Hum If You Don't Know the Words

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses depictions of racism and violence.

The protagonist and the novel’s first narrator, Robin, plays hopscotch with her identical twin sister, Cat. When Robin falls and scrapes her knee, her mother tells her to stop crying, and Cat cries out of empathy. Robin tells her to go to her room so that their mom doesn’t see. Mabel, the family’s maid, cleans Robin’s cut and helps her feel better. Mabel is Black and lives in QwaQwa. Robin’s dad, Keith, helps Mabel grill meat.

Mabel and Keith eat with Robin and her mom, Jolene. Her parents argue. A neighbor rings the doorbell to assert that the books Robin gave her daughter are inappropriate. Robin laments that boys won’t play with her and girls only want to play house. Their ordinary Sunday continues, and Robin notes that she will soon lose the three people most important to her.

The novel’s second narrator, Beauty, wakes before dawn to leave because she received a distressing letter from her brother. She and her two sons live in a small hut; its design reflects the world before it had borders. Her 15-year-old son, Luxolo, asks to go with her.