Mma Ramotswe thought of this encounter as she hauled herself out of bed and stretched. You want me to say five o’clock, don’t you? And then you would drop everything and rush off to see some girl or other, wouldn’t you? Don’t look so injured. “When you ask the time, it’s because you can’t wait to stop working. “It’s because I know you so well,” she retorted. “You don’t have to shout at me like that,” complained Charlie, the older of the two. This had been demonstrated by Mma Makutsi, who tended to shout at the apprentices for very little reason, even when one of them made a simple request, such as asking the time of day. And anybody, no matter how even-tempered he might be, would have been inclined to raise his voice with such feckless young men. Matekoni was ever like that on the contrary, he was the most good-natured and gracious of men, rarely raising his voice, except occasionally when dealing with his two incorrigible apprentices at Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. If the wives of such men are up and about first, the husbands can be left to be ill-tempered by themselves-not that Mr J.L.B. But it is also a good thing for those wives whose husbands are inclined to be irritable first thing in the morning-and by all accounts there are many of them, rather too many, in fact. Matekoni-a good thing for a wife to do because it affords time to accomplish at least some of the day’s tasks. Mma Ramotswe always rose from her bed an hour or so before Mr J.L.B. It is useful, people generally agree, for a wife to wake up before her husband.
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