He opened his eyes slowly, yawned, scratched and stretched – and then got the sense that something was wrong. Sitshengisiwe was not sleeping beside him, which was not the unusual thing; she always woke up before he did. What was out of the ordinary was the absolute quiet of the house. Sitshengisiwe started work at the factory at 7 a.m., and would usually have bathed and eaten by now, and would be busy in the kitchen preparing his breakfast and heating up his bathing water. So why was the house so quiet – and eerily so?

Philemon decided to investigate. He reluctantly got out of the warm bed and put his feet on the cold, Sunbeam-polished concrete floor. He yawned, scratched and stretched, and looked at the alarm clock on his bedside table. It read 7.30 a.m. It must be wrong. He looked at the sun shining through his bedroom curtains; it was not in its usual position at this time of morning. It dawned on him then that perhaps he had overslept. But where was Sitshengisiwe? Why had she not woken him? He tiptoed across the cold floor and made his way to the kitchen.

She was not in the kitchen. In fact, the kitchen was just as he had left it the night before. On the stove top, there was still the cast-iron pan he had used to fry his toasted bread. On the table, there was still one placemat. On the placemat, there was the plate on which he had eaten his toast and baked beans. The meal had not been fit for a man who had spent the whole day working, but it was the best he had been able to do. He felt last night’s anger return.

He understood that Sitshengisiwe wanted them to move on, or rather up, in the world, that she wanted him to break what she called his ‘dependence’ on the Rutherfords and what he called his ‘collaboration’ with the Rutherfords. The kitchen itself was a reminder of and testament to that collaboration. He had received the stove, the cast-iron pan, the placemat and the dinner plate from Madam. Most of the things in the rest of the house had also once belonged in the Rutherfords’ home – the sofa, the curtains, the display cabinet, some of the sheets that they used – and, yes, the very pyjamas he was wearing.