“I went to see them. They lived over there in Old Naledi, and I went to their house and begged them to forgive me. I said that I had never intended to harm the mother. Why should I want to harm her? I said that I felt as bad as if I had killed my own mother. I asked them if they would stop asking the police to send me to prison and tell them that I had explained to them what had happened. I went down on my knees to them. But they did not even look at me. They said I was to get out of their house or they would run and fetch the police.

“So I left their place and went home and waited for the day to come when I would have to go to court. I had a lawyer who said that he would work for me if I could pay him. I went to the Post Office and took out almost all the money I had saved and I gave this to the lawyer. He said that he would do his best for me, and I am sure that he did. But the prosecutor said that what I had done was very careless. He said that nobody who was being careful would have done what I did. And the magistrate was looking at me all the time, and I could tell that he thought I was a very careless man who had gone and killed somebody with his carelessness.

“When he said that I would have to go to prison for two years, at first I could not look behind me. My wife was there, and I could hear her cry out, and so I turned round and saw her there with my two little girls, and the girls were looking at their daddy and wondering whether I was coming home with them now, and I did not know what to do, whether I should wave goodbye to them, and so I just stood there until the policemen who were standing on either side of me said that I would have to go. These policemen were kind to me. They did not push me; they did not speak unkindly. One of them said, ‘I am sorry, Rra. I am sorry about this thing. You must come now.’ And I left, and I did not look behind me again, and I went away.”

He stopped, and there was silence. Mma Ramotswe reached forward to pick up a pencil from the table top. Then she put it down again. Mma Makutsi was quite still. Neither of them spoke, because there was nothing that either of them felt that she could say.

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER TEN

THERE IS ALWAYS TIME FOR TEA AND CAKE (IF AVAILABLE)