First Light

57 mars

Samuel calls out for Laila and Marlo a few minutes later. I stand up to go with them, but Marlo points at the dining table with a smile.

"He won't let you help bring in anything because you're a guest, just take a seat over there. We'll be in in a minute."

I thank Marlo as he places my plate down first in front of me, kissing the top of my head quickly before his dad walks in. Laila sees, scrunching her face up at this.

"Ew." Is all she says.

I feel my face heat with embarrassment.

"She's directing this at me, not you, don't worry." Marlo says quietly to me.

"Please let her breathe, Mars." Laila confirms.

I smile at Laila's nickname for Marlo.

"Who can't breathe?" Samuel asks as he walks into the room, carrying four empty glasses, which he sets down in front of each of us and then himself.

"It's nothing, dad." Marlo replies.

"Faye, would you like anything to drink? Water, juice?" Samuel asks me.

"What kind of juice do you have?" I ask in the most respectful way I can.

"Laila, would you check what juice we have for our guest here, please."

She immediately bounds to the kitchen.

"Apple, mango, guava! Orange as well, but just a bit!" Her voice calls out.

I feel incredibly awkward about raising my voice, but I don't know how else she'll hear me.

"Apple?" Marlo checks with me, as if reading my mind.

I nod for confirmation, smiling at him gratefully.

He shouts this for me at Laila. "Bring in the guava as well!"

"You can have some alcohol if you want." Samuel offers.

I smile. "No, thank you. Juice is fine."

Marlo explains what the meal is as Laila is pouring the drinks. It is called pudding and souse, where the 'souse' is just pickled pork and the 'pudding' is sweet potato and onions. He explains that usually the pork is from a pig's head or trotters, but that his dad didn't want to scare me off, so he's used pork chops instead. There's also something called pickled breadfruit, which Laila tells me tastes kind of similar to potato.

"If you don't like it I'll have it, don't worry," Marlo assures me quietly so Samuel and Laila can't hear. "There's other food in the house."

"Okay." I say, but I know that I am going to eat all of it because I don't want to look ungrateful, especially as they've taken the time to make it.

Samuel asks me about how I'm doing at university, and seems particularly impressed that I'm studying psychology.

"Is there any particular career you're looking at?"

I shake my head a little. "Not specifically, no."

He smiles. "That's okay, you have time. I changed my mind about what I wanted to do a thousand times when I was your age."

"Can I ask what you do now? Your job?" I reply.

"I'm a mechanic, but I wanted to be a lawyer. I still do, I just don't have the education for it."

The slightly sad look in his eyes stops me from asking why he isn't pursuing it.

"Faye's very good at art." Marlo chimes in from next to me.