They heard hammering and shouting as they drew closer to the yards.
“Ai, Jitte,” said Katjie. “Look at that.”
Neville was on top of a wooden frame in Oom Krisjan’s yard where Katjie’s shack had stood. Three neighbours and Jaco were helping him fasten the blackened corrugated-iron sheets to wooden poles. Oom Krisjan stood holding on to a fence post shouting instructions. When Neville saw them, he waved.
“Ou vrou!” he called to Katjie. “The people were skindering that I think I am the President with all the wives in my house, so we are building you a place again so I can have peace and quiet from all the gossip.”
Katjie shouted back, “I was eating lekker and for niks in your house, maybe I don’t want to move, hey!”
Esther smiled. The chaffing lightened the mood but still dread had settled on her and she didn’t join the banter. Neville, though, was laughing so much Esther thought he would fall off the frame.
“Tomorrow this is finished!” he shouted.
“Shuddup and use that blerrie hammer!” shouted Oom Krisjan. “You know you would be sitting on your gat under a tree if I didn’t chase you. Maak klaar!”
The shouting carried on and Esther left Katjie to watch her shack go up. Apie was hungry and Esther’s back was tired.
“Kom, ou seun, Antie Esther is going to give you bread.” He toddled behind her and settled to play in the mud at the communal tap when they got to the yard.
Tonight she would have to tell Neville that all the years of waiting were for nothing. There would be no house. She thought about Titty walking so easily into the housing man’s office, knocking on the door he had locked behind them.
When Liedjie came home, she could see her mother wasn’t right and said she would look out for Titty and take Apie back so Esther could sleep.
“Titty has nothing to do but look after her child, I don’t know what her problem is,” Liedjie said as she fed the boy porridge.
“We saw her at the housing office, all tarted up. She’s up to something. I am telling you she is trying for a house,” said Esther.
“How is she going to get a house? She’s never put her name on the list.”
Esther and Katjie’s eyes met.
“What’s it?” Liedjie looked from one to the other.
“There is a big problem,” her mother said.
And Esther told her about not being on the waiting list anymore and how they had seen Titty all dressed up and smelling like she was looking for trouble.
When Esther opened her eyes, it was dark and Liedjie, Jaco, Neville, Katjie and the little girls were sitting around a small fire.
“Liedjie did Oom Krisjan’s washing so she could buy wood,” Neville said when she came out with a blanket over her shoulders.
“Dankie, ou meisiekind. And Apie?”
“His mother thought she could sneak into her pipe and sleep without me seeing, but I saw her and took him back,” said Liedjie.
“That poor child,” Esther said.
They sat until the coals died. Then they went inside and, because the porridge was finished, they went to bed.