Noluvuyo opened her eyes. It was Tuesday morning – the fourth day since her sister had been taken from them. A new sense of hope was burning in her heart. No ways would anything happen to mess things up now. Their family was going to be whole again. She picked up her watch from the dressing table and checked it. It was six-thirty and the sun was already peaking through the clouds outside. There wasn’t much time. She needed to get the documents to Michelle so they could go fetch her sister.

After getting herself ready for the day and the kids for school, Noluvuyo grabbed her schoolbag and emptied it into her bed. There was no time for school today. She had a family mess she needed to clean up. After neatly packing Michelle’s documents into the bag, she headed for the door.

Joseph was there to take her to campus. The ride felt shorter than usual; but then again, so did the walk to Michelle’s offices. Noluvuyo was excited and nervous. Extremely nervous. No one could deny that. Maybe that’s why things were moving so quickly.
Soon they were leaving Michelle’s office. Their trip to the Mitchells Plain police station seemed to go by in a flash. When they arrived, it felt like they’d only just left Bellville.

Noluvuyo was the first to get out of the car. The police station looked intimidating. Where in this massive place was her sister being kept?

“I can see you’re anxious, hey,” said Michelle, noticing how Noluvuyo had fidgeted all the way there.

“Yho, you have no idea, ma’am. It’ll mean so much for my family to have my sister back.”

Joseph gave Noluvuyo a hug and told her he would be waiting for them outside in the car. The two entered the building and walked up to the female officer behind the counter. It was quiet in the huge reception area. Only Michelle’s high heels could be heard clicking against the tiles.

“Hi, my name is Michelle van Vuuren and I’m the lawyer of Mavis Boniswa Fanteni, one of the people you guys arrested on Friday.” The officer froze for a second. She looked shocked. But then she started smiling.

“Oh. I see. I think I know who you’re talking about. We were just preparing to take her to court this morning.”

“Do you see nothing wrong with what you’ve just said?” asked Michelle, an edge to her voice.
The officer seemed at a loss for words.
“Well, I’ll tell you what’s wrong,” her voice a little louder now. “First of all, you should never kept my client for the entire weekend and then not send her to court yesterday.”

The officer looked as if she’d been caught with her pants down. Another officer came over and pleaded with Michelle to lower her voice, but she just gave him a cold glance through her spectacles, and he backed off.

“Our vehicles had problems and were sent for repairs,” the female officer finally responded. But even Noluvuyo was angered by this; Michelle even more.

“I’ll bet you didn’t even inform her that she has a right to a lawyer if she wanted one. Does she even know about her right not to answer your questions without me, her lawyer, present if she doesn’t want to? Did you tell her she has a right to call me and her family? Did you?”

The officer finally lost it. She slammed her stamp down on the documents on which she had been working.

“Hay’suka, man, sund’gezela apha! Elanxilakazi liqale nini ubanamalungelo – Stop shitting me! Since when does that alcoholic have rights?”
Noluvuyo understood what the officer said, but the lawyer obviously didn’t, or she would have been as angry as Noli was now. How could the police do this to her family?

Mavis was alone in the holding cell. She’d lost all hope that someone would come and rescue her. But at least the shaking had stopped. And her vision was normal again. Her ears weren’t so sensitive to loud sounds any more. The brandy mixture had really helped.

She heard steps and then the loud voice of a woman screaming at someone. It was the female officer who had slapped her. But she wasn’t alone. She was with a formally dressed white lady and a male officer.

“Open the gate!” the white woman told the officers. “my client needs to go and see her kids!”
My client? Mavis wondered. Had someone got her a lawyer? Could she finally go home to her family? Then she heard someone else coming. But this time she didn’t have to wonder who it was for even a second, because it was Noluvuyo and another officer.
Mavis and Noluvuyo both squeezed their way through the officers and hugged right in front of the cell. Team Fanteni had got its captain back.
“So we agree that you’ll give my client bail right now?” the woman asked the officers.

