The trip to Soweto is a waste of both time and money. The man Zodwa finally tracked down, Cyril Malema—Dumisa’s comrade and supposedly the last person who saw her brother alive, the one Leleti always suspected of lying—is a raging drunk. Leleti had already crossed him off her list but Zodwa needed to speak to him for herself to try to understand her mother’s skepticism.

By Zodwa’s calculations, Cyril’s not even thirty years old and yet he sits slumped in a darkened room like he’s worn out by a lifetime of struggle. He reeks of stale beer and sweat, and his rheumy eyes battle to focus on Zodwa’s face. At the mere mention of Dumisa’s name, he begins rambling incoherently.

“They are coming for me. I can’t hide. There’s nowhere to hide. They’re going to kill me. Help me, sisi. Help me.”

Zodwa realizes that he thinks the security police are still after him. Even though she’s frustrated with him, she pities him too, for living in the hell of the past even now when it’s been so thoroughly vanquished.

She tries coaxing him but is still unable to get a word of sense out of him beyond more entreaties for help, and Zodwa returns to the squatter camp defeated. She was hoping that since all inquiries about her son have led her into dead ends, she’d have more success in finding out about her brother.

Zodwa heads to get water and as she rounds the corner with her bucket, she sees Thembeka at the back of the line for the tap. It’s not the first time this year that she’s seen her. They’ve run into each other more times than she would like. The first few times, when their paths crossed while waiting in line at the latrines and then at the spaza shop, Zodwa tried to pretend that she was indifferent to her ex-friend’s presence. She acted aloof, as though she was the one who’d ended the friendship and not the other way around. The problem with that tactic was that it was only effective if it evoked some kind of response, which it hadn’t.

True indifference could only be achieved once you stopped caring, and Zodwa couldn’t imagine that she’d ever reach that point. It angered her that Thembeka had, that she appeared to feel nothing at all toward her.