Dada 10

His wife was joined at the house by small, sharp little woman in blue. I somehow knew this was going to happen. This was my surprise. She was dressed entirely in that one colour. She looked at me closely.

‘I am a gatherer of stories,’ she said.

She wore a series of little silver encased jewels about her dress. She made me nervous. She knew Dada, she said. 

I had seen her once at the house before he got ill and the Detectives stopped coming.

‘You’ll come to a bad end’ she said suddenly.

‘I’m with friends. Shut your mouth’ I said .

‘Come out to the back place’ she said.

‘I have something to tell you.’ She fumbled in her bags as if searching for something to give me but seemed to forget it and instead searched me with her eyes.

‘ It’s natural to protect your own family even those born on the wrong side of the blanket,’ she said.

Mo came out. He looked embarrassed. He said he would stay and help Shabela`s wife with the dishes.

The little Singapore woman said we men had to leave. She, her friend in blue and ‘the little kitten’ she called Mo would clear up. The three of us went out, Iskra, Shabela and myself.