Breadfruit by Célestine Vaite Page A

with Pito involved.
    It is never an easy task, searching for Mama Roti’s present. Mama Roti may say that she doesn’t care about the present as
     long as there’s something for her to unwrap, but, deep down, Mama Roti does care about her present—Materena knows this.
    Materena always starts looking for Mama Roti’s present a few weeks before her birthday, which is why she has so many ideas
     today. But since Pito wants to be in charge of Mama Roti’s present this year . . .
    “What do you want to give to your mama?” Materena asks Pito.
    Pito wants to give his mama something useful, something practical. He doesn’t know what that useful-and-practical something
     is yet, but he trusts his instinct. His instinct will tell him: This is for Mama.
    Pito heads to the cleaning department, and Materena follows him. She’s dragging her feet because, in her opinion, you don’t
     get someone a present from the cleaning department, especially when that someone is a woman.
    And especially when that someone is Mama Roti!
    Mama Roti hates cleaning. Her house is always a mess, and Mama Roti likes to say, “
Ah hia,
if only I had a magic wand to clean the house for me.”
    Last year, Materena got Mama Roti a coupon to the hairdresser for the value of five thousand francs. Mama Roti got herself
     a perm, she was very happy. She thanked her son over and over, knowing full well that the coupon to the hairdresser wasn’t
     Pito’s idea.
    Last year, Materena was really pleased that Pito had remembered the day she was born. Pito gave her a box wrapped in newspaper
     and said, “Here.”
    Materena delicately tore the newspaper and slowly opened the box (it was a plain box—no relation to the gift). Then she saw
     the frying pan and said, smiling, “Ah, a frying pan.”
    Mama Roti, who was present at the time, caught her disappointed look. She shook her head and mumbled, “What does a man have
     to do these days to make his woman happy?” She rolled her eyes and went on and on about how her son’s gift was well chosen—how
     a woman could always do with a frying pan. Mama Roti inspected the frying pan, nodding several times. She tapped her fingers
     on it and declared, “This is no cheap frying pan, this is a good-quality frying pan. Not too big, not too small, medium-size.”
    Materena was disappointed with the frying pan because she had expected to see a new pair of shoes—a few days prior to her
     birthday, she’d complained to Pito about her shoes getting a bit worn-out and how they were hurting her feet.
    This year was worse because Pito forgot her birthday completely.
    In the cleaning department, Pito’s first choice for his mother’s present is those perfumed mushrooms you put around the house
     to make it smell good.
    “Pito. Are you serious or are you fooling around?” Materena doesn’t know if she should be annoyed or laugh.
    Pito is serious, and why wouldn’t he be serious? Perfumed mushrooms are nice.
    Materena tells him (speaking in a low voice because of the other customers) that his mother sprays her deodorant around her
     house when she wants it to smell nice, and she’s very content with that technique, plus, the smell of the mushrooms is horrible.
    “How about this?” Pito says.
    Materena tells him that his mother will definitely not appreciate a family-size packet of washing powder.
    Pito moves to the gardening department and picks up a rake. Materena reminds him (speaking in a low voice again because of
     the other customers) of his mother’s relationship with her leaf pick. She loves her leaf pick, she gets a lot of satisfaction
     stabbing the leaves one by one, and very slowly, for hours.
    Materena decides to take charge now. She’s seen enough of Pito’s nonsense. She barges toward the perfume department. A whole
     hour they spend at the perfume department. They smell fifteen bottles of eau de cologne, and Pito complains about the smell
     every single time. Either it is too sweet, too spicy,