4
WITH THAT, MELATI was finally able to go home.
She trudged from the CAU through the clean and newly-carpeted corridors to the change room, where only a few women still chatted with each other, the tail end of the shift change. Melati walked past them to her usual corner, and none of them paid much attention to her. Two were fellow teachers, both Kesslers, and the third was a Brown, who she thought worked in support and maintenance.
Her back to the room, facing the mirror, she shed her uniform like a fake skin, peeling white cloth off brown skin, like an inside-out fruit.
She caught a few glimpses from the other women. It was sad and funny how they made such an effort not to look at her.
She opened her locker. She shook out the sarong, thin fabric billowing like a pink flag, wound it
