s my present?”
Luyanda nodded at the tree. Devon spotted a tiny box, dove for it like a little boy and tore off the gift wrapping with trembling hands.
“Wow!” he exclaimed, holding up the bottle of cologne against the brilliant sunlight, streaming in through the windows. “This is perfect!” He pulled the lid off and sprayed some onto his wrist. “Smell that,” he extended his hand to Maddie.
“It’s great - oh, hang on.” She dashed up the stairs and returned a moment later with a small box. She handed it to Luyanda. “Merry Christmas, son.” He pulled off the wrapping. Inside was a set of different coloured straps for his pod. Each embroidered with his initials: “L.M.”
“Oh, wow! This is perfect.”
“I’ve also got something for you, dear,” Devon said, handing Maddie a parcel. It was a hard copy book: ‘Cyrix: The True Story Behind The Father of Cryptocurrencies.’
“It’s a collector’s item,” Devon said, as Maddie turned it over in her hands. “Check that scribble on the inner cover? That’s Cyrix’s autograph. It’s the real deal.”
“Oh really?” Maddie answered, shooting a beady eye at him. “How much did it cost then?”
“I can’t say that! It’s a present. It’s the thought that counts.”
“Yes, thank you dear,” Maddie said, giving him a hug and a kiss. She handed him a nice formal tie and a tie-clip. Devon tried them on immediately, looking ridiculous as they hung over his dressing gown.
“Perfect fit. Thanks, love.”
“It’s just a shame that you never ever wear ties,” said Luyanda.
“That’s not true,” Devon protested. “Don’t listen to him dear,” he added, giving Maddie a kiss, “It’s wonderful. Thank you very much.”

The next few days were hot, slow and boring. Luyanda didn’t know what do to with himself after Christmas. Nomsa and Jabu were out of town and were only coming back a day or two before the new year. Jabu had some family visiting from Mobabu City, and he was tasked with driving them around. When he was not driving, he was babysitting his young cousins. Luyanda tried to find out what Emeka, Imtiaz and Gina were up to. Like him, they were stuck at home, bored out of their minds and doing nothing constructive at all.
They decided to go bowling together. Luyanda hated every minute of it because he was trailing far behind the other three right from the start. Emeka beat them all with ease.
“Why don’t we throw a New Year’s Eve party?” Imtiaz suggested.
“That’s a great idea,” said Gina. “We can hold it at my house. My parents won’t be back until the first week of January, so we will have the whole place to ourselves.” The rest of them thought it was a great idea, and they drew up the guest list there and then. Luyanda was tasked with inviting Jabu and Nomsa.
Luyanda called Nomsa as soon as he got home.
“Haven’t you seen the message from Uru?” Nomsa asked as soon as Luyanda informed her about the party.
“What message?” Luyanda asked. “I turned off all university notifications. I’m off work, remember?”
“Then turn them back on again. Uru invited us to a New Year’s Eve party at his place. The two things are clashing.”
Luyanda turned to his pad.
“Msiza? Any messages from uni?”
“Incoming message from Dr. Uru,” Msiza answered.
“Yeah?”
“The staff at the Pan-African History Museum are cordially invited to a party to usher in the New Year. The venue is my home, and the time is 7 p.m. Until late. Or early. Please note that food and drinks and costumes will be provided. End of message.”
“Costumes?” Luyanda said. “What does he mean by ‘costumes’?”
“A costume is a set of clothes in a style typical of a particular country, culture or historical period.”
“I know what a costume is, Msiza. Group call Jabu and Nomsa.”
A moment later, his best friends’ faces popped up in front of him.
“Guys,” he started, “I don’t know about you all, but I would much rather go to Gina’s party.”
“But we can’t turn down Uru,” Nomsa complained.
“Why not?” Jabu countered.
“For starters, because he’s our boss. We could get fired or something.”
“Oww come on, you’re exaggerating. It was only an invitation. All we have to do is to write back to him and very politely inform him that we will not be able to take up his invitation.”
“But I already accepted his invitation,” Jabu pointed out. “I can’t now turn around and say ‘No, I’m not coming anymore’”.
“Sure you can,” Luyanda replied. “You’ve done it to me a million times before.”
“Yeah, but that’s different.”
“How?”
“You’re not important.”
“What?”
“Come on, you know what I mean.”
“Okay, okay,” Nomsa said diplomatically, “Let’s not get our knickers in a knot over this. Everyone should just do as they please, it’s no big deal. I for one haven’t yet accepted Uru’s invitation.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I don’t know, Jabu. Maybe because I don’t want to spend my new year with my hate-speech-spewing boss.”
“Are you still on that high horse?”
“Call it whatever you want to call it, okay? I’d much rather be at Gina’s party. It’s a free country. Besides, what the hell are you going to speak with Uru about for a whole four to six hours?”
“Who cares?” Jabu shrugged. “It’s free drinks.”
“Yeah, but still,” Luyanda rebutted, “I’d much rather pay and have a good time, then get bored for free.”
Nomsa giggled. Jabu was not about to give up so easily. “What if we just made a technical appearance at Uru’s, hung around for a few minutes then head out?”
“That’s even worse,” Nomsa replied. “That’s like telling him ‘your party sucks and we’re going to a better one’. At least this way, we can make some other excuse that won’t seem so rude. Besides, the venues are on opposite sides of town.”
“I give up,” Jabu said, throwing up his hands in mock defeat.
“Maybe let’s split up then,” Luyanda said. “You go to Uru’s party, and we’ll go to Gina’s. How’s that sound?”
“That sounds lame because I won’t have anyone to talk to at Uru’s party? What do you think I have to say to Yisa and Amina? But it’s fine. I’ll cook up some excuse to pull out of attending Uru’s party. I’ll keep you posted.”
They ended the call, and Luyanda spent the rest of the day tending to Devon’s garden and watching movies. Later that evening, Jabu called back.
“I pulled out of Uru’s party,” he informed Luyanda and Nomsa, who was also on the call. “But the guy got really mad. I’ve never seen him like that. He mentioned that the two of you had already turned him down. He wanted to know where you all were going.”
“I hope you didn’t tell him,” Nomsa said, “because it’s none of his business. I hate the way that dude tries to run everyone’s lives.”
Jabu face fell.
“You told him, didn’t you?”
“What was I supposed to do? You guys should have seen the way he lay into me. He said he’d already bought drinks and food, and that I was being inconsiderate for dropping him at the last minute.”
“He’s such a control freak,” Nomsa said. “I’m telling you guys now. It’s a warning sign.”
But why did you call him,” Luyanda asked, “Why didn’t you just send him a message?”
“I did send him a message, but he called me back and lay into me. But after I told him about Gina, he relaxed and told me that he understood. He even joked about not being able to compete with a beautiful young woman like Gina.”
“So he’s cool with it?”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Okay,” said Luyanda, “I guess that’s that then,” he said. They agreed to meet at Gina’s house, and ended the call.

