Hum If You Don't Know the Words

Beauty lives in a separate bedroom behind Maggie’s house, in a room larger than the one in which she taught 30 students in Transkei. She has a queen bed and a bathtub. A man named Kgomotso summons Beauty to a meeting room hidden behind a bookcase in the main house, and Maggie says she has information about Nomsa’s whereabouts. In the room, Beauty sees photos of Maggie with various people, white and Black. One picture shows Nelson Mandela, whose real name Maggie explains is Rolihlahla. Beauty tells Maggie that Rolihlahla means “troublemaker.” Maggie tells Beauty that Nomsa is safe: Her face was injured during the protest, but the wound is healing. She and Phumla are reported to be with a man named Shakes, and when it’s safe, Nomsa will cross the border into Rhodesia, but there she has signed up to go to an MK camp. Maggie explains that MK is the abbreviation for Umkhonto we Sizwe, or the Spear of the Nation, the armed wing of the African National Congress that trains operatives to be soldiers. Beauty says they must stop her, but Maggie says the more urgent issue is that the police know about what Maggie and her husband, Andrew, are doing to help the Black population and they have very little time to leave so that no one gets arrested. At that moment, the secret phone rings, and Kgomotso tells them that the police are there. Maggie locks Kgomotso and Beauty in the secret room.

Robin writes two job applications on Edith’s typewriter after seeing that two shops on her street are hiring. Edith emerges from her room only to grab another bottle and tell Robin to quiet down. Robin leaves the apartment with no coat or shoes, so as not to raise suspicion, and drops off the letters. When she returns, she runs into Morrie and then Wilhemina, who says she’s been forced to arrive unannounced because their phone is always off the hook. She runs away.

Beauty hides with Kgomotso in Maggie’s secret room, listening to the police enter the room, search through her books, and bang on the shelf, trying to find something suspicious. Beauty is terrified, and Kgomotso holds her. Hours later, Maggie opens the door and says they’re okay for now, but they need to leave before the police find an excuse to come back.

Robin runs from Wilhelmina and hides in the basement of their building in a room with a man named George whom Morrie knows. George lets the kids hide from Wilhelmina in his room and thanks Robin and Morrie in return, because if he was caught smoking “boom,” he would have been fired. Robin notices that King George, as he introduces himself, has a strange shade of skin that’s too light to be Black and too dark to be white.

Robin doesn’t get either job and, since Edith isn’t feeding or helping her, relies on the kindness of other people in the neighborhood. She takes the bus to the library, where she meets a woman named Maggie, whom she asks to help her find books about orphans. When Maggie mentions that Robin’s parents must sign a library form, Robin starts sobbing: The emotions of the 41 days since her parents died come out all at once. She tells Maggie everything, from the moment the police arrived at her house to the morning when she found Edith drunk in bed with her old work uniform and pictures of Robin’s mother strewn about. Robin cries so hard her nose bleeds, and she eventually falls asleep. When she wakes up, Edith is carrying her. She doesn’t know exactly what transpired that night or that Maggie will bring Beauty into their lives, changing everything.

Edith cleans up and, when Wilhelmina bangs on the door, shows her a sparkling home with the phone on the hook. Edith says that she got a job through Maggie and has already given Wilhelmina’s boss all the necessary papers.

After pouring her grief out to Maggie at the library, Robin truly begins mourning her parents. She finds the song “Jolene” on a Dolly Parton record and sings it constantly, reveling in using her mother’s name. She draws on her face the same way her dad used to. Edith takes Robin to visit her parents’ graves.

One day, Edith asks to talk to Robin and apologizes. She explains that Robin’s mom was her sister, too, and she didn’t know what to do after they died. Robin blurts out that she overheard Edith tell Victor that she didn’t want her, and Edith explains that she didn’t want all the responsibilities that come with having a child, but she does want Robin. She’s afraid that she doesn’t know how to raise a kid and that she’ll make mistakes, but they’ll always be together. She tells Robin that she’ll go back to her job at the airline and work a little less than before but will still need someone to help take care of Robin. Maggie helped them find Beauty, a Black woman who is a teacher. Beauty will sleep in Edith’s bed, and they’ll get a partition and set up Robin’s room until they figure out something more permanent. Robin is confused because her parents never let Mabel sleep in their home.

In the middle of their conversation, they receive a call in which Edith learns that they found two men who ran from the scene of the murder, but there will be no trial because they died in custody in Brixton.

Maggie gives Beauty a pendant with a cross that says “believe” on the back and explains that she gives these to the people she meets in the resistance whose friendships mean the most to her. Beauty prepares for her role taking care of Robin, which will give her a proper passbook so that she can stay in Johannesburg and search for her daughter. Edith, while she’s not Maggie, has so far treated Beauty with respect.

On Beauty’s first day with Robin, Robin and Cat decide to keep their distance because of the emotional hurt of Mabel’s choosing to leave. Robin orders Beauty around and learns that Beauty is a teacher staying in Johannesburg to find her missing daughter. Confused about how Beauty is Black but isn’t a maid, Robin expresses her view that Black people kill other people. She insists on wearing her new school uniform to eat and spills on it. She tries to secretly clean it but only makes it worse. When she returns from a walk, Beauty has cleaned, ironed, and hung it up in the closet.

Edith is away working for six weeks instead of the one week she planned for. She breaks her promise to return, claiming the work is unavoidable. Beauty stays with Robin for these six weeks. At one point, a neighbor becomes suspicious because Black people aren’t allowed to stay overnight in their building, and Mrs. Goldman explains that Edith is sick in bed and Beauty is looking after her. After that incident, Beauty doesn’t leave the house after five o’clock in the evening. One day Beauty isn’t there to pick up Robin from school, and she runs home in a panic. Beauty comes home and explains that her meeting about her daughter took longer than expected. Robin pretends she doesn’t care. The next day she begins to feel sick, and Beauty takes care of her.

Beauty describes a rash and a fever that has been plaguing Robin. She fears for her well-being but can’t take her to a hospital because their arrangement is illegal, and the presence of a Black caretaker will raise suspicions. She finally calls Maggie, and as she waits for help, she receives a call saying that she must come get Nomsa immediately. She decides she must stay with Robin instead until help comes.

Maggie sends a nurse who scares Robin, but they hold her down to receive treatment. Beauty thanks her profusely, and the nurse says her name is Wilhelmina.

Deep in the throes of scarlet fever, Robin hallucinates as Beauty tends to her. She resists help from Wilhelmina and whispers that she wants no more lies. Robin thinks back to the conversation between Edith and her mom that she overheard as a child in which her mom said Robin was so different from her that she felt like she may have been the wrong child. This conversation led to Robin’s creating Cat. Beauty promises to always tell Robin the truth if she takes the medicine, so she does. Beauty is honest about the fact that Mabel left and won’t return. She tells Robin that Black and white people kill each other and that one day, she’ll leave. Robin asks if Beauty loves Cat more than her, and Beauty says she loves them equally because they’re two halves of a whole. Robin says goodbye to Cat. She feels full, like she’s finally enough.

Beauty waits in vain for another call from the man who said he knew where Nomsa was. In the meantime, Wilhelmina returns to check on Robin and explains to Beauty that she’s a social worker but has a background in nursing. Her job in social work allows her to be in Soweto legally while she helps Maggie. She says that as long as Maggie knows about Edith and Beauty’s arrangement, she’s glad that they’ve found a situation better than foster care. When she gets up to leave, she hugs Beauty.