Chapter Seven

   ***Munzi's dream***

She was back home with her sisters. They were in a forest picking firewood. She was enjoying herself. The forest was a really beautiful place.

"Munzi, how did you die?" Kensi her little sister asked. Munzi looked at her sister bewildered. What did she mean she was dead?

"What do you mean how did I die?" She asked.

"Last year, after you left home. You called us and said that you were dead." Kensi explained and kept on picking firewood filling her bundle.

"I don't know. I mean how could I have called you if I am dead and how am I here?" She asked. It didn't make any sense. She didn't remember dying and if she had died, she wouldn't be here right? She was about to explain that she was alive when a dog came and started chasing her. It was really fast but it didn't chase her sister. It's almost like she wasn't there. Munzi ran and ran and the dog followed her. She turned to look at it.

"You know that God controls your life and movement right?" She asked and the dog seemed to only get angrier. Munzi stopped running. She wasn't scared of the dog anymore. When it got to her, she knelt on her hands and legs and stared at it in the eye. She then let out a sound from deep within her. It sounded like she was imitating the beast's growl. She growled at it and it cowered and left. She stood up and walked in the opposite direction from the dog. She felt reborn and then a hand came from above her and pulled her up.

   ***End of dream***

Munzi woke up sweating. She wasn't sure if it was from that strange dream or from Adrian's body heat. He really generated alot of heat when he was sleeping. She wiped the sweat on her brow and got out of bed. Being careful not to wake him up. That was not just a dream and she knew it. It could have been a vision. She knew from Bible study that God sometimes spoke to his people in their sleep using dreams. Terrifying them and relaying the message to them. But why would God want to speak to her? They were broken up and had no hope of getting back together. You don't talk to people after the break up unless it was on good terms and theirs had been rough. She decided to look it up online. Maybe something online could help her calm down enough to go back to sleep. She searched it and read the results. Dreaming about a forest meant that she was lost. Dreaming about picking firewood meant that something in her life was about to ignite. Dream about the dog meant that there was someone loyal and friendly in her life. Finally dreaming about being dead meant that she had been thinking about the end. That was what the internet said and it didn't calm her rapidly beating heart. She went back to bed and lay awake all night wondering what could have been meant but that disturbing dream. I mean how do you dream about someone asking how you died? When morning came, she was still wondering and there were bags under her eyes.

She got up and out of bed after Adrian had woken up.

He looked at her for a long time before speaking.

"You look horrible." He said smiling and then started making breakfast.

"Thanks. I didn't sleep." She said without getting offended. Sleeplessness didn't look good on her.

"Why couldn't you sleep? I was right there next to you." He said stirring the coffee and water, alias breakfast. He dreaded the time the landlord would come to collect the rent. Hopefully by that time he would be having his documents and phone back. She had already spent her savings on him. He didn't know how she was planning on paying her rent the coming month. He wanted to help and take away some if not all the burden.

"I had a strange dream and it woke me up." She said getting up and straightening her oversized sleeping shirt.

"What kind of dream?" He asked.

"I dreamt that I was collecting firewood with my little sister and then she asked me how I had died." She said tying her kinky hair. She had undone it one night when she had said she couldn't live with herself anymore, with such dirt on her head. "Yikes! What happened afterwards?" Dreams about being dead weren't that common and often held such deep meanings.

"A dog started chasing me. But it was like it couldn't see my sister. It was set on catching me. I ran and turned and told it that God controlled its life and movements. It got angrier. I knelt on my hands and knees and growled at it. It cowered and left and then a hand came from above me and I took it." She finished and took a cup of water to wash her face in the bucket.

"Mmhm." Adrian said and rubbed his chin in thought.

"What's mmhm?" Munzi asked after she finished washing her face and dried it with her towel.

"I think God was trying to tell you something." Adrian said and smiled to himself. If he wasn't wrong, she was on her way to being reborn again. He was happy for her.

"Why would he want to tell me something? We broke up and I've been doing everything in my power to make him angry and earn my way to hell." She said turning off the gas that Adrian had completely forgotten about when he started listening to her. She had that effect on him where he would forget everything and focus only on her.

"He still loves you. When you love someone you don't give up on them." He said and then had his epiphany. He was still fighting and not giving up on her. He loved her even after knowing her for only a little while.

"In my case, when a guy loves you, he cheats on you with your beautiful cousin Kwela and gets her pregnant. And she isn't even that beautiful. Then he leaves you after coitus." She said and handed him his coffee before sitting next to him on the unmade bed.

"You forget that God is not a man." He said taking a sip of the coffee. After living with her, he had come to start enjoying his coffee without milk or sugar.

"I suppose you are right." She said and took more of her coffee.

"You said Kwela isn't even that beautiful. Are you jealous." He asked.

"I'm not jealous. It's just that she had pimples one side of her forehead. Her lips are always chapped and her skin is oily and her hairstyle just doesn't suit her diamond shaped face. She could also try opening her eyes when choosing her outfits and she always looks like someone poured molasses on her. She seems sticky to touch." Munzi explained in one breath making Adrian laugh.

"Are you sure you aren't just jealous?" He asked still laughing.

"What do I have to be jealous of? I'm sure I'm much prettier and I like my skin unoily. I tried to get her to use a clay mask but she refused." She said grimacing as she remembered the words she had received from her cousin.

"Are you sure you don't just hate her?" He asked.

"I'm sure. I don't hate people. I have more important things to hate like slugs and snails and caterpillars. Plus hating her is so much work and it consumes you until you are a dark hole." She said and finished her coffee. Her stomach didn't even rumble, it was used to only being fed once per day.

"I also hate caterpillars but they eventually turn into beautiful butterflies." He said waiting ask about her sex life.

"Butterflies with abdomens that resemble the caterpillars. Don't let the pretty wings fool you." She said placing her arms akimbo. He laughed, she had a unique way of viewing the world.

"So why did you have coitus with your ex after he cheated on you?" He asked. She let out a deep breath like she had been waiting for that question.

"Because I was scared. After Kabila, I just felt like if I didn't do it willingly he would also force it. I didn't want to be raped twice. Also I wanted to know if it felt better if it was consentual. It wasn't. I kept praying for it to end otherwise I would push him out myself." She said and turned to wash her cup.

"That's hurtful. Did you ever tell him that you didn't want to sleep with him?" He asked.

"No. I was afraid of hurting his feelings. I didn't want to hurt his ego." She said nonchalantly.

"You still cared about his feelings even after he broke your heart?" He asked not understanding her.

"Yeah. Just because he hurt me doesn't mean I should do the same to him. A famous proverb says that an eye for an eye leaves a whole country blind."