It’s Sunday morning and everyone should be relaxing at home, but you can cut the tension in the house with a knife. When Mrs Ntuli receives a call from her sister, Nandi, things get worse. Nandi always calls to gossip and badmouth everyone in the family.

“Hello Sisi, unjani?” Mrs Ntuli answers.

“Siyaphila. How is everyone that side?”

“They are all good.”

“The reason why I am calling is because I wanted to tell you that our youngest sister’s child, Mbali, is pregnant.”

“Hawu! That’s terrible. These kids these days, they act like stray dogs. Mbali is in Grade 9 if I am not mistaken. Where does she get the nerve to disappoint her mother like that?”

“If she was mine, bengizomkhombisa (I would show her)! Anyway her mother spoils those kids too much – that’s why they have no morals.”

They continue chatting on the phone. They laugh, but underneath Mrs Ntuli is angry and hurt when she thinks of her own foster daughter, Nothando. Didn’t she go with Mbali on that holiday to Wild Coast? What did she get up to?

“Yes, and I heard that Nothando is also not the good girl she pretends to be. People are saying they have seen her with an older man. I’m just saying you should watch her with your husband. These young girls are sluts.”

After the call Mrs Ntuli shouts for Nothando. She is burning with outrage.

“Woza la wena, tikilayini (Come here you slut)!”

She is very angry and paces up and down the dining-room area as she waits for Nothando, working herself up into a rage.

Nothando is shocked by her foster mother’s harsh words. What have I done now, she thinks, as she comes into the room. She is nervous as she sits down. Her mother stands over her, looking like she is ready for a fight.

“Nothando, please tell me that what I am hearing from my sister Nandi is all lies! After all we have done for you, is this how you thank us? We have done everything we possibly can to make you feel like the other children in the family and in the neighbourhood.”

Nothando tries to speak but her foster mother gives her no chance.

“You have had it all! How do you repay us? I would never have believed the manipulative person you are. I have trusted you with everything, even the family secrets of this house, and you go around and betray me like this!”

“But Ma, I don’t know what you are talking about!”

Nothando looks in puzzlement at Mrs Ntuli, with her big eyes wide open. She is trying to talk but her foster mother won’t let her.

Mrs Ntuli keeps shouting louder and louder like something is pumping her up.

“You know what? There is nothing you can say to defend yourself on this one. To think my husband and I brought you here because we were feeling touched about the passing of your mother and father. We wanted to give you a home and education so you could make a living for yourself, and help your grandparents in the rural area. This is how you thank us? Hhe…!”

Nothando is even more confused. She doesn’t know where all these harsh words are coming from. I wonder what lies aunt Nandi spread about me this time, she says to herself. Whatever it is, it sounds very serious, and Ma is sensitive about it.

***

Tell us: Why might people spread rumours that aren’t true? And, why do people believe them without finding out the truth for themselves?