Desertion by Abdulrazak Gurnah

Author:Abdulrazak Gurnah
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780307425508
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2007-12-18T05:00:00+00:00

6 Amin and Jamila

AMIN CAME HOME FROM the teachers’ college one afternoon to find Farida had a client with her. That was not such a surprise. This was the time of day when women called on each other and conducted normal women business, which was to keep the fabric of life in good repair. There were exchanges of news, congratulations and condolences, of courtesies and kindnesses, and of whatever luscious or tart scandals had surfaced in recent times. The ground was prepared for the betrothal, years in the future, of recently born babies. Ailing bodies were commiserated over. Favours and loans were discussed and exchanged, and the shortcomings of husbands and sons, and the world they presided over, were enumerated and lamented. It was also a convenient time to discuss the design of a new dress, or to weigh the virtues of satin over muslin, or the high yoke over the gathered waist, and so this was also the time that Farida conducted business with her clients.

He knew her name was Jamila and had seen her before but had never seen her this close and had never spoken to her. He had always thought her beautiful. So close to her, he saw that her face was slim and subtly featured, something in it moving all the time. Her eyes were the colour of dark amber. They had light and movement, a kind of life, and a willingness to be amused. Her body was shaped like completeness. She had one of Farida’s fashion catalogues open on her lap, and a length of material spread out on the mat where they sat, so he knew she had come to be measured for a dress. She smiled at him, a polite greeting, but it had something languid and knowing in it which Amin thought made her seem glamorous, someone who had travelled and who knew about the world. As he stood in front of her, frozen in admiration, he saw her smile broaden and her eyes glow for a second. Farida smiled too.

‘My younger brother,’ Farida said.

‘Is this Amin?’ Jamila asked, smiling, her voice thicker than he had expected of someone so slim and so subtly beautiful. ‘Your mother was asking after you a moment ago.’

Amin put his bag of books down and sat in the nearest chair. If his mother had been there, he would have been bustled away. His mother did not like either Rashid or Amin to sit in the room when there were women visiting. They were expected to make their respectful greetings, and if the women concerned had known them since they were children, they were expected to listen smilingly to their affectionate banter and then disappear. They were too old now to hang around women, and would only inhibit conversation and earn themselves unsavoury reputations. She was especially vigilant with Farida’s clients since they were usually young women, not because she thought anything dramatic would happen, but because she did not want any talk. She did not want to hear her sons accused of disrespect to one of her neighbours’ marriagable daughters.

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