The arrival of Miss Nili was, for them, 'the beginning of a new era.' She brought out profound changes in Mister Salgado, who now smiled more and grew both softer and stronger. A few days later, Nili moved into the house with Mister Salgado, much to Triton's joy. Triton's turkey was a great success, as was the party. Mister Salgado, who had never celebrated any festivals or holidays before, had a Christmas Eve dinner party for Nili and their friends (mostly her crowd). Triton liked Miss Nili and felt that she made their house better with her presence. It was the first of many visits, and the beginning of a romance between the two. One day, a woman came to the house to have tea with Mister Salgado. When old Lucy-amma, the cook-woman, retired, Triton took over all the cooking as well, and became an accomplished chef. He also educated himself by reading a neighbor's schoolbooks whenever he had the chance. Triton grew and learned to be a good housekeeper. When the servant returned drunk, Mister Salgado fired him immediately and gave Triton full responsibility for the housekeeping. Mister Salgado returned to find Joseph still out. In anger, Joseph assaulted the boy, then left the house and stayed out all night. One weekend, after Mister Salgado had gone away for a short stay on a tea-estate, Triton found Joseph in Mister Salgado's room rubbing his employer's cologne on his chest. Triton describes Joseph as deceitful, mean-spirited, and jealous of him.

His first year at the bay-fronted house was tough because he was under the supervision of Joseph, Mister Salgado's servant. That year, he was taken by his uncle to work as a houseboy for Mister Salgado, a marine biologist. Triton begins his recollections from 1962, when he was a boy of eleven. Talking together about their country and the war there makes the narrator start thinking of his life in Sri Lanka and of the events that brought him to England as a refugee. The cashier is a new refugee, but the narrator has been in the country for twenty years and is the owner of a restaurant. In answer to his inquiry, the cashier confirms that he is indeed from Sri Lanka.

When he goes to pay, he notices that the cashier is someone who looks like him. Romesh Gunesekera's Reef begins with the story's narrator, Triton, filling up his tank at a petrol station in England.

The reef romesh gunesekera