The construction is coming to an end. Tomorrow they tile the floor.

The workers, their clothes hang from make-shift lines on both balconies. There're 2 women and a baby among the crew. Mother and child and grandchild. The girl's only 22 and her baby's a few months old. He sleeps soundly despite all the noise. I'd never once seen him cry.

The older woman looked at me and observed Girls your age, they're all married and with kids already. I laughed and shook my head. She helps around with light works such as scrubbing and cleaning, or painting the window frames. and along with her daughter, with a small electric stove in one corner of the room upstairs, they feed the crew
The older woman, she has 5 daughters, the oldest is 28 and the youngest 19. Four of them are married and one is a divorcee. She said it's more comfortable being by herself. She can go wherever she wants whenever, do whatever. We have interested suitors but she no longer wants to live with a man...

The crew sleep on the floor, side by side with the dismantled doors and glass panels. The baby sleeps in a hammock in the small room. His mother by his side on the floor, singing him songs. People scattered on the floor and clothes flapping on the line outside the windows. A boy's name embroidered above the right pocket of a white shirt, a shirt from secondary school maybe, burned red under the neon street light.

The girl once asked me will it be just you staying here? I blushed and mumbled no, my friends as well...
It's so big, she smiled and looked around the room, eyes wide.
and I blushed.

ahhh life.