It took forty minutes to drive back home, and Amir arrived while the sun was still high in the sky. It felt like the first time he had come home this early in over a year.
As his car pulled into the garage of his house in the Jakarta Gelora City housing area, East Jakarta, Amir spotted a thin, petite middle-aged woman about to lock the door. She froze upon seeing his white Toyota Rush pull in.
Amir grabbed his backpack from the passenger seat, got out, and picked up the half-eaten piece of fruit he had left behind.
"Huh, sir? It’s rare for you to come home at this hour," the woman said in a loud voice, her thick accent unmistakable. She scratched her thinning ponytail in surprise.
"Hi, Aunt Lasmi. Yeah, I have an event later, so I didn’t go back to my mom's house first. Can I have the
