must remember that black people
worked for the government as well.
As far as her white neighbors knew,
my mom could have been a spy
posing as a prostitute posing as a
maid, sent into Hillbrow to inform
on whites who were breaking the
law. That’s how a police state works
—everyone thinks everyone else is
the police.
Living alone in the city, not
being trusted and not being able to
trust, my mother started spending
more and more time in the
company of someone with whom
she felt safe: the tall Swiss man
down the corridor in 206. He was