1Now that Merla had left home, there was nothing left to persuade me to stay. If Mama Aida had been a reason to stay, she wasn’t any longer, especially when she went back to drinking and smoking after the fight with Merla.
I was sixteen. I left school. My mother was upset, but I had taken my decision. ‘I’m going to look for a job,’ I said.
When I took this decision I had only intended to break free of subjugation to Mendoza and the demands that had become intolerable after he fell ill. I was prepared to do the same kind of work that he gave me to do, provided it was somewhere else and provided I was paid for it. Once the things were gone that had me feel at peace on Mendoza’s plot of land – Aida’s good behaviour and Merla’s company – I no longer had any reason to stay. Mama Aida’s faith
