The reason for Aphiwe not being allowed to attend her father’s birthday party is a mystery to her because she has been in this new home for only three days and so far she has not done anything to get into trouble. She’d never been locked in a bedroom in her life.

She doesn’t take off the dress like instructed, she goes back to the window. At least she still has that. She watches as her sister and brother are fussed over by the guests, one man even picking Limi up and squeezing her cheek.

The “Surpriseeeeeee!!!” is loud enough for her to hear all the way from the window.
And there he is, her father, wearing gym clothes and sneakers and looking shocked. He says something and everybody laughs loudly. His wife comes to stand next to him, they hug, a long hug. His kids are near too, he hugs them too. There are handshakes with the men and hugs with some women. There is laugher, a lot of laughter before his wife pulls him by the arm to inside the house. The guests are still loitering around with glasses in the hands and some little things they keep picking from the long table and throwing into their mouths.

The guy in the chef uniform keeps bringing more.

Limi looks cute and happy in her purple dress with a large bow on the waist. Her braids have beads now; Harriet must have put them on because she didn’t have them earlier. She keeps galloping around the yard like she is playing, but with herself because there are no other kids here. Sengezo is on a chair looking like he’d rather be somewhere else.

Close to the “Happy Birthday” board is a cake: three squares on top of each other, black at the bottom, white in the middle and black at the top.

Aphiwe has never seen a birthday party like this. Her birthday parties, which her mother never missed throwing each year, were usually a supermarket cake, hot dogs and a lot of chips and sweets. Guests would be all the neighbourhood kids and none of them bothered to dress up or bring presents for her. On her seventh birthday there was a jumping castle and it was the biggest party she ever had.

She sees her father and new mother walking out of the house, holding hands. He has changed into a nice black suit and he looks happy. He grabs a glass of something and walks all the way across the yard to where the band is playing. They hand him the microphone and he starts speaking. Aphiwe can hear him thanking everyone for coming, and his wife for throwing him the party and his two children for being the loves of his life.

The claps and the cheers follow.

She watches as they take the family photo, just the four of them.

There must be about 100 people at this party.

Aphiwe wonders if her father has noticed that she is not among them.

Tell us: Why do you think Aphiwe’s father and new mother are behaving like this?