THE TENANT

About this story

Irene Mavuso runs a backyard laundry in Chiawelo, Soweto. Two years out of a marriage that took everything except the bricks and her maiden name, she has built a quiet life out of other women's washing — three baskets a day, school fees paid in cash, the bond letter at the bottom of the drawer. A man arrives at her gate with a toolbox and six months' rent in cash. He says he's looking for a back room. He says it truthfully. He just doesn't say what else he's looking for. By the second month, he's in her bed. By the seventh, she'll find a piece of paper in the back pocket of his work pants that will change everything she thought she knew about who she was sleeping with — and about who she has been for the last three years...