[LEADER, spoken]
Look for your son at Fourteen Krause Street, Textiles Company. 

[STEPHEN, spoken]
Thank you. Fourteen Krause Street. 

[ENSEMBLE]
Fourteen Krause Street, Textiles Company
Fourteen Krause Street, Textiles Company

[STEPHEN]
Not miles or walls or length of days
Nor the cold doubt of midnight can hold us apart
For swifter than wings of the morning
The pathways of the heart

[ENSEMBLE]
Fourteen Krause Street, Textiles Company
Fourteen Krause Street
Fourteen Krause Street

[FOREMAN, spoken]
Yes, they did work here, Absalom and Matthew Kumalo, but they left some months ago. 

[STEPHEN, spoken]
Could you tell me where they went?
[FOREMAN, spoken]
They lived with Mrs. Mkize. Seventy-seven Twenty-third Avenue, Alexandra. 

[STEPHEN, spoken]
Thank you, sir. Seventy-seven Twenty-third Avenue. 

[ENSEMBLE]
Seventy-seven, Twenty-third Avenue
Mrs. Mkize
Twenty-third Avenue

[MRS. MKIZE, spoken]
Oh, he's gone many months. 

[STEPHEN, spoken]
Do you know where he is now?

[ENSEMBLE]
Make no doubt
It is fear that you see in her eyes!
It is fear!

[MRS. MKIZE, spoken]
No, I do not. 

[STEPHEN, spoken]
Are you afraid of me?
[MRS. MKIZE, spoken]
No, I'm not afraid. 

[STEPHEN, spoken]
But you tremble when you speak of him. 

[MRS. MKIZE, spoken]
I do not know you. I do not know why you ask. 

[STEPHEN, spoken]
I am his father. I wish him well and you well. 

[MRS. MKIZE, spoken]
His father? Then it would be better if you followed him no further. 

[STEPHEN, spoken]
Why?

[MRS. MKIZE, spoken]
Umfundisi, they were friendly with a taxi driver named Hlabeni who lives at number twenty-five on this street. 

[STEPHEN, spoken]
Hlabeni, at twenty-five on this street?

[MRS. MKIZE, spoken]
Yes. 
[ENSEMBLE]
A taxi driver, known as Hlabeni
Taxi stand in Twenty-third Avenue
What you must find is always a number
A number and a name
Though it sear the mind, say it over and over
Over and over
A boding song
Searing like flame

[LEADER]
Be there, my one son, be well there

[HLABENI, spoken]
They were picked up for something they had done, and one of them went to jail for a while. 

[STEPHEN, spoken]
What had they done?

[HLABENI, spoken]
Oh, some wild trick like boys do. 

[STEPHEN, spoken]
Which one went to prison?

[HLABENI, spoken]
Absalom. Matthew got out of it somehow. And Absalom's out on parole now. 

[STEPHEN, spoken]
Where would he be?

[HLABENI, spoken]
You could ask the parole office at the government building. 

[STEPHEN, spoken]
Is it near?

[HLABENI, spoken]
Four or five miles. I'll draw you a map. That might help. 

[ENSEMBLE]
What you must find is always a number
A number and a name
In prison cells they give you a number
Tag your clothes with it
Print your shame!
(Print your shame, print your shame, print your shame)

[LEADER]
Be there, my one son, be well there
(spoken)
But how could he be well there? How could he be well?

[ELAND, spoken]
Yes, he's been paroled, umfundisi. We made an exception partly because of his good behavior, party because of his age, but mainly because there was a girl who was pregnant by him. 

[STEPHEN, spoken]
He is married, then?

[ELAND, spoken]
No, umfundisi. But the girl seemed fond of him, so, with his solemn undertaking that he would work hard to support the child and its mother, we let him go. He's living with the girl in Pimville. 

[STEPHEN, spoken]
Thank you, sir. 

[ENSEMBLE]
They live together, a boy and a girl
And they are not married, a boy and a girl
And now the number has fallen from him
And there is a girl (This is heavy for me)
And his name will be carried on
By the life within her (Oh, this is heavy, heavy for me)
As mortals are carried
Always the same (Oh, this is heavy, heavy for me)

[STEPHEN]
But be there, my one son, be well there
This is news I can write to the mother at home
This is not what I hoped for my one son
But how much worse could have come

[ENSEMBLE]
This is heavy, heavy for me
Oh, this is heavy
This is heavy