Days passed by but I wasn’t settled, this secret was haunting me. My heart said I must tell them but my head said it would jeopardize Nosma’s relationship with her step-mother. What was the right thing to do, anyway?

I now spent my days selling things I bought in Joburg so I could have money for my children, since I was a single mother. I would leave in the morning with my son while my daughter went to creche. Nomsa would pick her up and take her home where my father was. I would arrive late sometimes and I wouldn’t see Sarah and her husband, but Nomsa and Vimbai came to watch television in our house every evening. They didn’t own a television but only a radio. We would talk about the movie we are watching, but I wanted to talk about the incident. Whenever I tried to come close to telling the story, she would change the subject.

“Let’s concentrate on the movie,” she would say.

“Does Vimbai know? At least tell her,” I said.

“What is it that she must tell me?” Vimbai asked, confused.

“We stole mangos from that coloured Dani’s yard,” she said, bemused.

“How? There’s big dogs there,” she asked, bewildered.

“Those dogs don’t bite. I’ve never seen such stupid dogs before,” she chuckled, winking at me.

Vimbai put her eyes on the television, I watched as she laughed at the movie while I pulled Nomsa aside and went to the kitchen.

“You have to tell her,” I whispered.

“What wrong with you?” she said furiously, “Let’s bury this secret.”

“What if she goes and steals those mangoes? Those dogs are stubborn and vicious; she will get hurt. No one steals from Dani,” I warned her.

She went back in the lounge, but I checked and saw her going out of our house. I was right. How could she lie about Dani’s dogs; Vimbai might go and steal the mangos and get hurt. She would get me in trouble and I am the eldest here. Why was she stubborn and not listening to me?

My children and I accompanied Vimbai to their wooden shack and went back to the cottage. I locked the doors and switched all the lights off. My father slept early and we slept late, especially weekends while watching movies. My eyes failed to sleep. I kept hoping for the worst. I didn’t even know how to pray. I attended church, but I was a goer, not a Christian. I don’t know but I finally fell asleep.

The light that shone through our curtain made me know it was sunrise and time to get up, but I wanted to sleep on. The squawking of the birds was louder today. I opened my eyes and noticed my children were asleep too. A loud bang on the door came on the door, and I panicked.

“Who is it?” I said loudly with my eyes closed.

“Anna, aren’t you going to church? You’re going to be late,” a voice said.

I knew it was my father’s voice. I woke up and checked the time; I was indeed running late.

Tell us: Would you be able to keep an important secret?