“I didn’t realise that you were home.” My mom says to me as she walks into the kitchen and finds me unpacking groceries.

“I just thought I’d go and buy some groceries and some stuff that are missing here at home and at the beauty bar. Kgomotso is doing a good job at managing the place, so it is in good hands.” I explain to her.

“Well that’s nice. So has your brother said anything about marrying that poor girl? She puts up with so much – too much if you ask me, and for free.”

My mom is clearly in the mood for gossip today. And you know what, so am I. I don’t know. In a weird way, connecting with George again while he is behind bars is doing something for me. It is making me a lot lighter. Maybe I am also happy or relieved that my son knows the truth and is not on a desperate mission to seek approval anymore. He knows that he was never rejected and he is proud that his father loves him and sees him as enough, even if he is behind bars.

“Sandile and I don’t discuss his relationship, so I wouldn’t know. But I agree with you, he does need to marry her now. Two kids later, it is the least that he can do.”

As I say this, our domestic worker walks into the kitchen. She must have been cleaning other parts of the house. I don’t like her. My mom hired her. She has been here a few months and she is already having sex with my brother. She thinks we don’t see it. But me, I know these things. I survived Zelda, remember? She schooled me well. I instruct her to finish off unpacking our groceries and make my mom and me tea. She is scared of me and I milk that fear all the time.

“Mama, you need to stop discussing KG’s and Sandile’s relationship with this hoodrat that you hired to clean this place. She has already forgot her place and she hasn’t even been here for a year”, I say.

My mom is shocked and the hoodrat is looking at me as if wanting me to say that to her face. She has attitude this one. Heavy attitude. I am sitting right here where she can hear everything. My intention is for her to hear every word I say.

“She thinks we don’t know that she is sleeping with Sandile this one. We know. And women like me have plans for sluts like her.” I say.

“Sindiswa! Hai! Unathi would never do something like that.” My mom is so naive.

“Am I lying, Hoodrat? Are you not sleeping with Sandile?”

She wants to deny it. I can just see it. But, I scare the shit out of her and I am happy that I do. She starts sobbing instead.

“Unathi, are you sleeping with my son?” Mama.

Unathi shakes her head. Okay, so it’s operation deny? She must not know who I am.

“Are you sure?” My mom.

Unathi nods her head. But my mom is not convinced.

“You know mama, I trusted Zelda a lot as my domestic worker. She was in my home, looking after my family and keeping my home clean. I even let her do so much more than just clean my house and look after my family. And what did I get as a thanks? A divorce from my husband and now she is married to him and giving him kids. So I know Hoodrat’s type very well. And if Hoodrat is the type of woman, like Zelda, who goes into people homes dressed as a maid, but intending to sleep with people’s husbands and break up happy homes, I will end her. Plus, I haven’t exactly released all my anger from what Zelda did to me. She came to the wrong house and chose the wrong victim. I will teach her how to respect people’s marriages so she can go tell her friends that their game is about to end. I’m tired of these stale sluts that struggled to bag their own husbands and now go around preying on other women’s families.”

My mom is looking at me like I should stop it now. Hoodrat was scared of me. Now she is terrified. I’m not going to fire her. I’m going to torture the living shit out of her. She must be this terrified the next time she sees Sandile’s penis. Kgomotso is not my best friend, but no one deserves to be done dirty like this.

“Where’s our tea, Hoodrat? And why are these groceries not unpacked from the plastic bags?” I aggressively ask.

She jumps and starts pacing around the kitchen. I stare at her and I want her to feel that I am starring at her. She is too comfortable and I want her to be extremely uncomfortable in this house. She will never be the madam in this house. She drops a cup and breaks it.

Lord have mercy!

“Are you going to buy that cup?” I yell.

She is crying now.

“I don’t understand why you are crying. If you break one more thing, I’ll make you go buy it. Your type cannot even be threatened with this coming off your salary because people’s husbands will just sponsor it. You are at work. Keep your emotions intact and do your damn job!” I am yelling now.

“Okay Sindiswa. Uzwile. It’s enough now.” My mom.

I look at her.

Wait until it’s just me and the hoodrat. She must thank my mom and her good heart.

“Let’s go sit in the garden. Unathi will bring us our tea when it is ready.” My mom.

We both leave the kitchen.

My mom and I are gossiping in the garden and watching the streets of Ermelo go about their daily lives.

