Agnes

Agnes raised her eyes and looked out across the school’s rugby field. It was huge. And she was the one who had to clean it all up after the sports derby. Being a cleaner at a school as big as Prince Albert High was never easy. But this was a job she needed. Her kids’ scholarships only paid for them to come to the school, not for their food and clothes.

“Yho, haibo Sis’ Agnes, how are you not tired after such a long day?”

Agnes’ held her lower back as she stood up from the dirt she’d been hunched over. It was Sindiswa who had called out to her, Agnes confirmed as she turned and looked.

“I am tired, sisi, but someone’s got to clear the litter off this field,” she answered, the trash bag firmly held in her hand. She was tired and stiff from the physical labour, but she was also worried.

Sipho’s mother had been called into the school by the Principal. He had told her that if Sipho continued to be late he faced suspension. Agnes knew what it meant to Sipho and his mother to have this opportunity to be at a good school and excel. He couldn’t ruin it now. But worrying about Sipho wouldn’t change the situation, she told herself, as Sindiswa came over to where she was working.

“I’m done mopping the boys’ toilets, so I can give you some help if you like,” Sindiswa offered, noticing how tired and sweaty Agnes looked. “I was expecting them to be as dirty as usual, but they surprised me today.”

“Please do help, nyani, sisi. In this heat these overalls and gloves are really killing me.”

The two got to work. Agnes bent forward and continued to poke and prod the grass for more pieces of rubbish. But with Sindiswa’s extra pair of hands, it took only twenty more minutes to clean up the field.

Agnes stood upright and wiped the sweat from her face with the inside of her work jacket. “Hayi, we’ve really worked nhe!” she exclaimed. “All we need now are the bins. Where did the caretaker put them?”

“They’re outside the boys’ toilets, sisi.”

The two didn’t waste any more time and started dragging their bulky loads of rubbish to the far left of the rugby field where the boys’ toilets stood. As they got closer they heard a boy’s voice coming from inside – speaking in an unusual tone. They stopped in their tracks.

“Do it, man!” shouted a voice. It sounded like one of the school’s older boys. “Or are you a moffie?”

“I’m not a moffie,” answered a younger voice. “I just don’t want to do it.”

As Agnes continued to listen she became more and more enraged. It wasn’t the first time she had witnessed bullying at Prince Albert’s. She marched into the toilets and shouted: “Let that boy go!”

The three older boys looked shocked and immediately released the younger boy, whom they had been holding by the back of his school shirt. The boy’s trousers and a Savanna bottle he had been holding fell to the floor.

“What are you doing to him?” Agnes asked, placing herself between the young boy and the three older ones. This was one more bullying incident she wasn’t going to allow. These boys liked to humiliate younger ones at the school. To treat them like dirt. It made them feel more powerful. But Agnes decided, right then and there, that she wouldn’t stand for it any longer. She had seen them before. They were in Grade 11. The young boy looked like he was anywhere between thirteen and fifteen; perhaps he was even a new boy in Grade 8, like Sipho.

“You don’t have to report what you saw now, OK?” threatened one of the older boys.

“Leave them, sisi,” said Sindiswa, with a frightened look on her face. “Let’s just take the kid and go.”

But Agnes didn’t respond. She was busy with the first boy. “I won’t forget what I saw. And we’ll see what the Principal has to say about this,” she said, as she looked at him angrily. Her attention shifted back to the young boy. “What are they making you do, my child?” she asked him, as he stood there looking frightened.

“They … um … they told me they’d keep taking my lunch money if I didn’t … pee into the bottles and throw them against the wall like they did,” he said, scared and shamefaced.

“What?!” she exclaimed, as she looked at the other broken bottles and urine sprayed around on the floor near the wall.

“Sindiswa, go call the Principal,” Agnes told her colleague. One of the older boys stepped forward and pushed her roughly.

“If your friend does that, there will be trouble,” he hissed. “Anyway, you’re just a cleaner. You’re nothing. You’re like the dirt you pick up every day. Who will believe what you tell them?”

“Leave her, Jaco,” another said, jumping in front of the boy. “We’ll get her some other time.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll report them now,” Agnes reassured the young boy as she led him out of the toilets.

“We’ll get you two for this!” Jaco shouted after them as he ran off with his friends. “You can’t protect him.”

“Sisi, I found the Principal!” called out Sindiswa, as she came running back from the main school building. Agnes felt relieved. Once the Principal got here she could explain what had happened and the case could be handled by the right person.

“Thank you for helping me in there,” said the young boy, with a grateful smile, his green eyes lighting up his freckled face as they walked back towards the school.

Agnes felt unexpected joy surge through her. She was so glad she’d helped the boy. It felt good. And now the Principal was in sight. This day was going to end on a happy note after all.

“Hello, Tom,” the Principal said with a friendly smile as he shook Tom’s hand. He turned to face Agnes. “Sindiswa told me what happened, Agnes. I’m sorry you had to go through that. Some of these boys can really overstep the mark. I’ll try and sort it out. If you come to the office now, you can go home after. Take the rest of the day off.”

“What’s going to happen now, Sir?” asked Agnes.

“Don’t worry, measures will be taken to punish those boys and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

In the Principal’s office Agnes and Sindiswa and Tom made a statement about what had happened in the toilets.

Agnes nodded in approval as they finished. She was determined to make sure those boys never again did anything like they had done to Tom, or to her. What if they treated her own son, Mthobeli, like they had treated Tom? Or Gloria?

She decided not to tell her children about the incident. She wanted to protect them. Plus she suspected Gloria would go in search of the boys if she told her, and she would get into trouble. The Principal had told her he would deal with it. She must trust him to do that. The boys would pay for what they did.

***

Tell us what you think: Why do some people bully? In what ways were some people’s dignity hurt in this chapter?