“Why don’t you come inside and join us?” she’d asked.

“I’m fine here, Madam Delilah.”

“Please, call me Delilah. There’s no ‘madam’ necessary.”

Zodwa was taken aback by the offer. While she thought of the sisters as merely Ruth and Delilah, Ruth had told her to call her Madam Ruth and she’d assumed the other sister would want to be addressed similarly. The new arrangement had clearly rankled Ruth at first. She’d looked annoyed as Zodwa struggled to use a knife and fork for things she would normally have just used her hands for, but Ruth soon seemed to get used to the idea since it meant Mandla was generally in a better mood. There’s something about Zodwa that engages him and he’s quicker to laugh in her company.

Even if the boy didn’t have the Africa-shaped birthmark on his buttock and look so much like Dumisa, Zodwa’s certain she would have recognized him purely on the bond that exists between them. It’s as if Mandla knows that he spent the first nine months of his journey nestled in her womb, as if he recognizes the sound of her voice from before he came into the world. He’s a contemplative child who wears a frown more often than a smile, and Zodwa knows that his solemnity is her fault. She shaped her son’s skeptical view of the world. She remembers the first words she ever spoke directly to him, on the day the gogo had been denied the opportunity to vote.

Now you know what to expect from this world.

She strives to undo the harm of that warning by trying to make him laugh every day. Silly antics usually do the trick, but when they don’t, Zodwa resorts to singing Miriam Makeba’s “Qongqothwane,” or “The Click Song” as the whites call it. The explosive Xhosa sounds and rapid-fire lyrics hardly ever fail to elicit belly laughs from Mandla. It’s gotten to the point where Ruth will sometimes pass her the fussy child and say, “For God’s sake, click the child happy.”

Zodwa’s days pass with the same rhythms. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are cleaning days where her focus is on washing dishes, vacuuming, dusting, and mopping. Tuesdays and Thursdays are days spent washing and ironing clothes and bed linen, as well as cleaning the windows and the outside areas. She eats her lunch by herself and always takes her supper to her room. Zodwa savors the time she gets to spend alone with Mandla, which only happens when Ruth is bathing or getting dressed.

Ruth is mostly homebound. She never gets any visitors and hardly ever leaves the house, with or without the boy. She goes grocery shopping once a week and she takes Mandla with her. Ruth only leaves Mandla behind with Delilah once a month when she drives to Johannesburg to see her hairdresser.