Shuggie Bain has worked at Kilfeather’s Department Store at the deli counter for over a year. He never intended to stay this long. Shuggie loves hair and vows that he will attend a hairdressing school in town. He collects some damaged cans of fish, pays for them, and goes to the staff room, where the other employees—women older than him—spend their breaks gossiping. The women previously tried sexual advances on Shuggie while they were drunk at the bingo hall. When he did not reciprocate, they decided “Something about the boy was not right, and this was at least something they could pity” (6).

Shuggie sits up in the morning, cautiously listening to one of the other boarders use the restroom. Though Mrs. Bakhsh’s parsimonious boarding house is run down, Shuggie keeps his room meticulously tidy and decorated with small porcelain figures. He thinks of how his mother would not approve of the state of the place. His Pakistani landlords live in a lavish flat across the way, drawing envy from their tenants, who slide their rent under the door before spending the rest of their pay on alcohol. Most of the other men in the boarding house leave Shuggie alone, except for Mr.