The rest of the days dragged by. Luyanda counted down the hours to the last day of the year. He didn’t think it possible, but he was actually getting tired of doing nothing. He started getting worried when he found himself seriously considering going through some schoolwork as Maddie had suggested. The thirty-first finally dawned, and Luyanda rolled out of bed at midday with a sense of excitement. He swallowed down a hasty brunch, showered, dressed and was ready to leave by two p.m. When his dad asked if he needed the car, he turned down the offer, preferring to get a cab instead. He didn’t want to drive around dropping off drunken sods in the wee hours of the morning, which he was sure he would have to do if he had a car.
He had just gotten Msiza to request a cab at six p.m, when he got a call from Gina.
“What’s wrong?” Luyanda asked as soon as he saw her anxious, distraught look.
“Party’s cancelled,” Gina sobbed.
“What? For real?”
“For real.”
“What happened?”
“The cops came and said something about complaints from the neighbours about noise last night.”
“Did you throw a party last night?”
“Of course not. Are you crazy? Who throws a party on the thirtieth?”
“So what caused the noise?”
“That’s the point. It’s not true. I didn’t make any noise last night. I didn’t do anything at all.”
“And what did the cops say?”
“They were adamant that they didn’t want to receive any more reports. And to make matters worse,” she swallowed back her tears, “they insisted on speaking to the owners of the house. I had to put them through to my parents. They came down on me like a ton of bricks for something that I didn’t even do.”
“What?”
“Yeah. So that’s it. There’s no way on earth there’s a party happening at my house tonight
“Maybe we can move it to someone else’s house?”
“I already tried. It’s too short notice.”
Luyanda thought about his own parents. They would definitely not take kindly to being informed about a party at the last minute. He glanced at his watch. It was already half past six. “What about a nightclub?” he suggested. “We can always go to a night-club.”
“Yeah, you guys can go. Imtiaz and Meks said the same thing. You guys should go.”
“Aren’t you coming?”
“No, I think I’d rather just stay at home. My parents are pretty pissed off, even though I told them I didn’t know what the cops were talking about.”
Luyanda tried to cheer her up a bit, then hung up and called Emeka and Imtiaz to find out their plans. Both of them had already lined up invitations to other parties, and were sure that it wouldn’t be awkward to show up with a couple of friends in tow. Luyanda called Jabu and Nomsa, and presented the two options to them.
“Let’s just take what we can get,” Jabu said.
“I don’t know if I want to go to any party at all. It’s already seven p.m. I think I’m just going to have a quiet evening at home with my family.”
“Don’t be like that, Nomsa,” Jabu remonstrated, “It’s New Year’s Eve and you’re just going to stay at home?”
At that moment, the three of them received incoming messages simultaneously.
“Incoming message from Uru,” Msiza chimed.
“Yes, I’m listening, Msiza.”
“Better late than never. The party is incomplete without you. Uru.”
“I just received the same message,” Nomsa said.
“Me too,” said Jabu.
“So,” Luyanda said, “What do you guys think? Should we go or what?”
“Let’s go!” Jabu said.
“Er - I’m not sure.”
“What’s the hold up this time, Nomsa. “
“I’ve just got a bad feeling about it. I can’t explain it.”
“Oh, come on, Nomsa,” Jabu said, “Please could someone just give themselves permission to have a good time for once. It won’t kill us to go. Maybe you’ll even enjoy yourself, who knows?”
“I’ll go if Nomsa goes,” Luyanda replied. “Nomsa, it’s your call.”
“No pressure,” Jabu added. “Just know that how I usher in the new year and therefore, by extension, how the rest of the year goes, is right now depending on you.”
“Okay, okay,” Nomsa threw up her hands in surrender, “I’ll go!”
Jabu let out a resounding whoop. “We’re going to have a party tonight!”
“How are we going to get there?” Nomsa asked.
“I’ll organise a cab,” Jabu offered, “and we can split the fare.”
“Okay, fine. That sounds like a plan. See you guys soon. Don’t forget to let Uru know that we are all confirmed.” He whooped again, and then ended the call.
Luyanda stood up and looked out the window. Dark clouds were gathering in the sky above. Deep down inside, he understood what Nomsa had said earlier. He could not shake off the feeling that it was a very bad idea to go to Uru’s New Year Party.

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