I called Sidney, our doctor, and he came to see her. He examined her carefully in the kitchen, gave her cold compresses and aspirin, and said nothing, although to me he said, Jacqueline, this is really not in order, you know. There’s a limit to what you can do for these people, there’s a limit. Yes, Sidney, I said, thank you for seeing her. I know. I know how it is. Goodbye.

IT HAPPENED AGAIN, a couple of weeks later. Sidney was called once more.

We all spoke to Tiny: I, Emily, even Josias. I heard Josias talking in a low voice to her, in their language. He’s not a good boyfriend, I said. Please get rid of him, I said. I’m sure Emily said the same.

Emily was worried about Tiny’s children in Alexandra, what would happen to them if the boyfriend killed her one day, she said. Don’t exaggerate, Emily, I said.

But Tiny carried on with her boyfriend. Once, only once, I saw him. He was a tall, thin man, and young. He walked casually through the back gate and into their yard, I was in the yard that day, that’s why I saw him. He walked past me, insolently, he looked at me as he walked, and then he walked straight to Tiny’s room, bending his head as he went through the low doorway.

I ASKED HOWARD that night if he thought we should let Tiny go, perhaps it wasn’t safe for us to have this man in our backyard, visiting regularly. What did Howard think? Should we call the police next time he assaults her, I said.

But we were all afraid of the police, you see that now. I was afraid of the police for our own reason, Joseph in the garden, and Tiny was afraid of the police because her boyfriend didn’t have a pass, and now, Tiny told us tearfully, she didn’t have a pass either. When I hired her, I hadn’t bothered to check, sometimes I was careless that way. How could I have made that mistake? But it was my kind of rebellion, to make that mistake. I hated those passes, I hated that system, I just hated it. When Tiny came to my door looking for a job, she caught me at a moment when I needed someone, and I was preoccupied I suppose in my way, and rebellious, that too, and I thought Tiny looked suitable. She was young and soft-spoken. I hired her.

She didn’t have a pass. We couldn’t call the police.

This was a rare time Howard was angry with me. What the hell, he said. Now look what’s happened. But then he said, almost immediately: look, we’ll keep her on, it’s her job. Maybe I’ll talk to the boyfriend.

I didn’t think this was a good idea, not at all. Emily and Josias shook their heads when I told them, they surely didn’t think it was a good idea, either.

HOWARD LATER CAME into the kitchen. Tiny, he said, next time your boyfriend comes please call me, tell him I want to talk to him. Tiny looked frightened, then she smiled uncertainly. Okay master, thank you master, she said, and she went out the back, to her room.