The Wall

56

“Which of the two of them has left?” Thembinkosi leaned out of the wardrobe. His door opened in such a way that he couldn’t see out the window.

“No idea,” Nozipho said. “I only saw the car driving away.”

The garage door slammed. A phone rang.

“Yes,” High Voice said.

Thembinkosi stepped back into the wardrobe and nodded at Nozipho. They both left the doors behind which they were hiding open a crack. Air circulation.

“Everything’s fine,” High Voice said. “No, Mother’s doing well.” He had to be standing right outside the room. “Yes, she went shopping. Uh-huh… I’ll tell her. She probably has her phone turned off again. Sure. Yes, I love you, too. Take care.”

A few moments later, High Voice was in the kitchen. He opened a cupboard and pulled out a glass.

“His mother?” Nozipho asked quietly.

“His mother-in-law.”

“Are you sure?”

“No, just a feeling.”

The sound of a bottle being opened in the kitchen. Something was poured into a glass. Drawers.

“What should we do?”

“Either we wait. Or we do something.” Thembinkosi exhaled through his lips.

“What could we do?”

Thembinkosi stepped out of the wardrobe. Spoke quietly. “As soon as we leave this room, we’ll face a confrontation. We’ll have to…”

“…incapacitate him. They murdered that woman. We can’t tell him that we just happened to be in this house and now want to leave, and that we promise not to say anything.”

The shrill siren of a police car in the distance.

“Great,” Nozipho said. “And now the cops. They were feeling left out.”