She had to do that--she had to become a widow, for life, before she was even married. That's why I never got married. I'm thirty-eight years old. I can read and write very well--my mother made sure I was educated--and I do the bookwork for all the shops and businesses in the slum. I do the taxes for every man who pays them. I make a good living here, and I have respect. I shouldn't been married fifteen or even twenty years ago. But she was a widow, all her life, for me. And I couldn't do it. I just couldn't allow myself to get married. I kept hoping I would see him, the sailor with the best moustache. My mother had one very old, faded photograph of the two of them, looking very serious and stern. That's why I lived in this area. I always hoped I would see him. And I never married. And she died last week, Lin. My mother died last week.
( Gregory David Roberts )
[ Shantaram ]
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