By This Blood

I rub my eyes trying to chase the sleep away. I know my alarm will go on a few minutes from now, my brain has become accustomed to the time that I wake up and so most times I find myself waking up earlier than the normal time.

I breathe out deeply when it goes on and quickly turn it off before I can make noise for the people house.

3am, that is the time that I have been waking up for the past ten years. My parents died in an RTA and my dad’s elder brother took me in immediately. Being an only child, it wasn’t difficult for him to take me in except he and my father were never close so I knew from the beginning that he was only doing it to save face. My Aunty on the other hand is the sweetest person anyone will ever describe except that sweetness doesn’t extend to me, she has hated me from the moment I came into their home and she doesn’t even try to hide it anymore. My guardians have three children, Sammy thirty the eldest who is practicing law in the United Kingdom, Fali twenty seven working as a resident doctor for one of the private clinics here in Lusaka and Lydia twenty five my age mate and in her last year of accounting at the university. The only person that I ever got along with was Sammy but he left two years after I joined his family and he is only coming back now so there is a lot of cleaning to be done and despite there being three house helps I still need to wake up and help them.

I drag myself out of bed and go to the bathroom where I wash my face and brush my teeth then get into a wrapper and T shirt and start cleaning my room.

My routine every day is to wake up at 3am, clean my bedroom quickly then start cleaning the yard whilst the helps start cleaning the house. When done I need to start making breakfast for my guardians and their kids and make sure their geysers are all on and their water is hot, when they are up I start ironing the clothes they have picked for the day, set the table and pack lunchboxes for them. Once home I start cleaning their rooms and wash their beddings afterwards. The helps wash their clothes but beddings and underwear are my responsibility.

Usually Lydia’s room is always the last one to be cleaned because she wakes up later than all of them. I knock once at her door and wait for her to let me in. I stand there knocking for a good five minutes before she can finally let me in. I could hear her talking on the phone inside the bedroom I just don’t know why she didn’t allow me in.

‘Good morning.’ I say looking at her.

‘I need you to iron some clothes for me, I will be going to the airport later.’

‘Alright just leave them on the chair over there and I will iron them when I am done.’

She walks to the closet and doesn’t even bother responding.

I start to remove the beddings from the bed and stop in my tracks at the sight of the blood. This is not the first time that Lydia has made me wash period blood but this definitely looks like she did it on purpose.

‘Oh and I want to use these same beddings for the night.’

‘Lydia couldn’t you have changed your pad? Look at all this blood.’

I am not sure why it’s amusing but she laughs.

‘You are telling me that I should change my pad? Is washing too much for you? Do I need to tell mum that you are complaining?’

I swallow hard. I don’t even know why I bother with her knowing that she can never see reason.

‘That is what I thought.’

She picks up her phone again when it rings.

‘I knew there was no way that you were going to stay away after that message.’

Her phone is on speak.

‘Of course I can’t stay away, the love of my life is coming home.’

Lydia rolls her eyes. The person on the other end of the line is Sherry, Lydia’s best friend. Well they call each other best friends but I know Lydia bad mouths her friend and is always in a secret competition with her. Having to live in the shadows in this house I have learnt so much. Whilst Sherry was born in old money, my Aunt and Uncle don’t come from a long line of money even though they are comfortable at the moment. Sherry always liked Sammy from the time we were all young even though he didn’t show much interest, he always brushed her off despite all the efforts to get close to him which is why I got shocked when I heard that she had travelled last year to go and see him and the two have been dating since.

‘I am excited that the two of you finally get to make this official, our parents were starting to worry that maybe he would marry abroad.’

‘I was getting worried too. But here we are.’

‘Girl let me get going, I have class in a few hours and my period is from here.’

‘Period or another abortion?’

She quickly removes the phone from speaker and goes to talk in the bathroom. I don’t even know why Lydia hides it, it’s not like me and the helps don’t know that she has been terminating pregnancies from the time she hit puberty. I know her mother knows this too, even though it has never been publicly addressed in the house - but it is none of my business and I will leave it at that.

..

Kwenje’s Girl

Win