“Yes, Ms Van Vuuren,” said the female officer, looking quite unhappy at the thought of letting Mavis go. “She can come fetch her clothes upstairs. And she can then go to court tomorrow.”

To Mavis these were magical words. She jumped forward and hugged Michelle and Noluvuyo joined in. The three of them then made their way upstairs to fetch Mavis’ clothes. They were on their way home.

*****

Mavis opened her eyes. She looked up and saw rusty iron sheets in the spots that weren’t covered by ceiling boards. She felt a small hand resting on her. It was their shack she was in. And that was Siphosethu’s little hand that was resting on her. She was home. Finally.

Mavis slipped out from under the blanket and sat on the side of the bed. She reached under the bed and pulled out her work bag. There was something important in there. She scratched in the bag until she found the piece of paper. It was the letter she’d written to her sister Zuziwe. She tore it up. A letter wasn’t enough. She needed to have a sit-down with Zuziwe and the rest of the family and explain everything. But today was not the day for that. She needed to be in court.

And then, without any warning, the terrible sound of glass shattering woke the rest of the family up and made Mavis jump up in fright. There was then a thud on their cement floor. A voice was shouting outside. Mavis listened carefully. It was Sakhumzi. He was furious.

“Come out, you bitch! What you tell those police? How did you get out?”

Mavis approached the window cautiously. He’d thrown a brick to break the window and she was expecting another one to come flying through. But she couldn’t risk going out to confront him. He sounded drunk. Sakhumzi was dangerous when he was drunk. Noluvuyo came running out of her room, her phone in hand. She had been chatting to Joseph.

“Is that Sakhumzi? Yho, what are we going to do now?” she asked in a panic. She quickly dialled 10111. It went through.

“There’s a man here!” she screamed into the phone. “He’s going to kill us! Please help!”

“Sisi, calm down,” the woman on the end of the line said. “Who are you and where are you? And what is this man doing right now? Give me your name, address and how many people you’re with.”

Noluvuyo took a deep breath. It helped to calm her, “I’m with my sister and her two kids. He’s screaming that he’s going to kill us if we testify against him in court. My name is Noluvuyo Fanteni. We live in the first street when you turn from–”

But suddenly the call was cut off. In her panic, she had pressed the power button. They would face Sakhumzi on their own now. Calling 10111 again and telling her story all over again would take too long. So no police were coming to help them. But then she heard something strange and went towards the window to see what was going on.

“Let go of me! What the fuck you doing? Let go!”

Ta Steve and Ta Michael had Sakhumzi pinned down. They were still in their security uniforms. They must’ve been on their way from a night shift and seen what was happening.

“No!” was Ta Steve’s answer. “I won’t let go of you until the police arrive.”

He took out his handcuffs and locked them around Sakhumzi’s wrists. Sakhumzi remained on the ground, but continued shouting insults at Mavis.

“You’re nothing without me! I was the one that helped you when your man abandoned you, you bitch!”
But it wasn’t long before the police were there, as well as Joseph, who had tried to call Noluvuyo back and got no answer. The police arrested Sakhumzi, and Joseph, Noluvuyo and Mavis watched them push him into the police van and drive off. This time they had the right person in the back of that van.
They were standing together outside when Mzwandile and Siphosethu ran out and flung their arms around their mom. Team Fanteni was together again, with Joseph as honorary member!

Prologue
Mavis had her day in court. There was a trial. Her family was there to support her. Michelle acted as her lawyer throughout the trial and eventually Mavis was acquitted.

Mavis asked for help from her entire family, as well as from Michelle. Eventually, Michelle found her a good rehab place and Mavis stayed there on weekends. By the end of six months she was clean.

With Mavis taking proper care of the kids, Noluvuyo could study hard for matric. She even signed up for the debating team at her school.
While Mavis had been drinking it had felt like they were all in prison. But now they were free!
The End

***

Tell us what you think: What do you think will hold Team Fanteni together in the future?