Chapter 13

EVE | Then

Paul was everywhere.

I saw him outside the gates of my school, on our living room couch, beside Mama in the kitchen, stirring idly at chopped vegetables sizzling in a frying pan while she poured wine for them. He went on dates with Mama. She didn't need to confide in me, I could tell I was twelve, not blind.

There were changes to her I couldn't comprehend. The physical changes were hard to ignore; the new clothes, clean and straight, iron pressed each day. She looked nicer in her nursing uniform than ever before. She spent more time at Daawo's salon, coming home for a brisk lunch with hot pink rollers tucked in her hair. The bathroom even changed, a coconut milk and jasmine petals shower gel sat in a brown wooden basket, an oval-shaped stone for rubbing under her feet came along with the package, lots of scented perfumes and it was the first time I saw a facial wash on t