CHAPTER 7
Saeed and Nadia fight their way into a beautiful bedroom with a dazzling view of the city skyline at night. Outside, they see perfectly maintained white houses and blossomed cherry trees.
Certain they’re in a lush hotel, they walk into a hallway and then down an impressive staircase, finding their way to a kitchen with almost no food in it. Turning on a TV, they discover they’re in London, though they still don’t understand what kind of building they’re in. Before long, a man comes into the kitchen looking just as lost as they are before wandering away again.
By the following evening, more and more migrants come downstairs from the same room through which Nadia and
Saeed entered. Most of them are from Nigeria, though there are also people from Somalia and the borderlands between
Myanmar and Thailand.”
Once again, Saeed and Nadia are struck by the uncertainty thatcomes along with migration and escape. Having left Mykonosbehind, they’re now forced to reacquaint themselves with a foreignenvironment, though this one is markedly different from the refugeecamp they occupied in Greece. Indeed, they are perhaps shocked bythe opulence into which they’ve been thrust, since both their homecity and Mykonos provided them only with dismal living conditions.Having crossed yet another border, they must acclimate to aradically unfamiliar scenario.Responding to this onslaught of new arrivals, Saeed and Nadia claim a bedroom on the first floor with a balcony from which they can jump into the backyard’s garden if they ever need to escape. They determine that they’re not in hotel, but in a large,
empty mansion. Delighting in the luxurious bedroom, Nadia takes along shower, cleaning herself under the firm water pressure. Bathing like
this makes her feel renewed, as if she’s returning to herself, but when she goes to put on her clothes again, she can’t bear to wear the filthy robes, so she washes them in the bathtub. What the hell are you doing Saeed says after pounding on the door, which Nadia realizes she locked. He angrily reminds her that this isn’t their house and complains about how long she’s taking. I need five more minutes she says. I have to wash my clothes.”
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