Bedfellows

She stood in front of the door, carrying the weight of the day on her slouched shoulders. Her eyes rested on the floor. She took a deep breath in. She took a deep breath out. She was recovering from the flight of stairs to their Fourways flat. Her eyes lifted to the door handle. Her eyes sank back to the floor. Her hand started mining her bag for the keys. Not in that corner. Not in that corner either. Then the sound of clashing metal. Then the clutching of the keys. Her eyes lifted back to the door handle. Her hand lifted to unlock it. And she walked in.

“Sandra, you are home!”

Xola, her husband, walked up to her and gave her his ritual welcome kiss. He moved his hand to her lower back. He pulled her in more tightly. He kissed her more. She obliged. She was tired.

“Here, I bought you some flowers”, Xola said, picking up the bouquet from the kitchen counter. “They are your favourite”. They were white lilies. They were her favourite. 2 years ago. When they got married. She smiled. She said “Thanks”. He kissed her again. She was too tired to give the thanks he wanted.

“Let’s go out for dinner”, she suggested. Maybe that will lift the troubles from her shoulders. The bad performance review. The report that is due. The tension in the team. And now the expectations from him.

“I ordered in”, he said. “I just have something for work to finish for tomorrow, then I’m all yours.”

“Ok cool. Let me get out of my work clothes while you finish off”, she said.

He went back to his desk. Opened his laptop. He put his headphones on. Put on the lo-fi beats that get him going.

“Did you hear about that incident on the N1?” she asked from the other room. He didn’t answer. He couldn’t hear her. She wasn’t too bothered.

She changed into her warm winter pyjamas. She sat on the couch. She picked up her reality-augmenting phone. She started to unwind. She started scrolling.

The singer LordKez found her way into her living room. Her genre of sound was just what were needed. She looked up and could see her dancing. “It’s so interesting how 90s music is now coming back”, she thought to herself. She wanted to join her dancing in her living room. Remembering the dances she used to see her older sisters doing growing up. Until Xola came in. “Supper has arrived. I ordered you a lemon and herb quarter chicken. Something not too exciting” he said laughing. “I’m almost done, but you can eat in the meantime”.

She sat back down on the couch. Quarter chicken held by the thumb and index finger of her right hand. She continued to scroll with her pinky finger. Her living room was then transformed to the White House Oval Office. LordKez continued dancing in the corner, somewhat out of sight but somehow still in mind.

Her living room was now surrounded by world leaders. Stammer from the UK. Merz from Germany. Zelensky from Ukraine. Ramaphosa from South Africa. “Ramaphosa? What are you even doing there?” she asked. But the augmented reality never spoke back.

“I’m done now babe. I’m going to bed”, Xola said standing next to her. She never noticed he came in. “Ok cool, I’ll be there right now. Just finishing off something quickly, she said”.

He walked away. She continued scrolling. Investigators from true-life crime stories started entering the room. The oval office ended up on another corner of the room, somewhat out of sight but somehow still in mind.

“It looks like one of the doors wasn’t locked properly at night”, one of the investigators said. “It doesn’t look like there was forced entry into the room”. She wondered if she had locked the door properly when she walked in. Xola normally double-checks. But maybe he didn’t. Snap. “Xola is probably waiting for me” she thought.

She pulled herself up from the couch and walked towards the bedroom. LordKez followed first. Then Trump and his entourage of world leaders. Then the investigators. They entered the bedroom. They had company.

Xola had been scrolling on his augmenting-reality phone too. In the room, Sandra saw historic scenes from Maqoma’s imprisonment on Robben Island. She also saw men in suites docking in the UK, to appeal to Queen Victoria on behalf of their people back home. She didn’t see Xola though, he was under the covers.

“Babe, are you still awake?” she asked.

“Yeah”, he said pulling down the covers from his face. “Are you done with everything you needed to do?” he asked.

“Ya I am”. She opened her cupboard to put on something more exciting for him. But she felt awkward now because of all the company they had. Even though they had different guests every night, tonight particularly she felt too self-conscious to let Victoria know all her secrets.

So she climbed into bed in her winter pyjamas. Xola was still entertained by his guests. Sanda was entertained by hers. And they really cared nothing for each other’s guests.

15 minutes later, Sandra heard a light snore. She turned and noticed he had fallen asleep. She was somewhat disappointed. Somewhat relieved.