It would mean losing them, maybe forever. What tipped the scales was Nthusi’s death.”
“Nthusi?”
“Isaac’s older brother. He worked in the mines. There was a collapse. He died last month. Isaac’s mother said if that was the fate awaiting her children, then they should go. Tshepiso, another one of Isaac’s brothers, couldn’t be persuaded to go. He’s still with the grandmother in Bophuthatswana.”
“Isaac never said anything …”
“Perhaps he thought you wouldn’t agree.”
“I don’t know what he thought, and I don’t know what’s to be done now. Lulu won’t speak, won’t look at me. She’s very unhappy and wants to go home. Moses keeps asking where is Isaac, where is Isaac?”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Can their mother call? She works for you? During the day, could she call?”
“Yes, of course.”
“I could drive them back home.”
“Where?”
“To their mother.”
“That’s impossible. They can’t live there.”
“To their grandmother?”
“You wouldn’t be allowed there.”
“What about putting them back on a train?”
“How would they explain themselves at the border? It’s one thing getting into Botswana. The children said they were going to visit their brother. It appears there was no problem. Going the other direction, I can’t imagine what would happen.”
“Perhaps Isaac will be back.”
“He won’t be back. I made some inquiries today. He’s in prison.”
“Oh, dear god.”
“They’ve taken him to Number Four in Jo’burg. The place is unspeakable. My wife and I are completely torn up over it. Many don’t get out alive … we’re devastated.”
She was stunned, appalled. “You’re a lawyer?”
“In a country where the laws of the land are rotten to the core. I would move heaven and earth to help this young man. If you could keep the children until … Hello? Is that possible?”
She couldn’t imagine how it was possible. “Yes, of course I will.”
“I’ll call again in a few days. I think it’s best that I call you, not the other way around.”
She hung up and went outside. Her throat was dry, her hands shaking. Out in the pool of light spilling from the kitchen, she felt a flash of anger. What was Isaac thinking? Would he even have told her before they arrived? But it didn’t matter now. Nothing mattered except getting him out. She could hardly bear to think about what they’d do to him, what they might have already done. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of white. The moon was bright. More butterflies had come.
47
“I want you to tell them what’s happened to their brother,” Alice said.
“Nnyaa, mma.”
“It’s better for them to know.”
“Nnyaa, mma, it is not better,” said Itumeleng. “They are thinking, this is what happens to people who come to Botswana. They are thinking, oh, they will send me to prison too.”
Alice shrugged with impatience. “Well, can you tell them I want to take them to school to register them today? Can you at least tell them that?”
“Ee, mma … Moses! Lulu! Tla kwano! Come!” She set her daughter down at the table with a bowl of porridge in front of her.
“You’re going to school,” Itumeleng said to Moses in Setswana. “Lulu o kae? Go fetch Lulu.” He ran out of the room and came back a few minutes later without her. Itumeleng stood with her hands on her hips. “Do you want to go to school?”
“Ee, mma.”
“You are not going unless Lulu comes.”
He disappeared again and came back dragging his crying sister. Her knees looked dry and dusty even though Itumeleng had given them a bath just last night. Her one shoe dangled in her hand.
“Forget it,” said Alice. “It’s not going to happen today. Tell them no school. I must find Lulu new shoes. And they’ll need school uniforms.”
She felt a wave of grief coming on and fled out onto the veranda. She said his name out loud, and her knees buckled. It was so hot her dress clung to her back. She squinted into the sun and drew her hand over her eyes. “Come back, damn it.” She had an impulse to look for him—to go to all the places they’d ever been together.
Get real, a voice said in her head. Pull yourself together. She shuddered as though a cold wind had blown through her. When she opened her eyes, a flash of aqua, almost iridescent, caught her eye. A lilac-breasted roller sailed between two tall stalks of aloe, near the rock where Isaac had liked to sit. She remembered him in this quiet place. What came to her was a Bible verse her grandmother had given her