She’s ten minutes late because she had an early appointment at another orphanage, this one slightly farther afield than the last. None of the children there matched the timeline of when her baby disappeared, but it’s another place Zodwa can cross off her list.

“Hello, Mama Mashigo,” Zodwa says when she walks through the door of the Good Times Drinking Establishment. “I’m sorry I’m late.”

The shebeen queen, which is what the speakeasy owners are nicknamed, is sitting at her table in the corner tallying up the number of empty quart beer bottles she’ll be returning for deposit refunds. She’s perfectly put together, as she always is, wearing a matching dress and elaborate head wrap made out of blue seshoeshoe. A tall glass of Coke sits next to her. It’s Zodwa’s job to ensure that it’s topped up all day, and that it has two cubes of ice floating in it at all times. Mama Mashigo may be a purveyor of alcohol but she never touches the stuff herself.

She glares at Zodwa and pointedly checks her watch but doesn’t say anything. Zodwa knows she’ll exact her revenge later by making Zodwa stay late and carry out the worst of the closing duties: cleaning up the vomit and broken bottles, and scrubbing out the bottoms of the cast-iron pots Mama Mashigo cooks mogodu and pap in.

Zodwa doesn’t mind. It’s a small price to pay for having a job.

When she began looking for one two months ago, she knew that venturing out of the township in search of work wasn’t even a possibility because a job that far away would require money for daily transport, which Zodwa didn’t have. Working in a shop or any kind of office required decent clothing as well, which she couldn’t afford. Her only option for finding employment was in the township itself, but everyone she approached said there weren’t any jobs available and that times were tough.

Zodwa knows that wasn’t the truth. They just didn’t want her bad mojo anywhere near their businesses. News travels quickly in the township, and the local healer isn’t the only one who thinks Zodwa’s cursed.

The shebeen queen was either too practical to believe in such things or she felt sorry for Zodwa, because she’d agreed to grant her a trial period after Zodwa had come to the shebeen, with eyes still swollen from grief, to ask if she had any positions available. She was put on a month’s probation and after proving herself a hard worker, Mama Mashigo allowed her to stay on.