Palesa takes the bucket and fetches the cows’ food in the 50kg sack. She gets into the kraal, holding the bucket. The cows come towards her, but she runs and closes the gate while she is outside.

“Palesa, why are you doing this?” Queen asks sincerely.

“The cows will kill me,” she answers, breathing faster.

“I am not talking about cows. Why you are using my name on Facebook?” she asks, coming closer to Palesa, who stops, making a rasping sound from her breath.

“What do you mean? Where did you see that?” Palesa walks into the kraal, holding a stick.

Queen takes the hose pipe and puts water into the bowls. Palesa pours the feed into a big bowl. The cows dip inside it, not wanting the other cows to eat everything. One brown cow with a white tail is busy pushing the other cows so it can eat alone. Palesa walks through the gate. Queen smacks her left cheek.

“What are you doing?” Palesa shouts.

Queen smacks her on the right side. Palesa is furious and pushes her on the ground. Palesa is sitting on top of Queen’s stomach. She punches her with her fists while Queen hides her face with her hands. Palesa wipes blood coming out of her nose. Queen finds an advantage and throws her on the ground and then starts slapping her.

“How could you? You are evil. I trusted you,” Queen screams.

“Is it a crime? It’s harmless,” Palesa shouts, trying to push her down.

Queen is stronger than her; she holds her down, staring at her destructively. If she could kill her, she would. Musa walks in the gate and rushes to pull Queen off Palesa’s body. Palesa stands back and tries to hit her.

“You don’t respect me. You hit me,” Palesa breathes angrily.

“You evil,” Queen shouts.

“What’s going on with you girls?” he asks, puzzled, holding Queen away from Palesa.

They remain quiet, then Musa walks to the house. They run and stop him. Queen is ashamed, but Palesa still wants to fight her. She is provoked and furious.

“Where are you going?” Queen asks.

“To tell Grandma,” he says.

“Please don’t, we will solve it. Please,” Palesa begs.

Musa looks at them, careful to see if they mean it. Then he assures them he won’t say a thing. The two girls don’t utter words but stare at each other with mean-eyes. They don’t want Granny to stress about them, and they had promised Palesa’s mom that they would behave at their grandparents’ home. After the feeding they both leave to bath.

Grandma is busy roasting chicken with an aroma that goes into all the rooms. Palesa and Queen sit on their beds silently. They behave as enemies.

“You have to tell Tony you’re catfishing him,” she says sincerely.

“Queen no. I still love him,” she says quickly, sitting by her bed.

“If you don’t, I will,” Queen clicks her tongue.

She looks at Palesa, nauseated. She walks out of the room. Palesa opens her fake account. Tony is online, and there is a message from him.

Tony: Hie babes.

Pa1lesa: Hie. How are you?

We need to talk.

Tony: About what? Does Palesa

accept our relationship?

You know she has never let me go.

Palesa: It’s okay.

Palesa feels horrible and villainous. She thinks maybe Queen just wants to scare her, but her mind and heart are in conflict.

Tell us: Would you tell Tony if you were Queen?