Jury-rigged Hotpot

The Japan Home folding table was just big enough to accommodate two.

- Nuraliah Norasid

This they set up in the centre of the bare living room, directly under the non-working fan. Along with the one remaining chair from a dining set and a spare stool.

They planned to add a proper dining table that could seat four. Shelves for the books that lay in stacks against one paint-stripped wall.

The books were covered in dust, and he joked that it would take another lifetime to read them all. But she had insisted on rescuing them even when it didn't seem to make sense.

On a worn, salvaged ottoman, still damp from being in recent rain, they set up a pair of Corelle bowls. Mismatched sets of wheat straw plastic utensils.

On the table, they set up a Tommy Cooker. The wind blew through the pane-less windows and the makeshift curtains of painter's tarp that they had tied to the curtain rod with zip ties.

The lighter did not spark the first several times that they flicked it. Eventually, it produced a small flame, and the wind wound down enough for them to set the solid fuel alight in the cooker's maw. As the fire built up, they balanced a camping pot filled with water on the jagged teeth.