“Siyabonga tells me that you finally introduced him to his dad”.

“Yeah, I had to. Siya has been really sad since Mthunzi left our lives. I didn’t want my son growing up feeling rejected or unwanted. Sandile really helped me and became a father to Siya, but realistically speaking mama, Siya knows that Sandile is not his dad. I didn’t want my child growing up messed up because of my mistakes. Plus, Mthunzi left us so soon after Mbali died. I’m not even sure if Siya has dealt with that yet. But, meeting his father and, I suppose, starting a relationship with him opened up the communication channel between us and I want him and I to talk more so I know how to be his mother. I won’t lie though, I miss Zelda. She always knew what to do and how to be there for my kids. Even Siya’s maturity and the fact that he’s not showing me flames right now – I owe it to her. She taught my kids values that money cannot buy. Now Siya, at his age, knows how to reason and not throw tantrums in difficult situations. I sometimes wish I could phone her and ask her to talk to him when he has one of his bad days. But that’s not on the table for me anymore. I really undervalued her as an employee.” I admit.

My mom looks at me. I cannot read her expression.

She then sighs and says, “You are not a bad mother, Sindiswa. You did what you had to do. That’s what we do as mothers, we do what we need to do for our children. Our choices are seldom selfish at the time even though that’s how the world will perceive it. It’s the demon we live with until our children are parents and begin to understand.”

I nod my head.

We see Sandile park his car at the gate. He does not drive in. He comes out of his car and charges straight to mama and I. He looks upset. I’m sure his whore cried on the phone and reported my insubordination. I’m already rolling my eyes.

“What did you do to Unathi?” He asks me.

“Hai wena, don’t talk to me like that. She has no problem being your slut, but she has a problem being called out on it?” I’m not backing down on this.

“Sindiswa, I support you with everything. Don’t I?”

“So I must support you ngamanyala? Why did you bring KG here if you don’t want her anymore? Instead of preparing to marry her, you sleeping with the fucken maid?”

“My relationship with uKgomotso has got nothing to do with you. She is my girlfriend, not the family’s girlfriend. Aningeni ndawo in our business.”

“Thanks for that clarification. Please share that with your whore the next time you take KG’s penis and insert it inside of her.”

This statement takes both mama and Sandile aback. They are so shocked. Sandile has nothing smart to say back to me.

Hoodrat walks to us holding a tray of tea in her hands.

“Your tea, Miss Sindiswa and Mam’Lizzy.” She says. Her spirit is still broken. But this stunt that she pulled of running to my brother – now I will thrash her spirit. You are welcome KG.

Mama takes the cup of tea from the tray.

“Mama, are you really going to drink that? For all we know, she put poison in there.”

I grab the cup of tea from my mom, put it back on tray and smack the tray out of her hands. Everything falls to the floor. A bit of tea lands on Hoodrat as well.

“Let’s go fetch the kids from school, mama. Can I use your car, Sandile? Your wife is using mine.”

I don’t wait for him to respond, I just grab the keys from him. My mom is still sitting, shocked.

“Make sure you wipe his cum off your mouth before the kids and I get back. We don’t want to see the evidence of your activities.”

I am walking to the car.

Everyone is just frozen. Frozen!

…

“We had a good day today yaz. The books are also a good touch. Some authors were asking if they could put up posters of their promo work for their novels.” KG tells me.

“That’s good to hear.”

“I’m thinking we should make them pay for the advertising space though. We already sell their books. Now we must put up their posters? They must pay us then we will decide what we put up to advertise their books on our website, our social media and in one of our store. It’s important that whatever we put up blends in with our aesthetics.” She says. She is really good at this.

“You are the manager. I leave it all in your capable hands.”

She smiles at me.

We are preparing dinner together. The kids are doing homework using the dining table in the dining room, so we are able to keep an eye on them as we cook about. My mom has gone to a stokvel meeting. As to when she joined a stokvel, I’m also wondering. Hoodrat has knocked off and Sandile is probably dropping her off at home and they are discussing what they are going to do about me. Hoodrat is probably crying and making herself a victim. Sandile is probably comforting her and promising her that he will deal with me. I’m not done with that whore. I will teach her. This may be her workplace, but this is my house. My word around here is final and if she has an issue with how I treat her, she can take me court. Vok man!

