I lost my place during morning prayer because I was thinking about a label check at work. The words kept coming from memory while another part of my mind was counting cartons. I went back to the part I'd missed and then started wondering how far I'd gone without really attending. That is not a question I can answer by checking a box. Dadi says distraction is hardly a new invention, which made me smile. I don't want to turn prayer into another test I can fail before five in the morning. Still, tomorrow I might leave the work notes in my bag instead of beside me. The cartons can wait until I actually reach them.

An auntie asked whether I'd heard that the man I met last year was getting married. She used such a careful voice that I nearly felt obliged to look upset. I'm not. We wanted to live near different families, and neither of us was being unreasonable. I felt a little curious about the woman, then relieved that the conversation wasn't about arranging another meeting for me. Mum asked later if I was really all right and I said yes, honestly. I liked him, but I like not having to solve that decision anymore. There was a small awkward feeling when everybody went quiet. That was mostly about being watched for a reaction.

Finished the early shift and sat on the bus with my feet a little apart because my right heel was tired of being directly under me. Once I was home and out of the work shoes, the cool floor felt so good I stood in the hallway longer than necessary. Mum was asking something from the kitchen and I said just a minute, although there was nothing I needed to do. Loosened my head covering, washed, then lay down intending to rest for twenty minutes. Woke up with the pillow mark on my cheek and my brother looking for a charger beside me. I was hungry and still half asleep, but my legs felt like they belonged to me again.