All was well until Philemon got to work on the 27th of December. Madam informed him that the artichokes had been a great success and had been raved about by all. She did not look as happy as he had expected her to, however, and he did not understand why until she said in passing, ‘Emil Coetzee was not there … I am sure he would have enjoyed them. He really should not have let go of Kuki. She was always so very good at organising his social calendar for him.’ As far as Philemon was concerned, the only thing that made Madam not as perfect as she ought to be was her unrequited attachment to the undeserving Emil Coetzee.

Despite Madam’s tempered enthusiasm, for his part Philemon had been happy to hear that the artichokes had been a great success, and allowed himself to feel his usual pride in his work … until he opened the rubbish bin and found heaps of the stalks and outer leaves of this thing called an artichoke that he had lovingly laboured over for months. Why had so much of the plant been discarded? The answer to his question came when Madam said, ‘I saved some for you because you did such an excellent job,’ as she handed him a saucer with two scooped-out artichoke hearts. This was it? This was all that was eaten of the vegetable? He took a bite and almost immediately spat it out. He did not like the taste at all. But he chewed and swallowed and smiled because Madam was there. As Madam watched him eat, it was obvious that she was very proud of what she called their hard work. Philemon was so angry at the waste that even as he pretended to enjoy the artichokes, he thought it was very little reward for his hard work.

The incident with the artichokes would probably have soon been forgotten had Sitshengisiwe not accepted a New Year’s Day invitation from their newly arrived neighbours, Silas and Bodecia Mthimkhulu. Although it had been Sitshengisiwe’s idea to go to the party, to be fair, Philemon had been curious to see how their new neighbours lived ever since he had seen the Biddulphs moving truck deliver their belongings two weeks earlier. He had not known until that moment that a Biddulphs moving truck, which he saw almost every day in the suburbs, could venture into the townships. As he watched the Mthimkhulus’ possessions being offloaded, there had seemed to Philemon to be too much … stuff … for a black family to own, and so he, quite naturally, became suspicious.