Then, one day, while sweetening her tea, Matha overheard Godfrey call a piston a pistol. It could have been a slip of the tongue, but she was so flabbergasted that her teacup was half full of sugar before she noticed. She searched for a pencil, then snatched up the only book in the place, the Bible that old Mrs Zulu had left behind years ago. Matha opened the front door and squeezed herself between the two useless males on her stoop. She turned to an empty page at the back of the Bible. And as they stared at her wet and furrowed face, Matha Mwamba sketched out a diagram of an engine.
