It was unnecessary for her to leave the note—the young man would have no idea when she’d actually come and gone—but she liked to do things like this to appear more honest than she actually was. That was one of the many small, subtle deceits that seemed to be second nature to the woman. From the beginning, this had struck Granny Ng as arrogant and disrespectful, and she had made a point of disposing of such notes whenever the cleaner felt compelled to leave one. This time, though, she left Mrs. Lee’s note on the fridge door and had a cup of tea on the sofa. Let him be deceived, she thought. I can’t always be looking out for him.

She picked up the remote control and turned on the television. Immediately the faces and voices made her feel a little better. During the course of the day, she watched a cooking program, a talk show, a travel show, a wildlife documentary, and a drama set in a police academy. She only got up from the sofa to use the toilet and get an apple from the kitchen. By the time she realized she’d forgotten to make any food for herself, it was too late; the young man was due to return at any minute. Granny Ng went to sleep hungry, annoyed at how she’d let time slip away from her and feeling nauseous from all the TV she’d watched that day.

APRIL

It was not enough to live among the objects and habits of another person; she needed to sit down with someone over a cup of hot tea and bean cake. She tried to distract herself by reinvesting her attention towards fixing things around the house: darning the young man’s socks, washing the blinds, the windows, leaving him dinner twice a week. But still she missed the company of friends.

She pulled a few maps down from the bookshelf and began looking for the location of her first tent village, where Kitty and Uncle Chow had taken her in. At the time she still hadn’t fully warmed to the experience of communal living, everyone in such close quarters and knowing each other’s business. But now she looked back on that time with a regretful appreciation and longing.

It took her some time to work out a route from the young man’s house to the tent village, and she was a little disheartened to find that it was farther than she’d imagined. It would take almost an hour and a half and require three route changes to get there by bus. She was determined, however, to make the journey.

She decided she would go the next day. She had enough money for the bus fare; she had not yet spent any of what she’d made from begging and collecting recyclables while living at the last tent village. The problem was figuring out what to bring. She couldn’t drop by both unannounced and empty-handed. In the end, she managed to cobble together a satisfactory gift bag and went to sleep that night more contented than she’d felt in a long time.