Life is not much fun if you work as a typist in an office, and you earn so little that you can't even buy yourself a nice pair of shoes. A girl needs shoes. A girl needs a boyfriend with a nice fast car, and a nice fat wallet. So Mercy finds a boyfriend who suits her needs. The trouble is, her big sister - sensible, married Connie - won't like it at all... As Mercy puts the cover on her typewriter, the thought of the bus ride home goes through her like a pain. It is her luck, she thinks. Everything is just her luck. If she had one of those university boys for a boyfriend, wouldn't he come and take her home every evening? Certainly, Joe would love to do exactly that - with his taxi. And he is as handsome as anything, and a good man, but you know... A taxi is a taxi. The possibility of the other man actually coming to fetch her - oh well. She knows it will take some time before she'll be brave enough to ask for things like that from him. But it's hard not to think about it. Would it really be so dangerous? Doesn't one government car look like another - the hugeness of it, the dark glass, the driver in uniform? She can already see herself stepping out of the car to greet the other girls, who look at her with eyes like knives. To begin with, she will be a little more careful. The driver can drop her under the neem trees in the morning and pick her up from there in the evening... anyway, she will have to wait a little while for that and it is just her bad luck. So for the meantime it is going to be the local bus with its dirty seats, unpleasant passengers, and rude conductors... Jesus! She doesn't wish herself dead or anything as stupidly final as that. Oh no. She just wishes she could sleep deep and only wake up on the day of her first car ride to work. The new pair of black shoes are more sensible than their owner, though. As she walks out of the office, they sing: Count, count, count your blessings. Count, Mercy, count your blessings Count, Mercy, count your blessings Count, count, count your blessings. They sing out of the office, along the road, and into the bus. And they start singing again along the path as she opens the front gate and walks to the door. 'Sissie!' Mercy called.