Chapter Six
Summary
- Maddie is reflecting on her life, which includes being unemployed, facing high rent, depleted savings, and her mother's impending return.
- Considering a job change, Maddie, with an English literature degree, contemplates re-entering the publishing industry after some experience at her previous job and finding low salaries in the sector.
- She is interrupted by a visit from Auntie Mabel, who is her paternal aunt and shares physical resemblances with Maddie’s father.
- Auntie Mabel engages in cultural practices, like using their Ghanaian names based on birth days and brings homemade pepper soup for Maddie's father.
- Maddie reflects on her communication barriers with her father, who prefers speaking Twi, but she and her brother James never learned to speak it fluently, only to understand.
- She notices that her father, an introvert, doesn't have many visitors besides family and ponders which of her friends would maintain a similar relationship if she were in her father's situation.
- Following her aunt's visit, Maddie acknowledges that she lied to both her dad and her aunt about her employment status, not wanting to admit she was fired.
- After receiving a message from her friend Avi, Maddie considers challenging her unfair dismissal, and calls her, eventually deciding to complain to HR.
- She crafts an email to HR, articulating her frustration and threatening legal action while still requesting a positive reference for future job applications.
- Auntie Mabel, before leaving, expresses concerns about Maddie's responsibility for her ailing father and emphasizes that it is Maddie’s mother's duty to take over once she returns.
- Maddie assists Auntie Mabel as she departs, who then confirms her upcoming trip to Ghana and endorses Maddie's decision to move out and live her own life.
- Upon serving dinner to her father, Maddie observes the care Auntie Mabel provided, including trimming his nails and providing comfortable footwear, reminding Maddie of the resilience of the women in her family.