Chapter 46

• I was discharged two days later. It was my birthday. Ray, mum and his mum had come to take me home. We went to the place I called home, the shop that doubled up as my residence, with just a bed and kitchen supplies. We folded the curtain partition and sat on the bed. Mum and Ray’s mum sat on the plastic seats I had purchased for clients. They looked at some of the clothes I had made and were very impressed. Ray had moved his item to my place. We would live together for the moment, at least until the plaster was removed. He needed me to bathe him since he couldn’t do it with a plastered arm. Ray had bought me a birthday cake. “We must celebrate even at the lowest moment” he said. I cut the cake and fed him first, then gave mum and his mum a bite. “You are now eighteen! Nobody will say that I am defiling you now” he said and laughed.
• Mum took the gas cooker and pulled it to the shop side. She dropped the curtain and told us to rest. We needed rest. She would make us food for supper. We couldn’t catch sleep. We had slept enough at the hospital. We talked about our hospital experiences as mum and Ray’s mum caught up with each other. Ray said that he would go back to work even in his condition. I insisted that he rest but he said that he had to work to provide for me. I knew nothing I said could change his mind. I let him be. He instructed me not to work on my shop. He said that my work would be to bath him, clean around the house and our clothes and cook. He didn’t want me to
• overwork. He would be the one to provide for us until I became better. I had to respect his authority, thus agreed with the arrangement.