In the quadrangle at school during lunchtime, when my friends were gossiping and giggling about boys, I'd read pages and pages in which my mother described how she had resisted, at the last minute, throwing herself off a cliff or wading into the sea to drown. She wrote how much she loved me and desperately missed us all. Still, she never came back.
Endaweni yokudlela esikoleni ngesikhathi sokudla, lapho abangani bami babehleba begigitheka ngabafana, ngangifunda ikhasi namakhasi umama wami ayechaza kuwo ukuthi wazibamba kanjani, ngomzuzu wokugcina, ekuziphoseni eweni noma ekuziphoseni olwandle ukuze aminze. Wabhala ukuthi wayengithanda kangakanani futhi esikhumbula kakhulu kangakanani sonke. Kuze kuba manje, akakaze abuye.