“Hi Stephanie, is my father in?” She tried to smile but truth be told she was tired.

“Sure, let me just tell him you’re here.”

The beautiful secretary picked up her phone and hit one button, waited for a few seconds and then announced, “Mr Dlamini Nozie’s here to see you.” pause, then “Yes sir.”

The whole time she was looking at Nozie with curious eyes, she could most probably tell that she had been crying. She told her to go ahead to her father’s office and Nozie said a soft thank you and walked down the passage.

She tapped on the door and her father told her to enter. He was sitting on his desk engrossed in some paper work and he had that look on his face, he was working a big case. She closed the door and walked slowly up to his desk and stood in front of him. He looked up and saw that she was sobbing and he jumped up, walked around the table and hugged her really close.

“Hey, hey, what’s wrong angel?” It was as if he just opened a running tap of tears because Nozie just let it all out. He moved her to the couch by the wall and sat her down; still holding her he rocked her gently. When she had stopped crying he got up and poured her a glass of water from the tray on the little refreshments table. She took it with trembling hands and drank, till sobbing she handed it back to him. He gave her some tissues and she blew her nose. After a few attempts at speaking she finally had some courage, though her voice was still shaky.

“He. Has. Done. It. Again.” She said taking deep sharp breaths that made it sound like she was having chest pains.

“Breathe angel and tell me what happened. Who has done what again?”

“Mazibuko.” She exhaled the word and he jumped and held her by the shoulders and looked at her.

“Did he touch you? Did he hurt you? Talk Nozuko, what did Mazibuko do?”

“Nora, he’s molesting Nora. And it’s my fault Tata, it’s all my fault.”

It was hopeless getting anything from her now so her father let her sob again. It took 10 excruciating minutes before her father could hear what Nozie was saying and to make of it. She told him about her visit to Nora’s house and what Nora’s mother had said. Her father listened and said nothing, then after a minute he got up and pressed a button on his phone and waited for it to be picked up.

“Jeff, could you come in here please.” Nozie didn’t hear anybody responding but after a minute there was a light tap on the door.

Jeff Burns was a tall good looking man, in his late 20’s or early 30’s it was hard to tell with his youngish looks and Nozie’s swollen eyes. Her father relayed to him what she had told him, he also recapped on what had happened the previous year with Nozie. She couldn’t quite make out word for word what they were saying because she was laying on the leather couch and they were standing by the desk. After a few minutes Jeff went out and Nozie’s dad came to sit next to her.

“Ntomb’yam, come let’s go home.”

He gently pulled her up and they walked out of the building to his car in the parking lot. In the car it was absolute silence, well except for the air conditioner that blew out cold air. Nozie shivered and her father switched it off and turned the heater up. She sat the looking out the window as the car cruised on the freeway, she just watched the oceans clash amongst the rocks and the sound seemed so far away.