There have been no doctor’s visits or tests for Zodwa. It was only the cessation of her period and the tenderness of her breasts that had confirmed she was pregnant. The nearest clinic is half a day’s walk away and when her mother forced her to go, Zodwa arrived at a long queue that barely moved. After waiting for hours and still not being seen, Zodwa set out for home and never tried to return again. There seemed to be little point.

“You will get better, Mama. You just need to rest. I will go speak to your madam and ask if you can take a week off—”

“I was fired today. I no longer have a job.” Leleti’s voice is hollow.

“Why? You even went in when you could’ve taken the day off to vote.”

“Look at me, my child. I cannot clean a house properly. I am surprised it took this long for her to let me go.”

Apparently, the madam had paid Leleti only what she owed her for that month. It’s all the money they have and Leleti wants to use it to send Zodwa back to the KwaZulu homeland. They sit in silence for a while, each lost in her own thoughts. With only enough money for one of them to travel home, and no prospects for earning more, they will both have to stay.

“At least tell me who the father of the baby is,” Leleti says after a pause. “He is the father of the child and he must give you money to help you.”

“Mama, he won’t—”

“He will! I will go speak with him. I’ve been praying on it and it’s the Lord’s will that I shame him until he pays.”

“No, Mama.”

“Just tell me who he is! What self-respecting man will refuse to look after his own child? Stop this nonsense and tell me who—”

“I was raped, Mama!” Zodwa is so shocked by the admission that she claps a hand over her mouth. She looks at her mother, frightened by the horror on her face.

They have spoken more in the past half an hour than they have in the past few months. Zodwa has wished so much for them to get back to the closeness they used to share, but now that she’s confided the words that have been building up inside her for so long, they feel more like weapons.

Leleti’s face crumples then. “My child, who did this to you? Who?”

Zodwa shakes her head and is surprised by the emotion that constricts her throat.

Leleti pulls Zodwa to her chest and begins whimpering. “Lord Jesus, tell me it isn’t so. Tell me this isn’t what happened to my beautiful child.”