“So, I was doing a bit of reading on prison rehabilitation.” KG begins.

I look at her. Yeah, I talk to her about personal stuff now. We have become sisters I suppose. One of us has to give her emotional security in this house. Her man is giving it to Hoodrat.

“After you took Siya to see his dad, he came back extremely happy. I take it everything went well. So I was doing research to see how you can extend your support to Siya’s father.” She continues.

“I’m listening”.

“One of the things that are highlighted is that visiting the offenders is important. It shows the correctional services people that the offender is not an unwanted menace in society. He made a mistake and there are people who are waiting for him to come back. It also gives him hope that he has something to look forward to. Encourage him to take part in the rehabilitation programme as well. Don’t let him be the guy who is either always in trouble or wakes up and does nothing but eat, shit and sleep some more. It is kinda up to him to prove that rehabilitation and reintegration into society is possible with him. I can give you the paper that I was reading. It is a paper written by Ketso Madonsela for her honours dissertation.”

“Thanks for that, sisi. I just worry a bit that George is not exactly that person, you know. He is not the obedient type. He throws his weight around everywhere he goes. I can help with the visitation part. But more than that might be difficult. He needs to want it too and I think he has decided that prison is the rest of his life.”

“Try and make him see that he owes Siya years of being his dad. It doesn’t have to be behind bars.”

“I don’t want him to come out neither. George and I were not Bonnie and Clyde. Our relationship was toxic, abusive and mostly a business transaction. I find him sexy when he is powerful, not kissing ass. When he walks out of prison, what is he going to do? Live off his wife and me? He is better off to all of us behind bars. His power and dignity is still intact while he is there.” I say.

KG is taken aback. She doesn’t understand. No one understands. No one ever will. But I understand and I am doing what is best for all of us concerned.

“Just read the paper. You don’t have to take my advice, but at least make the decision well-informed on how it can be. He doesn’t have to become an even bigger animal in there.” She says.

“I hear you. But remember that there is theory then there is real life. All theseoffenders in there are on life support. Their breathing machine is their usefulness to the people who are keeping them alive. The minute they become useless, the plug on their lives can be pulled any time. They can become priests in there if they want to. But if the call for their lives has been made, a coffin with their dead bodies will be delivered to us, their family.” I say.

Sandile walks into the kitchen. The kids run up to him to greet him. He gives them sweets, acknowledgement and love. Then he comes to us in the kitchen.

“Hello Sthandwa sami”, he greets KG. His hands are on her ass and he is smothering her with kisses and affection.

Mxm!

“Hey baby. How was your day?” Poor KG.

“It was alright, baby. I missed you though.” Him.

“I missed you too, love.” Her.

“I was thinking that maybe I could take you out for dinner tonight then we can spend the night at a nice hotel where it is just you and I connecting again. I really miss you.” He says.

Damn he is good. And this one shame, she is in love with romance. She is the one who makes sure that she reads and reviews each of those novels there on our bookshelves. She loves love. And my nyol of a brother is using love to betray her.

“I’m sure Sindiswa won’t mind staying with the kids, sorting out the taxis and trucks for tonight and being at the salon tomorrow.” He says.

“Beauty bar”, I say.

All three of us chuckle.

“And yes, I don’t mind. Go ahead niyothandana. I’ll be the knight in shining armour tonight”.

They laugh. I smile at them. Then I decide that I am not letting Sandile off the hook THAT easily. Let’s see him squirm a bit.

“Yaz KG, I was thinking we should fire the maid. I think her name is Hoodrat.” I say.

The look on Sandile’s face!

I want to laugh. But let me keep going.

“Yeah. I don’t like her neither. The attitude she gives me – yho!”

“She gives you attitude? Since when?” I enquire.

“Since the day she started working here nje. And I have a feeling she doesn’t wash our sheets in our room. And I know she goes in there to clean it because that cheap shit she calls perfume sticks on linen like unwanted bubblegum.”

I stare at Sandile. How could he? His face is begging me to not hint at his extra mural activities with that bitch.

“You know what, I will deal with that Hoodrat.” I say.

“Isn’t her name –

“Irrelevant? Yep. By the time you get back from your honeymoon, your room will be spotless and I will make sure I fire that hoodrat.”

“What did she do to you?” KG asks me.

I look at Sandile.

Shame, he’s suffering.

