SHORT STORY - TRUTH WILL OUT

TRUTH WILL OUT Short story by ANANIYA ALICK PONJE She held John’s stare and retreated carefully. She was at the end of her tether. Her lips were trembling with rage. “Look here, mister, I’m not Lughano; my name is Pricilla. I don’t understand anything that you say. I’m not who you think I am. You’re sadly mistaken,” she said, virtually on top of her voice. John sent her a searching gaze and scuttled towards where she was standing seething with resentment. Folding his handkerchief, he held it tightly in his palm and dubbed the perspiration from his mournful face. “What the hell are you saying, Lughano?” “I’m not Lughano. My name is Pricilla. What do you want to hear from me? You’re mistaking me for someone else; don’t you understand. Why do you want to impose a name on me?” She almost cried. “Please, stop calling me by that name and let me go. I’m supposed to be at Sunrise Hotel by eight. We’re having a workshop there. I have come from very far away and I wonder why you people can’t just give me some breathing space,” just now she drawled sadly. “You are Lughano!” John shouted persistently. He was the fifth person to call her by that name since she had arrived in the township two days ago. Soon after her arrival, news about her ‘return’ was everywhere. John looked at the silver earrings dangling from her earlobes. He vividly remembered having bought them on her 23rd birthday. And the wristlet on her left hand was exactly the one he had bought for her three days before their engagement ceremony a year ago or so, he recalled. Yet now she was vehemently denying that she was Lughano. “Lughano, I bought that wristlet for you and the earrings as well. Can’t you remember?” “You didn’t, and stop calling me by that name. Look, I don’t know you.” “Well, if you changed your name, why don’t you just say it instead of denying the very same name that your family knew you by and the name that up to date appears on the engagement card? Fine, who bought you the wristlet and the earrings?” he asked tensely. “This is none of your concern. Why should you be so obsessed with knowing who bought the jewellery for me?” But she could hardly remember having bought them at any time. In fact she could not remember anything – not even having not bought them herself. She stared at John stonily and disregarded his dejected countenance. John remembered having given her a garland of red, pick and white roses three days before they were supposed to get engaged. And a day later she was nowhere to be seen. After her disappearance, surprisingly, Mercy, her younger sister began to date John after being ‘forced’ to by Mercy herself. “She is gone, John. For how long are you going to sorrow after her disappearance? Don’t sorrow yourself to death. At least you have me. I’m no different from her. We’re the same blood,” said Mercy to John when he had stayed for two solid days without eating anything. “You don’t understand.” “I do.” “No you don’t,” he shouted. “There’s something in her I can’t find in any other woman. We were about to get engaged three days later and what did I get, a letter informing me that she was no longer interested, after four good years of perfect dating.” “Of course I understand, but what’s the benefit of worrying so much over something that you can’t change? You simply have to accept it because you have no choice. I’m here to give you comfort,” said Mercy with the courage of her convictions. “You see, Mercy, your sister was the only woman I loved to the uttermost. If I say I love you now, then I’m only pretending. It’s high time I gave up all pretence. The vow I made with her is too strong to be easily broken.” “John, you took no oath at all.” Her thin but distinct silvery voice wafted with little echoes in the room. “I want to give you the best love. By and by you’ll completely forget the past,” she said with a simper. Three days later, Mercy officially moved into John’s house as his wife. He just accepted her because he was equally convinced that his fiancée would never come back again. He failed to hold on to the patience of Job. It was really devastating but he had no option than to grin and bear it. And now she was back and she was saying her name was not Lughano but Pricilla. She was saying she did not know him, yet she could not explain where she got the wristlet and the earrings from. She left him standing there by the roadside, hands akimbo. He could not just accept it. This woman was his Lughano and no one else. When he went to his house he sat dejectedly in his padded armchair and stared in nothingness. In his illusions he could see the face of his real wife – a woman he had promised to love all his life. “What’s the problem, my dear husband?” Mercy asked, kneeling in front of him. “I’ve seen her with my own eyes. When Mike was telling me that he saw her in town, I thought he was only joking. I’ve seen Lughano.” “Think like a man. You think after a year of no communication, she’s still alive? You only saw her look-alike. OK, let me finally tell you this: Lughano was dating our Member of Parliament the same time she was dating you. It was an underlying eternal triangle where your ignorance was bliss.” She paused to see if he was listening intently. He seemed to be. “Then when she was about to be engaged to you, the MP told her to return everything he had spent on her. It would cost millions. So she just decided to disappear because of frustration. And I don’t think she’ll ever return.” That moment John seemed to believe her. “Why were you hiding this information from me all this time?” “I thought it would devastate you something fierce. At least some time has passed now.” About twenty kilometres away from where John and Mercy were, Lughano was in a cab, travelling towards Sunrise Hotel where she was supposed to meet her colleagues for the workshop. As the driver pressed harder on the accelerator to drive at full pelt, he lost control of the car and it swerved dangerously before coming to a screeching halt. Lughano passed out and when she revived, she regained her past consciousness. “Please take me to Chibavi. Something is wrong somewhere,” she instantaneously told the driver. The place was where John was taking up residence. In spite of the fact that the taxicab would have been involved in an accident because of over-speeding, Lughano still told the driver to drive as fast as he dared. Finally the car drew up outside John’s house. She knocked on the door and Mercy got it. She was shocked to the bone upon opening the door in the face of his elder sister whom she thought was now rotting in the river where she had dumped her. John walked briskly past Mercy and stopped in front of Lughano. “Lughano my dear wife are you going to deny your name again this time?” Tears rolled down her tender cheeks as she picked her hankie to wipe them off. Mercy was rooted to the spot with fear and shock. She had never thought such a bitter blast from the past would reappear after what she had done to her. “This is all I remember: three days before we were supposed to get engaged, I picked Mercy so that we would go to town and buy some stuff. While on our way she remained behind, picked a huge stone and hit me with it on my nape. I remember that I spent about four months in hospital in South Africa. A certain white man, I learnt sent me there. I think I lost my memory. Then today we were almost involved in an accident and I passed out. When I came to, I could see myself remembering a number of things….” “So what was your aim, Mercy?” John asked, shaking like a leaf. “I already knew before that that she never wanted me to marry you,” said Lughano dolefully. “She thought I died where she dumped me.” Mercy went onto her knees. “Please forgive me.” “You have already married him. Your heart’s desire has been fulfilled. I only came to clear the mist. Wishing you a happy and successful marriage.” As she finished the sentence, she dashed towards the taxi and told the driver to speed away. “No, Lughano, don’t go.” John ran towards the car but he could not catch it. He searched everywhere in town but Lughano was nowhere to be seen. She wasn’t even at Sunrise Hotel.