Stuff My Ayi Does

1. She hides my coffee. I found a can on the very top shelf of the pantry, way way in the back.
2. She takes anything loose in the pantry, like tea bags or nuts or granola bars, and stores them in plastic containers.
3. She closes the curtains in the dining room and the bedrooms when she leaves so that it’s pitch dark.
4. She takes all my socks and underwear and rolls up each one, lining them up in the basket like so many cloth terracotta warriors.
5. She folds up the giant shopping bags we got at Ikea.
6. She tries to teach me Chinese even though I can tell from the expression on her face that she thinks I’m unteachable.
7. She hides the Christmas presents I had left out for Bob, tucking them way in the back of the closet.
8. She piles up our suitcases into a giant, tidy tower.
9. She tries to get Smudge to like her, chasing her around the apartment and saying, “maow, maow!”
10. She makes me a mug of tea and hands it to me as she leaves the apartment.