chapter 4

Rachel, Maria and Tapiwa were sitting on the pavement, finding relief from the summer heat in the shade of a mulberry tree as they sorted through the bag of clothes Michelle had given Rachel. They had collected a few of the sweet purple berries and were enjoying the snack while trying to keep the scarlet juice from staining their clothes. Maria held one of the shirts against her chest; it was clearly too small for her.

‘Designer, neh?’

Tapiwa laughed. Rachel sat back while her friends made their selections from the bag, depleting the stock quickly.

‘Take something for Rita as well,’ Rachel said, popping a mulberry into her mouth.

‘Shame, she’s lucky she’s still here,’ said Maria. She began to fan her face with a newspaper pamphlet that was advertising weekend specials at Game supermarket. ‘They are becoming stricter on the Mozambicans now, do you know that, Rachel? They wanted a stamped letter from the Elliotts to say she works and lives with them.’

‘How long did they give her?’ Rachel asked.

‘Six months.’

The women sat in contemplative silence for a few moments, eating their mulberries, hardly noticing the expensive cars of their neighbours driving past them.

‘Rebecca was sent back last week,’ Tapiwa said. ‘The people she worked for moved to Cape Town and she couldn’t find work before her visa ran out. The SAPD did a raid on the taxi rank she was at and when they saw that her papers had expired they put her in the van. Two days later she was at the border.’

‘What?’ Maria exclaimed. ‘Didn’t they give her a chance to get her stuff?’

Tapiwa shook her head and Maria muttered something under her breath in Chichewa.

‘Where is her family?’ Rachel asked.

‘Inhassoro.’

‘That is where my parents live. Things have not been good there for a long time.’

Rachel looked down at her cellphone and, when she saw the time, clambered to her feet and dusted the grass from her uniform.

‘I need to go fetch Maia.’

‘How is she doing at the rich school?’ Maria chuckled.

‘She’s too young to understand.’ Rachel smiled as she stretched. ‘Shame, she tells them all about “our big house with the swimming pool” and how she’s going to have a mermaid party for her birthday.’

‘What’s a mermaid?’ Maria asked.

Rachel shrugged. ‘Some girl who lives underneath the water, from the stories that the white people tell their children. She wants to learn to swim because of this mermaid thing now.’

Maria and Tapiwa laughed at the idea and they began to gather their things. The clock was telling them that they, too, needed to get back to work.

‘God blessed you with a good family to work for,’ Tapiwa said. ‘You’re the only maid I know whose boss pays for her child’s school.’

Rachel pulled a face. ‘Well, if you see the mess I have to clean up, you’d think they’d send her to university as well.’

The women went their separate ways and Rachel hurried to the side gate of the Jordaans’ property. In her room she quickly changed out of her maid’s uniform into the jeans and blue shirt she’d inherited from another of Michelle’s clear-outs. She left the house at a pace that wouldn’t have her drenched in sweat when she arrived at Maia’s nursery school.

Where Maia had no idea that she was any different from the other boys and girls at Jollyjammers, Rachel did. That was why she never went to pick her daughter up in her maid’s uniform. Like Father Christmas or the Easter Bunny for her white friends, Rachel wanted Maia to believe this fantasy for as long as she possibly could. She knew things would be different for Maia if the other mothers saw her as ‘the maid’s child’. And she’d be lying to herself if she didn’t admit that it was good to be looked at as a person by the kind of people who usually only saw her as a function.

Rachel reached the nursery school ten minutes after the collection time, a strategy which she used to keep her from having to get too close to the other mothers. Conversations would lead to questions and questions would lead to the truth and, while she didn’t want to be part of their world, she wanted them to think that she was.

‘Look, Mama!’

Rachel followed the sound of Maia’s voice and saw the little girl running from the school gate towards her, the pink backpack on her shoulders rocking back and forth. She knelt down to hug her and Maia jumped into her arms, excited to show her mother what she had in her hands.

It was a Barbie doll, like the one on Maia’s backpack, with long blonde hair and bright blue eyes, but instead of slim, long legs this one had a fish’s body that sparkled with blue and green scales, although closer inspection showed that some of the sparkle had worn off from handling. Rachel sighed and took the doll from Maia as she straightened up.

‘You know you can’t take the toys from school home with you,’ she said.

‘But it’s not from school, Mama!’ Maia protested. ‘Abigail gave it to me!’

‘Come, let’s take it back.’

‘But it’s mine!’

