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Nadia stood at the counter after closing , with the sewing machine catalog open and her thumb on the order button . Clothes with pins still in them hung on the rack behind her . A wedding suit needed a sleeve . She wanted the second machine so that work would not sit there into next week . The rent envelope was on the shelf . She had not opened it . Samir , her brother , locked the door and put the cash box on the table . He counted the shop money after closing . Nadia usually swept while he finished . Tonight she did not want to wait . " I can order it now , " she said . " They will bring it next week . Then I can take the wedding suit as well . " Samir did not look at the catalog . He laid the papers out in a line : the rent , the cloth supplier who came on Fridays , and the electric bill . The electric bill was already late enough to worry him . He pushed those papers to one side . Then he tapped the notebook . " The wedding suit is in here , " he said . " It is not in the box . She has not paid . " Nadia had been counting that suit all week , as if the money was already in the box . The customer had smiled and said she would pay when she collected it . That was after the weekend . The supplier was coming in the morning . " If you order the machine tonight , you are spending the rent , " Samir said . " Or you are spending money that is still in her bag , not in ours . " Nadia looked at the unfinished clothes . She wanted to say that another machine would bring more work , and more work would bring more money . The words were ready . They did not change what was on the table . She put the phone face down . The catalog stayed open on a machine she had not paid for . She called the wedding customer instead . She asked one question : could the woman pay when she brought the cloth tomorrow , before Nadia ordered anything new ? The woman said she would try . She did not promise . Nadia wrote " asked , not promised " beside the suit . She closed the catalog and put the phone in the drawer , under the rent envelope . In the morning she would have to move that envelope before she could reach the phone .
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