The following day, Londiwe returned from school and announced that she had found a new friend to chat, share meals, and keep company with. She started chatting to her new friend on her cellphone deep into the night. Everyone was relieved. The family would chat over supper and then retire to their bedrooms, happy, tired, and looking forward to a good sleep after doing their schoolwork.

Their mother used to make sure that the schoolwork was done on time. She would even do the washing, cook, and clean the house to allow the children to do their schoolwork. And if they did not do well at the end of the year, they would not blame her for making them do the housework. They would not use her as a scapegoat.

One night, their mother woke up and needed to go to the bathroom, only to hear Londiwe chatting away and laughing loudly. When her mother looked at the clock, she was shocked to see it was midnight.

She didn’t say anything, but she began monitoring Londiwe’s activities. She noticed how Londiwe was no longer happy to allow people into her bedroom. She would always lock herself in her bedroom and only emerge to join the family briefly during supper. She would then inform them that she needed to write something and would ask her mother to allow her to hot-spot her data.

This behaviour had her mother very worried.

At school, Londiwe started to neglect some of her duties and would claim that she had forgotten about them. Now she would always arrive home late looking tired, but when she was alone, she would laugh on her cell phone until midnight. In the morning, she would get up and then go back to sleep again, and it would take a lot of coaxing to make her hurry up to get to school in time.

Londiwe would snap and be irritable in the mornings, but then everything would change as soon as she saw her friend at school. Her sister watched this in amazement, but she didn’t want to ask questions because she was afraid that her sister would take offence and hate her. The mother did her children’s laundry every weekend. She was washing the clothes one day when she found a sachet full of drugs in one of Londiwe’s items.

“What is this!” she exclaimed. Her heart nearly stopped, and she sat down. What was this child doing to her? How was she going to solve this problem? She thought long and hard about it.

Their mother and Asanda began to collect information about Londiwe’s new friend. What they discovered was shocking. They found that Londiwe’s friend was using drugs, and she was the one who knew where to buy the drugs. She would take the money from customers and deliver the drugs the following day.

It was clear that the family was in trouble.

Their mother realised that she had to sit down with Londiwe and find out why her child would take drugs despite all the advice she had received from her mother. “How did this child manage to slip through my fingers?” the mother asked herself.

That evening, when all the family was sitting together after enjoying their supper, their mother requested that the other children go to their bedrooms and allow her to have a private moment with Londiwe.

“Londiwe!” her mother shouted.

Londiwe knew immediately that things were not looking good for her that day.

“Mama, what have I done now?” Londiwe responded.

“How dare you ask? Londiwe, what are you doing to me, my child? I trusted you so much! Do you have to take drugs? My child, you have broken my heart.”

Tell us: What punishment do you think Londiwe should receive after the discovery of drugs in her clothes?