Zodwa has heard about the tactics used to steal cars and knows that people are prime targets when stopped at gates while waiting for them to open. She’s just wondering if she should go inside and press the panic button on the remote control when she hears Ruth’s voice coming from the dam, the water amplifying the sound. Zodwa heads toward the windmill, its blades glinting in the dark, and hears another splash as she rounds the bend.

Ruth is in the water and Jezebel paces along the water’s edge, whining next to the heap of Ruth’s clothes.

“Madam Ruth?” Zodwa calls, uncertain what to do.

“Oh, hello, Zodwa. Don’t mind me. I’m just looking for my rings,” she calls, and laughs, though it doesn’t sound like amusement at all. Instead, it sounds unhinged, as though the laugh is coming from a far-off place.

“Rings? What rings are you talking about, madam?”

“My engagement and wedding rings,” Ruth slurs before ducking beneath the surface.

Zodwa holds her breath, terrified that Ruth won’t come back up again. Zodwa can’t swim and so she won’t be able to save Ruth if it comes to that. She’s just about to scream for help when Ruth’s head pops out again, her hair flattened onto her skull.

“Why would your rings be in there, Madam Ruth?”

“Because that’s where I threw them away after getting the divorce papers.”

The divorce papers. So that’s what was delivered to Ruth earlier, sending her stomping off to the dam.

“We can find them another time. Please get out so we can warm you up.”

When Ruth doesn’t reply, just continues treading water, Zodwa takes off her shoes. Her toes sink into the mud. Ruth begins humming something but it isn’t a tune that Zodwa recognizes.

“Madam Ruth? We need to go inside. Mandla is by himself in his room and I don’t want to leave him alone for too long.”

Ruth doesn’t even react to the boy’s name. Instead, she sinks a bit lower into the water. She’s no longer singing and the water is now up to her nose. Ruth seems to have retreated into some dark corner of her mind. Again, Zodwa considers pressing the panic button but doesn’t want men from the security company arriving and seeing Ruth like this: naked, drunk, and acting crazy.

“I can’t swim but I’m going to walk in now,” Zodwa says as she hitches her housedress up. Her knees are trembling but she tries to ignore how unsteady they feel as she takes a few steps in. The water is up to her thighs and she has to concentrate not to slip on the slimy base of the dam. “I’m coming to get you. Just reach out and take my hand.”