Zodwa is exhausted but exhilarated. Sunday’s long commute back from Ulundi and yesterday’s emotionally draining talk with Ruth were tiring enough, but then Mandla had also kept her up most of last night, tossing and turning in their shared bed in the cottage. Still, having him there with her is the first step in the right direction and more than she dared hope for so soon after arriving back.

She gets dressed and puts Mandla’s gown and slippers on before they begin walking hand in hand to the farmhouse. The dirt road stretches out before them and the August winds whip the dust into Mandla’s face. Zodwa bends to pick him up, cradling him to her breast so as to shield him.

“Mama,” Mandla says, and Zodwa smiles before realizing that he’s squirming away, stretching his arms out toward the house and Ruth. “Where’s Mama, Dwa?”

“Ruth is sick in bed, my boy.”

“I want Mama.” He wriggles away from Zodwa and she puts him down again.

She has to swallow past the lump in her throat to reassure him. “We’re almost there. You’ll see Ruth now.”

Still, he runs ahead and she watches as he disappears through the door, which Delilah must have left open for Jezebel. When Zodwa steps inside, Mandla is standing at the threshold to Ruth’s room. He has two fingers inside his mouth, and sucks on them.

“Lilah?” he asks around his hand.

“Stay back, Mandla. Don’t come in here.” Delilah speaks from inside the room. They’re trying to keep Mandla away from Ruth so he doesn’t get sick.

“Your foot sore?” he asks.

“No, Mandla,” Delilah says. “My heart is sore.” And that’s when Zodwa realizes that Delilah is crying.

Before Zodwa can pick Mandla up, he runs into the room and she calls out to him, “Mandla, no! Come back here.”

But he doesn’t listen. He’s running through shards of what looks like a broken mug, toward Delilah, who sits on the floor cradling Ruth’s head in her lap. Jezebel sits whining next to them. Ruth is deathly pale and isn’t moving, and Delilah weeps silently. She has a bad cut on her foot that’s bleeding.

Zodwa tries to speak to ask what happened but finds that she can’t, as a vision comes to her of her own mother lying immobile on the floor of the shack.

Mandla sits down next to Delilah and reaches out a hand to run it over Ruth’s face. “Mama sleeping?”

“Yes, my boy,” Delilah says. “Mama’s sleeping.”

He leans over then and kisses Ruth on the cheek. “Night. Sleep tight. Don’t let bedbugs bite.” It’s what Ruth always says to him before she puts him to bed.