The Shadow Girls полностью

I crept through the city afraid of being caught by the laughing soldiers or of being robbed by someone who could smell the presence of the wallet and the watch. I hid by an old bridge. It was very dark and I felt rats brush by my legs and I flipped through the wad of notes in the wallet. It was a lot of money. I heard the monkey who had saved my life tell me that I should leave the city at dawn and take a bus going north. I didn’t know where I was headed but I knew the monkey would be waiting for me at my destination. When I got on the bus I hid the money and the watch inside my underwear, clasped my hands tightly between my legs and fell asleep.

When I woke up the bus had stopped in the middle of a plain. It was the middle of the day and the sun gave no shadow. The bus had broken down; sweaty men lay under the engine and were trying to fix a leaking oil pan. I got off the bus and started walking. To protect myself from the sun I stuck some palm branches under my headscarf. Sometimes I heard the monkey calling out to me from a tree. I thought about the fact that the one who had saved my life was out there somewhere, watching and waiting. I no longer felt alone as I walked along those dusty roads in the red sand. The monkey was with me, and so were my other invisible companions: my parents and you, Alemwa, you above all.

I kept walking north and became one of the many who wandered along the roads in unruly flocks, running away from their suffering towards a goal that most often was simply a mirage, not even a dream. At last I reached the beach. On the other side of the water lay Europe.

Tea-Bag fell silent. She slowly unzipped her jacket and Humlin jumped. He thought he’d seen an animal peek out of her coat, leap down to the floor and run out of the room.

Tea-Bag looked at him and smiled.

He wondered if Tea-Bag’s story was over now, or if it was just beginning.

The silence took Humlin by surprise.

No one asked Tea-Bag any questions. Had they heard all this before, or was her story a combination of everyone’s experiences? Had they even been listening? He didn’t know.

Tanya had been at the stove stirring something in a pot the whole time. When Humlin got up to fetch a glass of water he realised to his consternation that the pot was empty and the burner cold. Leyla sat with her watch in her hands, as if she had been timing Tea-Bag’s story.

‘Why don’t you ask her anything?’ Humlin finally asked.

‘Like what?’ Leyla said, continuing to stare at the watch.

‘Tea-Bag has just told you a remarkable and gripping story. She certainly doesn’t need to attend a writing seminar in order to learn that.’

‘I can’t write, though,’ Tea-Bag said. She had clearly worked up an appetite and was squeezing mayonnaise onto a piece of bread.

A phone rang. Humlin flinched, and even Tea-Bag reacted uneasily. The only one who seemed unaffected was Tanya, who seemed to be able to tell the rings of all mobile phones apart and even to detect if the caller was her enemy or not.

It was Leyla’s phone. She looked at the display and then handed it to Tanya.

‘It’s from home,’ she said. ‘Can you answer and say we’ve got our phones mixed up? Tell them you don’t know where I am.’

‘It’ll just cause trouble.’

‘Not any more than I’m already in. Go on — just answer it.’

‘No, you have to do it.’

‘I can’t. You don’t understand.’

‘I do understand. But you still have to answer.’