Hum If You Don't Know the Words

A last-minute call from work forces Edith to depart, so she arranges for Robin to stay with Victor for Christmas. Wearing new hot pants, Robin marvels at the stylish decor of Victor’s home. She recalls Christmas and how her parents argued about the lights and the star. She tells Victor that Edith gave her clothes and records and Beauty gave her a heart-shaped locket containing her parents’ pictures.

She changes into something more comfortable and accents her outfit with makeup and heart-shaped glasses. When she comes downstairs, she’s greeted by a dozen men attending Victor’s Christmas party. Victor introduces each person to Robin, and they have a feast better than any Robin has eaten before. She listens to the conversation and tries to keep up. After dinner, as Victor plays the piano and sings, a brick with a note attached shatters the window, hitting Johan’s temple. The note says, “Die you queer freaks” (261).

Back from her visit to Transkei for Christmas, Beauty explains to Robin what happened to her husband and her son. Her husband, Silumko, died of phthisis, a disease miners get from inhaling rock dust. She adds that her husband was a good Black man and explains why working in the mines was different for Robin’s dad than for Beauty’s husband. She lost Silumko years before he died because he was allowed to come home for only four weeks a year. He loved to be outside, and working in the mines killed his spirit before his body. Her son, Mandla, died in the floods, which triggered the droughts, thus forcing Silumko to take a mining job.

Beauty receives a call from someone who has information about Nomsa and ordering her to meet them outside. The man makes Beauty wear a blindfold, and when she takes it off she finds herself in a bare room. The man facing her tells her that she has become a nuisance and her daughter has chosen her fate. Beauty says she’ll accept this as true when her daughter says it to her face. She recognizes the man as Shakes Ngubane. He threatens her, warning her to stop asking questions that jeopardize their cause.Back from her visit to Transkei for Christmas, Beauty explains to Robin what happened to her husband and her son. Her husband, Silumko, died of phthisis, a disease miners get from inhaling rock dust. She adds that her husband was a good Black man and explains why working in the mines was different for Robin’s dad than for Beauty’s husband. She lost Silumko years before he died because he was allowed to come home for only four weeks a year. He loved to be outside, and working in the mines killed his spirit before his body. Her son, Mandla, died in the floods, which triggered the droughts, thus forcing Silumko to take a mining job.

Beauty receives a call from someone who has information about Nomsa and ordering her to meet them outside. The man makes Beauty wear a blindfold, and when she takes it off she finds herself in a bare room. The man facing her tells her that she has become a nuisance and her daughter has chosen her fate. Beauty says she’ll accept this as true when her daughter says it to her face. She recognizes the man as Shakes Ngubane. He threatens her, warning her to stop asking questions that jeopardize their cause.

It’s Robin’s 10th birthday, but no one has remembered. Beauty leaves a note instead of picking her up from school, so Robin does some detective work to try to help Beauty, who she followed and watched step into a van, blindfolded, a week ago. She goes to visit King George so as not to be alone and notices that he has drawn and hung up pictures of his home and his wife in his room. He tells Robin he has a night job. Finally resigned to going home to no one, Robin opens the door of the apartment to a surprise party. Everyone in her life is there—Beauty, Morrie, the Goldmans, Victor, Johan, Wilhelmina, and Maggie.

As the party winds down, Morrie tells Johan that he’s Robin’s boyfriend, and Robin reluctantly agrees only so that Morrie gives her the present he bought her. She asks Johan about his head wound and wonders why they don’t call the police or move away so that it doesn’t happen again. Victor tries to explain that it’s more complicated than that. He says he wants to face his fears rather than run away and introduces Robin to the idea of karma.

Beauty sits with Maggie and Wilhelmina at Robin’s surprise party. Maggie asks Beauty to refrain from investigating further, but Beauty pushes back. Maggie relies on contacts in their organization and trusts them to give Nomsa freedom, while Beauty doesn’t trust that Nomsa is making her own decisions. After Maggie leaves, Beauty asks Wilhelmina to come to her before going to Maggie if she hears any information that could help her find Nomsa.

Beauty receives a note under her door with elaborate instructions. When she arrives, she meets a man who says he wanted to meet the mother of Nomsa because she’s such a brave woman. He assures Beauty that Nomsa is safe and where she wants to be. He says it’s a shame that Beauty can’t see that her daughter is training to become a hero, not a terrorist. On her way out, she sees an owl, which Silumko always said was a sign of death.

Beauty receives a call from Wilhelmina that they need to go to Soweto, a Black township outside Johannesburg, to search for Nomsa. Robin wants to join, but Beauty says no. Instead of sleeping at the Goldmans as she’s supposed to, Robin instead makes a plan with Morrie, who agrees only on the terms that she kisses him, holds his hand, and converts to Judaism.

Robin’s plan goes perfectly: Morrie distracts the women by jumping in front of their car while Robin gets in the back seat. In Soweto, Wilhelmina drops Beauty off at a shebeen, an illegal bar, where she waits to meet a contact. While there, Robin notices the same van she saw Beauty get into weeks ago. Robin covers her face with a balaclava to avoid drawing attention and looks through the window.

Beauty meets Mpho who tells her what he overheard in that bar the other night. Beauty listens intently for any information he overheard about the women who are MK operatives. As he speaks, she sees a woman behind him who looks just like Phumla, Nomsa’s best friend, who is reportedly with her. Beauty rushes across the room to speak with her, but she denies that she’s Phumla and says she doesn’t know a woman named Nomsa. She implores Beauty to leave.

Robin watches Beauty and the server girl talk and thinks that she has seen her before but can’t remember where. Out another window, Robin sees several serving girls and then notices a woman and the man who took Beauty in the van. He has a gun and grabs the woman forcefully. At that moment, someone grabs Robin and sees that she’s white. She runs off after kicking him in the shins.

A woman calls Beauty and tells her that if she keeps asking questions, she’ll be in danger. The woman doesn’t give Beauty any information about Nomsa but says that soon Nomsa won’t be able to protect Beauty as she has been.

Robin and Morrie sit in a tree in a park. He teases her for not being a real detective since she hasn’t told Beauty what she saw in Soweto. Robin says she hasn’t told Beauty because she’d get in trouble, but she actually fears what the man with the gun might do. Morrie bets her that she can’t solve a real mystery.