“Very cold,” he said, helping the young girl to put her cycle on its stand.
“Yes,” she sighed, “But mother likes to sleep in the afternoons, so we keep out of her way.”
The gardener pointed to the plastic container that he'd put on the seat of his scooter, “She's not sleeping now,” he grinned, “Your mummy is cooking.”
The children looked at one another and skipped into the house, leaving Xu Wei to think about their previous comment. He must have misunderstood, perhaps? Cooking, sleeping, maybe the children hadn't grasped Mandarin as well as he'd thought. He thought nothing more about the comment and continued to clip back the hedge between the Kapoor's house and their neighbours. His joints ached from the damp chill but nothing that a warm dinner and hot shower wouldn't solve, the man t
