Maria collected Noni from school. “Are we going to the tuck shop? Remember you promised me some sweets.”

“Yes, I remember,” Maria said, and took her sister’s hand. They walked towards the township together.

When they arrived at the tuck shop, Goodwin was not on duty. Another young man was behind the iron grille.

“Where’s my brother?” Maria asked, surprised.

“Oh, he just went to fetch something. He’ll be back soon. Do you need anything?”

“Sweets please,” Noni said, before Maria could say anything. “I want the red and green ones.”

“You must be Noni. Goodwin told me all about you. And you’re Maria.”

“Yes. What’s your name? I haven’t seen you around here before.”

“My name is Moses. I don’t live in the township. I live in Central.”

“Well it’s nice to meet you, Moses,” Maria said politely. “It’s very kind of you to help Goodwin out. Do you work?”

“Yes, but I’ve got today off so I thought I’d come and see how Goodwin was getting on.”

Maria got that uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach again. She had never seen Moses before today, and she had thought she knew all her brother’s friends.

Moses handed Noni the treats and she began peeling the wrappers off and stuffing the red sweets into her mouth.

Maria looked around and saw two young men, whom she had never seen before, lurking at the corner. One of them had a deep scar running down the right side of his face. He looked as if somebody had attacked him with a knife. He kept darting his eyes around as if he was waiting for somebody. The man next to him said something, and the next moment he began walking towards the tuck shop.

“How’s it going, Moses?” he asked with a smirk.

“Good. Everything’s good,” Moses said. “I’m just waiting for Goodwin to get back. These are his sisters, Maria and Noni.”

“Nice to meet you. Goodwin never told me he had such a good-looking sister.” He looked Maria up and down, as if she was a piece of meat.

Maria knew there was something odd going on here, but she had no idea what it was. She was even beginning to wonder if they had done something to her brother when, to her relief, he came hurrying up the road.

“I got my sweets. Thank you, Goodwin.” Noni threw her arms around him. This broke the tense atmosphere.

Everybody smiled at once. “Sorry it took me so long but I had to go to Spar and get some sugar as we had run out. Oupa wasn’t available to take me to the wholesalers.”

Maria knew her brother was lying. He always cast his eyes downwards when he was lying.

Goodwin went into the tuck shop and put his parcel down. He looked quite pleased with himself.

Maria went home with Noni. She wanted to think about what she had seen, and she also had to take care of Noni. She needed to make her some food and help her with her homework.

But it was now after five o’clock and neither Goodwin nor her Mama had arrived home yet. Maria knew Goodwin would still be busy in the tuck shop. Sometimes they stayed open until seven o’clock as people were always running out of things.

Maria was more worried about her Mama. She should have been home by now. She went next door and asked Thembi to look after Noni, as she wanted to go down to the tuck shop and see if Mama was there.

She was only a short distance from the tuck shop when she saw a line of people queuing up. They were not the usual customers. Concerned, Maria stayed hidden behind the corner. Goodwin was serving each person a small package and taking money from them. The strange thing was they all seemed to be buying the same thing. As soon as the queue ended Goodwin started packing away everything.

Maria knew he was clearing up and would be closing soon. She walked away very fast, before Goodwin spotted her.

***

Tell us what you think: What is Goodwin up to?