Sitshengisiwe realised that she had inadvertently scored a small victory, and so she carried on: ‘The children are all living with my mother and receiving a fine education. The first two are actually attending Convent High School. We are very proud of them.’

‘Oh,’ was all Eunice could manage as her puffed-out chest came to rest on the steering wheel.

‘Yes,’ Sitshengisiwe said. ‘I am lucky that although my parents banished me from their lives, they found it in their hearts to accept my children.’

‘Oh,’ Eunice said again, her chest now comfortably back to its normal size. After a pause, she added, ‘Were you on your way to the TM Hyper? I am going there myself to do some grocery shopping.’

Sitshengisiwe thought of the cheap piece of salt-cured fish she had been thinking of buying, and knew that she could not possibly enter a store in which Eunice would put things in a trolley while she, Sitshengisiwe, carried a solitary piece of fish whose cheapness told her it was not really salmon.

‘No,’ Sitshengisiwe lied. ‘I was just making my way to the bus rank.’

‘Then wait for me. I should not be long. Just picking up a few things. Essentials. I will drive you home,’ Eunice said, magnanimously. ‘I take it you are still living in the Rutherfords’ boy’s kia.’ She smiled benignly to ensure the right twist of the knife.

‘Oh no. Not any more. Not for quite some time. Some years now, in fact. We moved to a two-bedroom in Pelandaba,’ Sitshengisiwe said, sitting back-straight in the passenger seat. She conveniently forgot to mention that the house had been bought for them by the Rutherfords as thanks for Philemon’s many years of service.

Eunice, her hand already on the door handle, hesitated and then let out another, rather deflated, ‘Oh.’ She did not open the door, but said instead, ‘If you are in a rush, perhaps it is best that you go to catch your bus. I would not want to keep you. I might take rather long in the store.’

Sitshengisiwe, now wanting nothing more than for Eunice to see the two-bedroomed house, made herself more comfortable in her seat, and said, ‘Oh, no worries. I have all the time in the world. And I am sure that Philemon would be very happy to see you again.’ Her smile belied the many lies she had just told.