Whatever Sandile put in my drink has left me unsteady on my feet, and feeble all over. That’s how he is able to get me out of the car, and into his house. I can’t form fists with my hands and punch him out the way I want to.

Where is my bag with my phone? Oh God, he’s got them, only now he’s dropping them on the floor just inside the front door.

At least my mind and voice are starting to work again.

“You need to stop this, Sandile,” I say, as he pushes me into one of the spare bedrooms in his new house, the one with an en suite bathroom and thick navy carpeting, but no furniture or curtains yet. “It’s abduction or kidnapping … What do you think it will achieve anyway?”

He ignores my question, switching on the light. “I’ll bring you a duvet and food and drink, but you’ll stay locked in here until I can organise a pastor to come and marry us. I haven’t got where I am by accepting rejection.”

“What sort of pastor would–”

“There are plenty of these new types, in the business for what they can get out of it. Growth industry, isn’t it, religion?”

“Would such a marriage even be legal?” My legs won’t hold me up, so I sink to the luxurious carpet.

“We’ll have another ceremony, the real thing, after you learn your place.”

That last phrase! “After you’ve tamed me, do you mean?” I spit. “Don’t you think my parents will wonder what’s happened?”

“Not if I tell them everything is under control. They’re so greedy for what I can give them, they won’t ask too many questions.”

Is that true?

“Maybe it’s not greed. Maybe it’s a lifetime of poverty that makes them grab at what’s offered,” I defend my family, praying I’m right. “I’m their child, they love me, and they have standards, you know.”

“We’ll see,” he says, and leaves the room, closing the door with a sharp click. I hear the key turning in the lock.

Pressing my hands over my face, I start thinking and planning. If my strength comes back before he brings the duvet and food he promised, then I can do something, attack him and get away.

Yes, and get my bag with my phone.

And if I’m not strong enough when he comes? Whatever he put in my drink has to wear off some time. I won’t eat or drink anything he brings me, in case he plans to keep me drugged.

What if I have to fight both Sandile and this pastor he says he’ll bring, both at the same time? Can I do it?

I stay kneeling on the carpet for a few minutes. Then I get up and stagger to the window. I can open it, but the burglar bars are in such a small diamond pattern that not even a child could wriggle through.

This side of the house looks towards another house, still being built, so there is no one there for now. If I’m still here in the morning, maybe there will be workmen I can call out to.

I try shouting for help anyway, because I have to be doing something, even if there’s no-one to hear me.

I have to hold on to the windowsill to stay upright, but my voice is much stronger now. In fact, I’m shouting so loudly, that at first I don’t hear other people shouting outside the front of the house.

***

Tell us: What is behind Sandile’s actions? Love for Zami, or a need to control her?