“She just rubs me up the wrong way. Her presence nje in this house makes me want to shit bricks.”

“Yoh! Sindiswa. Hai! And besides, her husband is Phumlile. Won’t that cause problems for Sandile because Phumlile is his driver?”

I never!

“What are you telling me?” I ask her, laughing my lungs out. The bitch is married to Sandile’s driver? Tomorrow is going to be good day. Stru.

“You didn’t know?” KG asks me, laughing too.

“Baby, let’s go. Sindiswa, we’ll see you when we get back.” Sandile.

“Have fun!” Me.

…

“Where is the boss?” one of the drivers ask me.

“He’s not around.” I say.

“So are you the boss today?” Another driver.

“Do you have a problem with that?” I ask.

I am very annoyed. It is 3H30am and I am awake, entertaining drivers so that taxis can be on the road at whatever time. These men have been undermining me all morning. They are just annoying me.

I give them all the things I need to give them and the taxis hit the road. The trucks are at a depot, so I get a call confirming that they are now on the road.

Hoodrat arrives. She is dropped off by Phumlile and Phumlile parks his car in our yard. As I prepare to give him his key,

“It’s good to see you again, Phumlile. I should’ve warn lingerie again like that other day” I say.

The look that Hoodrat gives me!

Phumlile is blushing all of a sudden.

“Yaz, we should have lunch one of these days. I never got to thank you for the roses that you bought me.” I say.

Moghel is fuming now and I love it.

“It’s okay, sisi. You don’t have to. Like I said, I just wanted to apologise for that incident.” He says.

“I insist. How about today? Even your wife can join us if you like.” Me.

He smiles.

“12pm. It’s a date!”

I walk away and give them space to argue. I’m only getting started.

She finds me waiting in the kitchen for her. She freezes and is not sure what to do next.

“Sandile is not here for you to wish him a good morning. He took his wife out on a romantic night out.” I say.

“That’s nice.” It speaks. With attitude.

“Very nice. I love me some good romance. Now, you and I are going to start cleaning today in Sandile’s and KG’s bedroom. You are going to scrub your aura out of that room.” I say.

She looks at me.

I lead her to the room and she brings her cleaning essentials. I make her handwash the linen and even wash the mattress. I make her handwash the carpets then she starts cleaning the room thoroughly.

“It’s your audacity that appals me yaz. You sleep with KG’s husband then you give her attitude? Does your husband know how much of a slut you are?” Me.

She stops cleaning and looks at me.

“No, don’t look at me. Keep cleaning.” Me.

She gets back to it.

“You should have seen the way he drooled at my thighs. I wonder what an evening with him would be like yaz… And I know I can have him. Cheating wife versus this sexy woman right here who will do things to him that will make him blush even in front of you?” I laugh. “Whooooo, ngathi ngiyabona. Besides, bamnandi abantu babantu – you would know.” I just keep laughing.

She has slowed down the cleaning. She is sniffing now.

“Plus le ndoda yakho man, he has that thing that I love in a man when I fuck him. He doesn’t look like a screamer. He doesn’t look like a moaner. He is the type that will probably pull my hair out then make me blush like a teenager the next morning. My vagina is already getting wet at the thought.”

“Miss Sindiswa, I know what I did with your brother is wrong. And I will stop if that’s what you are asking me to do. But don’t disrespect me as Phumlile’s wife. I work for you, yes, and I will do whatever you request of me to do. But I will not tolerate –

“You will not tolerate what? What wont you tolerate? Ungazophapha wena! We have been tolerating you disrespecting KG and her room and her relationship with my brother. You think you and Phumlile are special because you are married? You can go around sleeping with other people’s husbands, but other people can’t sleep with yours? Who do you think you are?”

She is breathing heavily now.

“Are you done cleaning this room nje ngoba sowung’phakamela nje?” Me.

“I quit.” She says.

I burst into laughter!

She looks at me until I am done laughing.

“Have fun going home. I’ll make sure your husband comes home tonight. Or maybe not. But lets see how you take it now that the shoe is on the other foot.”

“My Phumlile is not into women like you.” She arrogantly says.

This makes me laugh even harder.

“Do you really want to see proof to that statement?” I say, still laughing.

She walks out, pushing me out of the way, and leaves. What a morning! Now to take the kids to school and phone a cleaning service to come work in the house.