How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Title.Paragraph)
Quote #10
Mumtaz lifts my head from the pillow, places the pills on my tongue, then brings a glass of water to my lips.
I swallow, and for a moment, I love her.
I love her like a mother, for giving me the medicine that will stop the fever and the sweating and the chills and the shaking. I love her for not throwing me out on the street, for caring for me. ((128.TheCostofaCure.19-21)
Lakshmi is sick, probably because of an STI (sexually transmitted infection), though we never really find out. And only Mumtaz has the power to help or harm her. Why does Mumtaz choose to help Lakshmi? Does she really care about Lakshmi, or is Lakshmi just imagining the concern? And why might Lakshmi say that she loves the woman who has forced her to do unspeakable things?
Quote #11
I pretend I don't understand. Because I don't. I don't understand how I will pay my debt to Mumtaz in this new place. (137.AStrangeCustomer.23)
The third American offers to take Lakshmi to "the clean place," to essentially free her—but she continues to wonder how she will pay her debt to Mumtaz. What does it say about Mumtaz's power that Lakshmi doesn't realize that once out of Happiness House, she will no longer be under Mumtaz's thumb?
Quote #12
I call out to him and he peeks around the door frame. His brow is cut, his cheek swollen with a big purple bruise.
"What happened?" I say.
"The boss," he says, touching his face gingerly. (161.PayingaDebt.1-3)
The tea boy has been beaten for his kindnesses. Here we get a little insight into the power structures beyond Happiness House, enough to realize that other people use violence to assert and maintain their power.