After some months, it was evident that the boy was able to read and write, but no matter how diligently he studied, he lagged behind his classmates, especially in arithmetic. Mr. Persad offered to help after school in whatever way he was able to (although he had not himself completed elementary school). In any case, it would have meant that he and his mother would have to stay in Marion for two or three hours longer than usual.
Mr. Persad persisted. He suggested that they leave Raleigh and move into his house, where he would employ Dolly as a full-time servant. The boy told his mother that he was from Raleigh, that it was his birthplace, that his friends were all there, and that Tante Eugenie and Uncle Mako were there, and Uncle Mako needed him. She marched up to him, her raised hand ready to hit him when he said outright that Mr. Persad was not his father and not her husband. She would not speak with him for what seemed like an interminable amount of time. He was sullen for days. Her lips remained pursed also, for days. Finally she spoke, calm but firm. She was disappointed and ashamed, she said, that her own son could be so ungrateful for a chance to better himself, and that since it was not his fault, as he was too young to know better, she had decided he would have no say in the matter; she knew what was best.
Dolly went to speak with Tante Eugenie about the move to Marion. Tante Eugenie answered first that if Dolly and her son were to leave Raleigh, it would be as if she and Mako were losing their own child and grandchild, but they would survive. She sighed and said that their people were survivors by nature. Then she advised Dolly to tell Mr. Persad she wouldn’t go and live in his house with him just like that. She said, “Say no, and see what he will do next.”
So Dolly did just that. In response, Mr. Persad asked her to marry him. Tante Eugenie said, “You see? You have to use your head with these men. Don’t let them get away easy-easy so.”
After Dolly and Bhatt Persad were married in the Canadian Friends Presbyterian Church, she and the boy (he anxious yet excited at once) moved, all their possessions, including a cage crammed with four chickens and the cock, packed tightly in Mr. Persad’s car.