We heard the camp way before we saw it. A chorus of mort moans floated eerily towards us as Mr Cele turned off the N2. Signs pointed us towards a neglected and weed-choked side-road. Mr Cele slowed down as the bakkie bumped over cracked tarmac.

The bored guard barely glanced at the bakkie as he waved us through. None of us spoke as we drove around the edge of the camp. It was enormous, its high mesh fences topped with razor-wire. Behind the fence, I could see thousands and thousands of morts packed like sardines in a bare courtyard. The air was heavy with their rotten fruit stench, but I was too shocked to feel sick.

Mr Cele pulled into the empty parking lot, choosing a ‘visitors only’ space. As he turned off the engine, the moans filled the air. I no longer thought they were creepy; they now sounded sad and lost. Mr Cele climbed out of the car, turned his back on us and lit a cigarette.

I turned around in my seat. Levi, wrapped in a blanket, had fallen asleep in the back of the bakkie. His head was leaning against the mort’s shoulder. As I watched, it reached out a withered hand and touched Zizu lightly on the head, then did the same to my brother, as if it was preparing to say goodbye.

I wondered if it actually knew what we had planned for it – for him.

I thought about Zizu, how damaged and angry and thin she was before my brother looked after her. I thought about what Mr Cele had said on the beach. That maybe things would be different if we’d shown the morts what they’d never been given: kindness.

“Mama?” I heard Levi saying. He rubbed his eyes. “Where are we?”

“Shhh, Levi,” she said. “Go back to sleep.”

I thought about what had happened on the beach. The mort had saved my brother’s life and because of me, we were going to punish him and send him to a place that was little more than a prison.

It wasn’t fair.

“Mama,” I said. “Let’s just go home.”

“All of us?”

“Yeah. All of us.”

She threw her arms around me and hugged me.

As we drove off, Beyoncé moaned. He sounded joyful, as if he knew he was now part of our family. And then I heard something I never thought I’d ever hear.

My little brother, who never smiled – who was withdrawn and different and friendless – was laughing.

***

How has the mort changed Levi’s life?