Chapter 5 - Chapter 4

I'm woken by a warm tongue stroking across my skin like velvet.

I pry one eye open, dragging myself up from the pillows and thread count that dreams are made of to glare at the edge of the bed. Mahlathini, of course, has pulled the sheet back with his teeth and is licking my foot the way he does every morning.

"Seriously?" I glance out the window, where the sky is still lavender tinged with pink, barely kissing dawn. "Can't we sleep another few minutes?"

The pitiful whimper at the foot of the bed becomes a whine. I know this drill. If that bladder gets any fuller, he escalates to a full howl.

"Shit." I sit up, slide my feet into the leather slippers Zinhle and Sphe gave me last year for Christmas. I know Naledi probably chose them, because they carry the mark of the practical luxury she's good for, but they're still from my kids.

"Replacing the ones you mangled," I remind Mahlathini, who doesn't look repentant in the least. I tap his head on my way out of the bedroom and he follows me down the passage and out the front door. Any hope I had of ever shaking off this dog died long ago. He demonstrated his tenacity the first night I slept in this house.

The divorce wasn't quite final, but I needed a place to live. Instead of finding another tenant for Anti Nyoni's house, I moved in here. Of course, we all assumed Mahlathini would stay with the kids. They walked him, fed him, played with him. I provided a roof over his head and the occasional acknowledgement of his existence.