When school broke up on Friday afternoon, the afternoon that I was to go home to prepare for the wedding, I ran away. I went to the hostel with my friends, and stayed there for the rest of the day and most of the evening. Jocelyn and Maidei were pleased to have me with them for such a long time. Maidei was particularly happy about it. She made no bones about telling me that spending so much time with Nyasha was turning me into a snob. In the end, though, I had to go home. Supper was over by the time I got back to my uncle’s house. The door was locked but happily the dogs were not loose, which was good because I would not be savaged and also because it meant my uncle was still at the office. Nyasha was fast asleep. I had to go round the back and knock on our bedroom window to get her to open up for me. The whole process made such a racket, with me tripping over logs and having to bang on the window for a good five minutes to wake Nyasha up, that Maiguru came out of her bedroom to see what was happening. ‘Tambudzai!’ she scolded anxiously, intercepting us in the passage. ‘Where have you been? Your uncle is very angry with you.’ I could feel myself shrinking. It seemed that I was only a very small spot on the floor when eventually I found enough voice to answer. ‘There was homework, Maiguru. An exercise I didn’t finish in class,” I lied thinly. ‘But you should have said,’ fluttered my aunt. ‘Now see what has happened. Babamukuru is annoyed.’