At noon Thembi came bustling in with Jabu in tow in his Superman swimming shorts. I had retreated to my bedroom, and was contemplating whether to raid my grandmother’s room in search of anything to prove Joe’s attempt to connect with us.

“So?” my cousin said, leaning against the door, and removing her white-rimmed sunglasses. She wore a pink tank top and faded denim shorts that fully exposed her scrawny brown thighs and knees.

“Dam?” I asked, motioning to the beach bag in her hand.

“Hosepipe,” she answered in a weary voice. “Have you made up your mind?

“Let’s get the girls in their swimming cozzies first,” I said.

Outside the air was humid and calm. We set up a blanket under the large tree, and I turned on the hosepipe and sprinkler. The twins and Jabu cheered. I watched them rush through the water, and gradually succumb to its coolness. Thembi took a magazine and a cellphone from her bag.

“Gogo claims he has never written to us.” I took a seat next to her under the tree. She seemed engrossed in the new issue of Drum magazine.

“You believe her?” she asked.

“No,” I replied. “We will never pull it off.”

Thembi put her magazine down and turned to me with a victorious smile on her face. She didn’t seem surprised. “Sure we will. We’ll find a way.”

“Why do you want to go?”

“To help you find your old man, of course.” My cousin returned to her magazine and didn’t say any more.

I rested on the blanket, watching the cloudless blue sky. I wondered what Joe, hundreds of kilometres away, was doing. Was he happy? Did he have another family? A little boy or girl – my siblings? My body shuddered at the thought of possible half-siblings. Nobody ever told me what happened between my parents. My grandmother said the only good thing that came out of that marriage was us.

“When?” I asked Thembi. Knowing my cousin, I was certain she had everything planned out.

“Two weeks from today,” she stated as if she’d been waiting for my question. “We need to save some money first. Plus it will be the end of the month. Lots of people travel at that time.”

In my head, I added up all the loose change and ten rand notes I kept stashed in one of the drawers in my dresser. “I have close to two hundred rands,” I said proudly.

“We need more,” she said, unimpressed. “Much more.”

***

What do you think? Does Joe have another family? What has happened to him?