Reef by Romesh Gunesekera

Author:Romesh Gunesekera [Gunesekera, Romesh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781847084675
Publisher: Granta Publications
Published: 2011-08-31T23:00:00+00:00

III

A THOUSAND FINGERS

A FEW DAYS later Nili moved in. For us it was the beginning of a new era.

Mister Salgado didn’t say anything about it to me, nothing at all about her or their plans. Yet another new minister was defending himself on the radio when I heard Mister Salgado drive out in his car—his blue Alfa Romeo, one of the first 1300s around. He came back a couple of hours later with Miss Nili in the front seat and two suitcases and some boxes in the back.

‘Where to put them?’ I asked.

‘Take them inside,’ he said. ‘Nili-nona can have my room. Put my clothes in the other room.’ He spoke confidently, in command.

‘I’ll be staying here now,’ Nili added softly. ‘With you.’ She smiled.

I should have expected it, I suppose, but the speed at which our circumstances changed surprised me. I didn’t let anything show. I nodded and quickly picked up the cases. It was not any of my business how they organized their affairs. I was pleased that she was coming to live with us; the whole place seemed to pick up the moment she stepped in.

Mister Salgado shut the door of the car and escorted Nili into the house. To see them like that you would think she had never been inside before. She walked so carefully.

I had cleaned the house early that morning. Saturday—and its lunar equivalent—used to be the most unpredictable day of the week for me. Sometimes Mister Salgado would ask me to come with him to the market because he had a yearning for bananas or pineapples or red meat, and needed me to identify the best buys for him. I had become his expert on these things. I had my own system for judging quality and could drive a much harder bargain than he could. But if he did take me with him like that, my housework got completely out of joint. Then it became a real rush to get everything done by the end of the day, and sometimes it didn’t happen. Luckily that day he had gone off to his rendezvous by himself. So the sitting-room was swept and tidy for them when they came; and both Mister Salgado’s bedroom and the spare room he now proposed to inhabit were pristine.

In the sitting-room Nili hesitated. I said ‘Missy-nona, wait. I will go prepare the room.’

‘Sit down,’ Mister Salgado said to her. ‘We can have some coffee.’ She was still a guest; in that sense nothing had changed yet.

‘Yes, Sir. I’ll bring coffee.’ I took the bags into the bedroom first. I put them down next to the bed; the prospect of moving all his things to the other room was not something to look forward to. And for what purpose? For how long? It was a man’s room: should I change the furniture? My orange curtains? I remembered how she had looked out of the window the time we came in together to choose a shirt. Was this move in

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