“So, how did you know Nthabiseng?” Botha looked through his book. After waiting a few seconds for her reply, he noticed a tattoo on Maya’s neck. Intrigued by it, he looked a little longer. It was the number twenty-six. He made a quick sketch of it in his note book.
“Nthabi was my cell mate. She would always wake me up at 4:55 .a.m.” A sudden light came from Mayas eyes. A child-like look.
“Do you know why she was in here?” asked Botha.
Maya looked the other way. She knew that Nthabi wasn’t the crazy person they all assumed her to be. She might have been annoying at times, and over bearing, but her kind heart made you overlook all the negatives.
“I would ask myself why a nice person like her was in here. This filthy place sucks everyone up I guess; even the good ones that don’t deserve to be here. Again, you so-called “Cops” didn’t do your job right!”
Detective Mpho walked back into the room. He placed his hand on his partner’s shoulder after sensing an unusual chill in the room. Mpho and Botha had been partners for eight years. When you are with a person for that long, you get to know what every hand gesture, posture and body language signal means.
“Do you mind if I sit in?”
Botha gave his partner a nod as he sat down.
“Maya, did Nthabi say anything about wanting to kill herself in the past few days?”
Maya looked at the crack in the wall straight ahead, just past Botha’s head. Botha turned his head to see where she was looking. Mpho signalled to him to let her look at it and not distract her, as if he knew what was going on in her head.
“Her sister came to visit. She was supposed to leave tomorrow. She was on parole.”
The detectives looked at each other and wondered why she would do that. Detective Botha started to make notes about Nthabi’s sister, Annabel.
“You see the thing is, Nthabi was such a strong woman. She could bear everyone’s problems except her own. I guess she never really dealt with what happened to her before she came here; it haunted her!” Maya felt a sudden pain inside.
“Once you’re raped, your whole life changes. You view the world in a different light and you just never know when the next beast might pounce on you… every man is a predator!”
“Although Nthabi was bold, she had great fears. She feared that the world would shun her because she was a victim of rape; she feared the she wouldn’t fit into society like she used to, or that people would judge her for what had happened to her… prison was her safe place.”
“In here, we all have our own demons to carry. We’re given a fresh start in a completely different world of people who have been broken by society.”
Detective Mpho realised how much strain the interview was on Maya and decided to let her take a lunch break since it was 12 o’clock anyway. “Go and have lunch Maya, we’ll resume after 1 o’clock.”
Maya dragged herself to the canteen, feeling rather gloomy, and arrived to find a not-so-chirpy aunty Mavis serving the usual unappetising blob of steaming hot pap, a white pork chop, boiled frozen veg and runny gravy. A not-so-keen Maya dug into her food and finished it all rather quickly.
“It’s not my favourite crispy KFC, but at least it’s something,” she mumbled under her breath. By the end of her meal, Maya felt as if her brain had shut down and she wanted nothing more than to go back to her cell and take a nap, but she remembered her date with the two detectives. The very thought of them put her off instantly, but she remembered that she was Nthabi’s only and closest friend. If anyone had the slightest clue about why Nthabi did what she did, it had to be her.
***
Tell us: Do you think it’s fair to label every man as a possible rapist?