Not in the mood for tall tales, Rachel took Maia by the hand and walked back to the entrance of the school so that she could return the doll to the teacher. She was halfway there when Monique, a living replica of the doll Rachel was carrying, except for the tail, of course, approached her with her matching daughter, Abigail.

‘Rachel!’ Monique stepped forward to kiss her on the cheek, a greeting that was awkwardly returned by Rachel. ‘It’s so good to see you again.’

‘Hello, Monique,’ said Rachel. She held the doll up. ‘Does this belong to Abigail? It seems that Maia thinks she gave it to her.’

‘That’s because she did,’ Monique said as she smiled and looked down at Abigail proudly. ‘She has so many Barbies and when Maia told her she didn’t even have one, she said she wanted to give her one of hers. We’re trying to teach the children about generosity, so it looks like it’s working.’ She gave a small laugh.

Then, before Rachel had a chance to respond, Monique reached into her handbag and pulled out a brightly coloured piece of paper with Maia’s name written on it in glitter glue.

‘This is an invite to Abigail’s birthday party next week,’ Monique said as she passed it to Rachel. ‘We’re really hoping Maia can make it.’

‘It’s a Frozen party!’ Maia explained, her eyes shining with excitement. She grabbed the invitation from her mother’s hand before Rachel could ask what a frozen party was, although she did have a vague idea. A strange obsession with all things wintry seemed to have swept the nation since the release of the animated film and now every little girl wanted to have a dress-up party in honour of the movie. Added to this was the incessant singing of the theme song which, while it had started off as something cute, had grown into an unbearable cacophony of little girls’ voices. Maia hadn’t been immune.

Rachel looked down at her daughter, who couldn’t seem to keep still, and then back up at Monique. She was amazed at how much her daughter’s personality changed when she was around the children from school. Where usually she was obedient and pleasant, she transformed into a needy, whiny little girl who threw tantrums when she didn’t get her way.

‘It’s at Papachinos,’ Monique said, ‘that child-friendly place in Bryanston? Have you been there?’

‘Not yet,’ Rachel replied. ‘I’ve heard it’s great, though.’

‘I’m just glad that we don’t have to sit in a Spur or a Mike’s Kitchen any more. Remember how those used to be the only places you could go if you had kids and wanted to go out for a meal?’ Monique rolled her eyes.

Rachel smiled and nodded, placing her hand firmly on Maia’s shoulder.

‘We will definitely try our best to be there,’ she said.

‘We’ve also got someone to look after the children so that us moms can have a bit of a party as well,’ Monique added with a wink.

‘Thank you,’ Rachel said. ‘We’ve got to go now but I’ll let you know by the end of the week.’

Monique spotted another mom to deliver an invitation to and, grabbing Abigail by the hand, she darted off, calling out a greeting as she went. Rachel handed the doll back to Maia. She wondered whether she should talk to her about her views on accepting gifts from her friends at school but decided it could wait for another time.

Instead she took Maia’s backpack from her and the two of them began their slow walk home through the quiet suburban streets filled with the lazy buzz of cicadas. The occasional car drove past them but, for the most part, the streets belonged to them that day.

‘Abigail had her birthday circle today,’ Maia said, barely looking up as she stroked the hair of her new Barbie, ‘and her mommy brought blue Frozen cupcakes for the whole class.’

‘That’s nice, my girl.’

‘Can you bring cupcakes for my birthday circle?’

‘I’m sure I can,’ Rachel replied, too tired to give Maia a response that would inspire an argument.

‘Blue ones?’

Rachel smiled and nodded, switching the backpack to her other hand.

Maia squealed in excitement. ‘Wait, Mama,’ she said, holding the doll up for Rachel to take. Then she pulled off her jersey and, her face solemn in concentration, placed the neck of it around the crown of her head. Rachel waited and watched, trying to work out what Maia was doing. When she had finished her adjustments, Maia brushed the jersey out and looked up at Rachel with a big smile on her face.

‘Look, Mama!’ she said triumphantly. ‘Long hair like a princess!’

Rachel couldn’t hold back her smile and she laughed out loud as Maia flicked her ‘hair’ around, combing the folds of cloth with her small brown fingers as though they were strands of hair. Maia laughed, too, as she ran around her mother, singing the theme song from Frozen in her sweet high voice.

‘Come, you silly thing,’ Rachel said finally, taking Maia by the hand. ‘You may be a princess but this maid needs to get back to work.’