Free Breadfruit by Célestine Vaite Page B

went away. She slept on the mattress again and the rash came back.
    Then Rita suggested to Coco that they get a new mattress and he got cranky. He said, “Rita, there are days when you tire me
     with your nonsense.” He told Rita her allergy was in her imagination. So Rita showed Coco the rash and said, “And these red
     spots—it’s my imagination?”
    One morning, Rita carried the mattress out to the backyard and hosed it good, then she scrubbed it with lavender fabric softener,
     then perfumed it with lavender oil. She did all this while Coco was out, and when he came home and saw the mattress drying
     outside, he said, “And where am I going to sleep now?” He was really baffled.
    Rita and Coco slept on the mat, and all night long Coco complained about the hard floor. The next morning it rained. And the
     day after, and the day after. Every morning, Rita would look at the gray sky and smile. It suited her that the mattress was
     getting ruined outside. But Coco was very fond of that mattress, and he didn’t appreciate sleeping on the floor. He cursed
     Rita every single day it rained. It rained for a whole week.
    So one afternoon Cousin Rita decided to buy a brand-new mattress.
    In Rita’s opinion, when a man and a woman get together, they should buy a new mattress, because a mattress is very important.
     A mattress is for sexy loving, a mattress is for words of love—a mattress is for intimacy.
    So she went hunting for a new mattress, but then she spotted that Japanese-style bed in a secondhand store. She lay on it
     for about one hour and realized that she not only wanted a new mattress but a whole new bed. So she bought that Japanese-style
     bed.
    A new bed—a new beginning.
    Cousin Mori organized the delivery of the bed to Rita’s house, and when Coco saw the Japanese-style bed, he said, “And where’s
     my bed?” Well, Rita gently informed Coco that her cousin Mori took the old bed, along with the wet, ruined mattress, to give
     it to a friend who didn’t have a bed, only a very old torn mat. “What!” Coco was out of his mind, and it took Rita a while
     to calm him.
    Now everything is fine with Rita.
    She sometimes thinks about how someone may have died in her bed, but she much prefers her bed to be the souvenir of a dead
     person than the souvenir of thousands of sweating women.
    That is the story of Rita’s new bed, and so Materena is checking Pito’s bed, sniffing the mattress and looking for marks,
     when Pito comes into the bedroom to get an Akim comic.
    “What are you doing sniffing the mattress?” he asks.
    “Did Mama Roti buy you this bed for your birthday?” Materena looks into Pito’s eyes.
    “What! What is this story?”
    “You bought the bed, then?”
    “You want to know how I got the bed?” Pito challenges Materena.
    “
Oui,
” Materena replies, although she’s not so sure anymore that she really wants to know how Pito got that bed, when he got it,
     and how many women have slept in it.
    Pito tells Materena that the bed belonged to an uncle who died. The uncle died in his bed (Pito is pointing to it), but it
     was days before he was found dead in his bed, as he lived alone. There was vomit and caca in the bed and the family wanted
     nothing to do with that bed, so Pito took it and washed it clean. He needed a new bed and free beds don’t come to you every
     day.
    Materena’s eyes are popping out of her head by this time, but suddenly Pito bursts out laughing.
    “You silly woman, my auntie Agathe gave me her bed when she moved to France.”
    Pito grabs a comic and Materena is about to inquire further about the bed but on second thought decides she doesn’t want to
     know anything more about it.
    Nobody died on Pito’s bed and, as far as Materena is concerned, that is the most important thing.
    But here she is now, at Conforama shop, where they sell really nice beds and you can take one home today and only start paying
     the installments in three months’ time.