When Dumi got off the taxi, he was surprised to bump into Zoleka with her two noisy girlfriends. He remembered what Pearl had told him, that he should keep his distance from Zoleka. But how was he going to get home without walking past them? They were hanging out on his street and they weren’t going to just let him pass by without talking to him. He couldn’t help thinking that what he had seen at church today was nothing compared to what Zoleka was capable of. He decided to keep walking down his street anyway.

“I waited and waited for your call and you never called. What happened?” shouted Zoleka as she walked towards Dumi.

“I was busy…” said Dumi

“Or maybe too good to give a sister a call?” Zoleka said. She looked at him from head to toe. “What happened to your shirt?”

“You need to get off my back, Zoleka. I’m not interested in you.”

“What?” said Zoleka in disbelief. She looked at her two friends. “Look, we seriously need to talk, Dumi. Some serious shit is about to go down.” She shot a look at her friends and they slowed down, letting Dumi and Zoleka walk ahead of them.

“I’m sure you know my step-sister Pearl by now,” said Zoleka. “And I’m sure she’s probably said some bad stuff about me. Am I right?”

Dumi kept quiet.

“Look, you don’t have to worry,” Zoleka told him. “I’m not the bad guy here. I just want to help.” She stopped and studied Dumi’s face.

“Zoleka, I’m kind of in a hurry right now. I really have to go somewhere. Maybe we can talk some other time?” said Dumi, checking his watch and attempting to walk faster to leave Zoleka behind. “I have your phone number, so how about I phone you later and you can tell me all about whatever it is that you want to help me with?”

Zoleka ran to block his way. “That would be unwise. If you don’t listen to me now you might never ever see her again. Let’s just find a private place to talk,” Zoleka said broodingly.

Dumi felt like he was being threatened now. To begin with, he didn’t know these people who seemed to know a lot about him. Secondly, they were going around telling him that they were trying to help him. From what?

“What is it with you two?” He narrowed his eyes and sounded annoyed. “What’s your story? Do you know something I don’t?”

Zoleka grew calmer. She told him that it was a very serious private matter, and that it would be better to go and talk about it at his home. Dumi thought about Pearl. She had warned him about her sister Zoleka. But now he didn’t know who to trust anymore after what he had seen at church, and he was also dying to know more about Zoleka. He felt intrigued to find out.

He agreed to take Zoleka to his home. When they got into the house he told Zoleka that there was a quick phone call he had to make, and then he dashed into the kitchen, leaving Zoleka alone in the sitting room. He scanned for his girlfriend’s cellphone number and pressed the dial button. To his surprise, her phone was answered by a man.

“Ahoy, good timing bro. How may I help?” said a man’s voice on the phone.

Dumi felt a little confused, but he said: “Yoh, I need to talk to the owner of this cellphone, I’m her boyfriend. Where is she?”

“Oh, I’m sorry buddy, I really can’t help you with that. She can’t speak to you now. Tell you what, half past five tomorrow at North Beach, meet me there if you really care.” With these words the man hung up.

Dumi dialled the number again, but Zeh’s phone was now on voicemail. He sat at the table in the kitchen and the thoughts of what Zeh had said to him on Friday morning came flooding into his mind. He also remembered the clap she had given him the day before. It all didn’t make any sense. He had never cheated on her. Who was this girl that he was being accused of cheating with? Or maybe she just needed an excuse to break up with him?

“I thought that you were grown up, Dumi! I thought that you loved me! But this is what I get? You cheat on me with a random girl you barely know?” The words were still ringing in his ears. His head was all mixed up.

It was getting late and darker outside. He realised that Zoleka had been waiting for him. He’d been sitting there for almost an hour. He wiped the tears from his eyes and stood up, hoping that Zoleka was still there. Luckily she was. His cousin was in the room too, sitting in awkward silence with her.

“Bro, what’s up? Ya good?” asked Joel with concern as soon as he spotted the blood stains on his cousin’s shirt.

“I’m good, brother…howzit?” answered Dumi.

“Good good,” Joel replied.

“Cool then. This is Zoleka, I just met her tod…”

“Alright, alright, we know each other. He is Joel, he goes to uMzuvele high school,” Zoleka said, interrupting Dumi.

“Let’s not waste any more time…something not right is already happening,” Zoleka continued.

She glared at Joel, then at Dumi and finally back at Joel again. As if he knew, Joel got up and gave the two of them some privacy. Dumi and Joel lived alone in a house with two bedrooms, a kitchen and a sitting room.

“So did you get hold of your girlfriend, on the phone?” Zoleka questioned.

“I don’t remember telling her that I was going to phone my girlfriend? What is she? Does she read minds perhaps?” Dumi thought to himself.

Out loud to Zoleka he said: “Well, no. I guess there’s something going down at her house. Her phone was answered by a strange dude who cut off the call. Anyway, what did you want to talk about?” He wished that she would speak fast so that he could go and look for his girlfriend.

“No time for that,” said Zoleka, looking around everywhere in the house. “We need to move, Dumi! Let’s go to her place quickly!” She got up from the sofa and strode towards the door. Dumi followed, although he still didn’t know a thing about what was happening.

Tell us what you think: What has happened to Dumi’s girlfriend? Who was the man who answered the phone?