The final one she passed three times around each breast and three times around Amaka's mound, intoning the age-old ritual. When she finished Amaka was...deeply entranced.Mamma smiled down at her sleeping daughter, the mother of her four grandchildren; Amaka was still her little girl. "Time to get up, honey. Let's do something with that hair. You need some practical juju, too."It hurt when Mamma knotted Amaka's hair into scores of tight plaits. Into each she wove in a piece or two of tinsel. It. She looks at me and says "I said I was fine." I try to make the situation better with a joke. "I guess you know better than anyone how you are." I laugh a little and then stumble over my words. The silence is deafening . The room is full of conversation but our table has none. Just the occasional clink of a fork on our plates.Dinner ends and we leave the restaurant and walk out in a small alley toward my truck. She starts talking to me once we are outside. "Do you like my dress and boots?" I. "Hey, Mimi!" she gushed with an enthusiasm Mimi was hard put to match. Susie, set down the suitcases she was carrying, giving her arms a quick shake to get the circulation back in her favor. Quickly, though, her smile faded and in a sisterly manner put her hand on Mimi's shoulder, picking a strand of hair clean of hay. She held the plucked twig in one hand, then reached for another. "My God!" where have you been Mimi? You look like you've been rolling in the hay with Tom Jones. What's the. I didn’t call her immediately. I thought I would let Mandy report back, so she would be expecting it. Should I phone or just send a message? I didn’t know what was the currently-accepted practice. I called her the next afternoon and she sounded happy: breezy and confident. We agreed to meet at eight at a bar on the seafront.“Long fair hair, red leather jacket,” she said when I asked how I would recognise her. “Sitting in a corner pretending to use my phone.”So she intended to get there before.