But as dedicated as Granny Ng was to helping her friends, she knew the visits were as much for her as for them. She looked forward to seeing them every few weeks, bringing food or supplies or more damaged electrical items. While Uncle Chow worked on a newly battered radio or electric kettle, Granny Ng would make soup in the communal kitchen, or drink tea and chat with Kitty while she cooked lunch or cut a neighbor’s hair. In the summer, she helped sew a new lining for Kitty’s tent and had Kitty cut her hair cut into a neat bob that let her feel a pleasant coolness on the back of her neck.

OCTOBER

In the second week of October, the local homeless coalition held a community fair in the park. There were over twenty different stalls offering free hair cuts, vaccines, basic medical check ups and eye tests that the villagers could visit. Although Granny Ng could no longer claim to be a tent villager, she managed with Kitty’s help to get a free pair of reading glasses and a medical check up. (Aside from slightly low blood pressure, the doctor gave her a clean bill of health.) Uncle Chow had to be persuaded by Kitty to get a check up, and was told he had high cholesterol and blood pressure. “I don’t see the use of being told these things if you can’t do anything about them,” he grumbled.

Kitty persuaded Granny Ng to stay for the barbecue party. Granny Ng acquiesced, but urged Kitty to go and chat with her neighbors; she wasn’t feeling particularly sociable, and was happy to sit and listen to the music playing from the stereo. She settled herself on a plastic stool and nibbled slowly on a single chicken kebab, balancing a paper bowl of soup on her lap. She had felt fine about getting free tests and a pair of glasses from the fair, but now she suddenly felt like an interloper taking from the needy. It was best, she thought, to stay on the sidelines and not draw attention to herself.

Her plan was not successful. Tent village residents and coalition volunteers kept coming up to her and asking if they could get her anything, why was she eating so little, did she need a blanket? Finally, the only way to reassure them and deflect their attention was to accept their food-laden plates and pretend she was chewing whenever they checked up on her.

Brother Shek, the construction worker, greeted Granny Ng and took a seat next to her. He was carrying a short-necked lute.

“Nice to see you again, Granny. Maybe I’ve had one too many beers, but I’m in such a good mood that I have to inflict my playing on our friends. You don’t mind, do you?”