At the dew-dripping front gate of Avalon Cemetery, Cebisa paid her dues and exited the taxi with the large plastic bag she had been clinging to all morning. Tugging strongly at the collar of her ankle-length coat, as if to compose herself, she slowly stepped through the gate. She embarked on the short journey to the grave where she had, months earlier, laid to eternal-rest her beloved younger brother. She passed by many graves until she finally stopped at one on which the ground was freshly heaped – situated between two graves with towering gravestones.

She smiled at the grave, attempting to conceal drowned eyes, and approached the head of it. She laid the plastic bag down on the ground beside the grave, and pulled a large wooden cross from it. With a brick she found close by, she began impaling the wooden cross into the ground at the head of the grave. Once done, she took a step back to observe the newfound immaculacy of the gravesite. Staring almost unconsciously at the wooden cross, she read aloud the words carved on it – as if for the very first time:

In eternal remembrance of the beloved:
Zamikhaya Langa
(Born: 12 January 1969 — Died: 16 August 2012)
Ndiliswa Precious Langa
(Born: 18 January 1998 — Died: 23 June 2013)
Innocence Cebisa Langa
(Died: 23 June 2013)

Closing her eyes following the painful read, she relived the morning of Sunday the 23rd of June.

She saw herself being awakened by a faint knock at the door, remembering how she thought about who could be knocking that early in the morning since Ndiliswa was staying over at Cleopatra’s, the only friend that she had. Opening the door, she discovered that no-one was outside of it and sucked at her teeth. Just as she was about to close the door, the ground made the ghostliest noise she had ever heard – and looking down to find the source of the noise, her horror transcended that of anything conceivable when she saw the blood-spattered face of her little niece.

She threw herself down beside Ndiliswa, laying her limp little body steadily over her lap.
“What happened to you?!” she screamed at Ndiliswa’s scarlet face. “My precious girl! What has happened to you?!” she begged.

“She cut her out of me! Nobuhle cut her out of me!” a strained reply left the lips of a trembling Ndiliswa. Turning to where she expected to see the big bump that cradled baby Innocence, she could not believe her eyes – Ndiliswa had a great gash engraved across the entirety of her belly and her insides were pouring out.

“Innocence! Get Innocence down on the street corner!” Ndiliswa beseeched, before her head fell flaccidly to her side. Crying and shaking the lifeless body of Ndiliswa, she pleaded with the neighbours to call an ambulance before sprinting down to the street corner.

Running as fast as her ailing legs and dwindling air supply could carry her, she rushed down the street to where she saw a crowd had gathered. She pushed her way through to the front of the crowd, but wasn’t ready for what she was to see.

As she stepped into the ring formed by the crowd, one of the dogs rummaging through the rubbish-heap swung its head in her direction so that it could monitor her movements. The dogs’ snouts were drenched in bright-red life.

Someone from the crowd threw a brick at the dogs, and after some growling, they ran off. Cebisa, robotic with fear, stepped forward to find the source of the blood that the dogs were covered in. There she saw the mutilated corpse of baby Innocence. She slowly walked over to the baby, fell to her knees and stared blankly into the crowd that gawked at her in horror.

Cebisa had no fight and no energy left to say or do anything. The crowd begged her to get up from the ground and go home after having realised that this was Ndiliswa’s baby. Word had also gotten around about the lifeless body of Ndiliswa that lay outstretched on Cebisa’s doorstep. The crowd sympathised with Cebisa; they hugged her and prayed around her.
She just sat there, impervious and hopeless. Not once saying a single word.

The police arrived at the scene, with one of them rushing over to observe the extent of the misery that was impressed on the street corner that morning. “How could any woman abandon an innocent bundle of joy like this?!” the officer asked, as she fought back her tears.

“That child was not abandoned! Her mother loved her tremendously!” Cebisa said as she roared back to reality. “She was loved! She was wanted! The merciful Lord knows that she was loved.” She wept as she was escorted away from the scene.

Shaking her head to drag herself back to the present, Cebisa stared at the wooden cross once more. “They know what you did for her, Ndiliswa. They now know that you crawled all the way home despite the pain, to try to save the life of little Innocence. They respect you now, albeit in death, as your name so rightfully demands,” Cebisa sang to the wooden cross as she slid her hands into the pockets of her coat.

She slowly began to march down the meandering walkway between the hundreds of graves, her teary face glistening in the rays of the sun.

“Oh! Baby Innocence in the grave, sleep well in the loving arms of your mother and grandfather.” she said smilingly, as the wind flapped her coat behind her.

***

: Cebisa had done everything she could do for Ndiliswa. The rapist and the murderer had been brought to justice and the little family could rest in peace. How could this situation have been avoided?