37. Rachel Baker

I was curious, was this a common thing for Rachel to do, "Sorry? Again?!",

She silently scanned the room full of people giving me distasteful looks, "Well, let's go for a walk in some place quiet," she said leading the way, "I would suggest you bring a coat". I gave her a confused look because it was very sunny outside, but I took the coat anyway.

We walked to a coffee and snack stall, I did not feel like eating or drinking anything. My phone could not stop blowing up so I decided to switch it off.

"That's a good idea", she said, "You don't honestly owe anyone any explanation and I would suggest you eat something, you poor thing, but you are a lot stronger than the last one." She gave me a pack of beef chili bites, "Here, this will calm you down. Cape Town has the best biltong, trust me".

We sat on a bench overlooking a small lake, which had a flock of beautiful ducks gracefully flapping around and about. 'On a good day, this park would make a great location for a picnic', I thought as I gazed at the blooming tree flowers and the people pleasantly basking under the sun, without a care in the world.

My attention was quickly drawn back to the woman next to me, and the secrets she knew, my heart would beat uncontrollably every time I thought of Rachel. The woman next to me looked at me, "I know you have many questions and don't worry, I will tell you everything. But you need to relax first, your eyes look red, eat those chili bites, I asked for extra hot."

Her perceptiveness reminded me of Walter and my manager. I took a bite of the biltong, and the heat from the chili went straight to my eyes. I felt a tear roll down my cheek and another one followed shortly, soon enough, I was sniffling, and my eyes became even more watery, my heavy heart was rioting. I took advantage of the chilliness, everything I had buried came out in the form of tears, the hurt from the comments in Rachel's posts, the judgemental looks, and the insults written on people's faces, everything metamorphized itself into a heavy rock in my heart that kept pushing up my throat. The thought of my parents defending me from people pointing fingers made the tears fall even more quickly, all my hard work was turned into a joke. I sobbed silently while snacking on the chili bites, by the time I finally reached the bottom of the snack pack, my face was soaked.

She took out a box of tissues from her bag, "Better, is in it?", she gave me a bottle of water, 

"Thank you,", I was embarrassed to have sobbed like that in front of a stranger, "Don't worry about it, some burdens just need good chili. Sometimes people can be subjective and forget there are two sides to a story by the time the truth is revealed. The damage is already done.", she said with a heavy voice

"Ma'am, may I please get your name?"

"My name is Khalinda Baker", hearing her surname made my heart drop, "Sorry ma'am, are you perhaps related to Rachel, "

"Rachel is my cousin", she lit a cigarette, and she took out a brown paper bag, which had a bottle of wine, she took out two plastic cups, and poured a cup for me, "Here, this will help simmer you down".