“Props to Ms Zwane, and maybe she’ll get Lekhuleni to back off, but I could see even she doesn’t believe anything else is going to change,” I tell Shiluva at break.
“Yo, my two best friends going through such shit.” Shiluva makes a face.
“Jasmine? With Frank?”
“Same old, same old.”
“She blamed me.” I’m still hurt about that.
“If she really thought about it, she’d be embarrassed,” Shiluva says. “But right now, that whole thing with Frank is all she can think about. It’s like you with Dambisa. She’s afraid she’ll lose him if she doesn’t do what he wants, but it’s not really what she wants. Plus, she’s seen what’s happening to you, and she’s smart enough to know they could break up someday.”
“And meanwhile, everything just carries on as it is, for her, for me.” I feel tired just thinking about it. “Because I can’t see what I or anyone can do to change people’s thinking. What’s that saying, ‘winning hearts and minds’?”
“At least some of us have got minds of our own and don’t suffer from herd mentality,” Shiluva laughs.
“Yebo, you and Ramano and his friends. I know I don’t say it enough, but I’m grateful, girlfriend.”
“Hey, isn’t that Dambisa’s sister lurking around over there? Grade 10 girl, right? What’s her name again?”
“Priscilla. I saw the younger sister in Sabie on Saturday,” I tell Shiluva.
“Looks like this one wants to talk to you.”
“Not sure I want to talk to her. She’s probably got some disgusting message from Dambisa.”
But I can see Priscilla is trembling with nerves, so I listen when she comes up to us and says, “Lamulile? I just want to say … I’m sorry for what Dambisa has done. So is my sister. We think it’s wrong, and we don’t like it.”
“Well … um, thanks.” I’m so surprised, I don’t know what else to say.
“We didn’t know until it was too late, but we couldn’t have stopped him anyway.” Now she’s found the courage to start talking, it’s like she can’t stop. “He treats us like slaves at home, our mother and us. We have to wait on him, and clean up after him, and he still shouts at us and pushes us around. Our mother says it’s the way things are, our father used to be the same, and we must just accept it. But my sister and me, we don’t want to accept it. I don’t know how, but someday we’ll … stand up to him or something.”
“Good luck with that,” I tell her, not very hopefully.
“Yes, well, that’s all. I’ve got to go.” She gets nervous again and rushes off.
Shiluva and I look at each other.
“Damn, I guess everyone has their problems,” I say. “At least I don’t have to live in the same house as Dambisa.”
***
Tell us: Why would Dambisa’s mother tell his sisters they must just accept the way he treats them?