And what saddened him was the realisation that Marika had been carefully planning the whole time to keep the child. He hadn’t realised this at first, but her plotting had gradually become apparent. He remembered now how she had taken the necessary measures on the morning after the child wet the bed. She had immediately bought the material necessary for Salwa’s mother to make several sets of pyjamas for the boy, and the sewing machine on the ground floor had roared into action. And so the country jilbab disappeared and was replaced by short trousers and a shirt with braces - even before the child had started to go to school. All this, he had noticed but not fully comprehended at the time. There were also things that happened behind his back. The boy’s accent was starting to change. He had s
