The last hope

Life carried on and the Mathebula children tried to move on with their lives. Life was not easy though. Cynthia's whereabouts were still a mystery that was far to be solved. Her aunt received a letter that looked like it was written by her. The address of the was vaguely written and she did not say too much about where or how she was. The letter was written like this:

My dear aunt.

Thank you for taking care of my daughter. I heard that mom passed away. I feel bad that I could not attend her funeral. But I hope I will have a chance to visit her grave one day.

Regards.

Thia

Cynthia's aunt was perplexed. She did not know what to believe. She was overwhelmed by two thoughts. "What if the letter was not written by Cynthia", she wondered. If the letter was from Cynthia, how could she not tell her whereabouts? This was one of her concerns. If it was not from Cynthia then, it must be someone who knows everything about her, she kept thinking. The reason she was so sceptical was that she kept hearing creepy stories about Cynthia's disappearance. One minute everyone speculated that she was dead and all of a sudden she was assumed to be alive. And she even wrote the letter. The small luggage she left with - that is her suitcase that was packed with her clothes, was delivered back to her aunt's place. The person who delivered it could not be identified because they were in disguise. This person just brought the suitcase without saying much about Cynthia. The suitcase had some spots on it and those spots looked like blood stains. Although there were signs that the stains were wiped, they were still visible. This brought more panick and fear that she could be harmed somehow or even dead.

People were hearing gruesome murder stories where the political suspects were abducted and tortured to the point that some even lost their lives. They were forced to reveal everything that could lead to the arrest of the leaders of the well known liberation parties. Some were executed while others were sentenced to life imprisonment. The main objective behind all the persecutions was for the liberation party leaders to give up on fighting and allow the white supremacy to continue. Anyone who opposed this would face the wrath of the whites police. Some of the ring leaders of the liberation movements were sold by their fellow members who were the police informants. These leaders would be woken up in the late hours of the nights to be taken in for questioning. Should they be adamant to hide the information that was needed the worst would happen to them.

Cynthia's aunt could not bear the thought of seeing her niece in pain and suffering with no one to rescue her. She felt like she failed her sister by not monitoring her daughter's movements while she was still in her care. What else could she do then? This question rang in her mind. Cynthia was I boarding school as her mother insisted. So, there was no way she could monitor her. What was done was done. The only thing she could do was to raise Cynthia's daughter and make sure that she was well taken of. This was what would make her sister to rest in peace, she believed.

Months passed by after she received the letter and then after some time she recieved a registered mail. When she opened the envelope it had money in it. The stamp of the envelope showed that the letter was sent from South Africa. There was no name of the sender but only the reference number. This made her to have mixed feelings. She was happy on the other hand hoping that her niece was still alive and at the same time she was afraid that it could not be Cynthia. She was unable to communicate with her since the letters had no address. Sometimes she would receive a parcel containing baby formula and other baby stuff. When she looked at the receipts of the parcel the stamps showed that they were sent from Johannesburg.

One day when she was sitting under the shade of the tree for it was a hot day, she has an unusual feeling that told that something bad was gonna happen. She felt her heart beating faster and she was anxious. She tried to avoid the feeling but it became stronger. Later that day something strange happen. A black car with black tinted windows stopped in front of her house. She peeked though the window to see who would come out of the car. The car stationed there for about half an hour. Later s man with a baraclava came out and looked at the direction of her house. The person came closer to the gate and pinned something in the lock of the gate. The man returned back to the car and the car sped off. She spent about another thirty minutes before she gained strength to go and look at what was at the gate.