From Somalia with Love by Na'ima B. Robert

Author:Na'ima B. Robert
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781907666179
Publisher: MBI
Published: 2008-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

I had arranged to meet Firdous at the big bus station in Stratford. Wrong move. Not only was it full of people – schoolchildren, college students, people on their way to catch their trains – but it was full of Somalis too.

Now, why was that a problem for me? Well, I didn’t want to see anyone I knew. Hoyo would have assumed that I was in Whitechapel, possibly at Hamida’s house. She would never have guessed that I was in Stratford on my own and, even worse, waiting to meet up with Firdous. Being here was a problem because, if anyone I knew saw me, they would most probably mention it to Hoyo. Such was the community: everyone in everyone else’s business.

I saw a group of Muslim girls walking together, their arms linked. I could see from their bags that they were in high school like me but they were all wearing abayas and long hijabs. One of them was even wearing a niqaab that covered her face. They chatted together as they waited for their bus, their faces smiling and joking. Even the one whose face was covered was smiling – I could tell from her eyes. One of them glanced across at me and her smile broadened.

“Asalaamu alaikum, sis,” she called over.

I lifted my hand awkwardly and did a semi-wave. “Wa alaikum salaam,” I smiled back. They weren’t Somali – they all looked Asian to me – so how come they were so friendly?

Just then, a group of schoolboys came past. I sensed a restless energy, an aggression looking for a target. You could smell it on them like sweat. Just one look at them told me that these were the kind of boys I always avoided around my estate. During the weekends, they smoked cigarettes in the lifts and had dogfights on the patchy lawn outside while their little brothers and sisters looked on.

Once, I had taken my auntie’s children to the playground near our flats, just to get them out of the house while their parents were visiting. They had been having a great time on the big slide when, all of a sudden, we heard barking and a horrific growling, snarling and snapping of teeth. The children screamed and ran to me, not knowing what it was. I held their trembling bodies tight and tried to calm them. When I looked across to where the sound was coming from, I saw a whole group of kids from the estate in a circle, cheering, laughing and taking pictures with their mobiles of these two vicious dogs attacking and mauling each other. I swear I saw one draw blood.

I shivered. I would never forget that sound – ever.

The boys glanced at me but must have decided that I wasn’t worth it. Besides, one of them, the tallest one, had already seen the girl in the niqaab.

“Oi, fellas, look!” he called out. “It’s Bin Laden’s missus!”

They all fell about laughing at that and I saw the girls huddle together, ever so slightly.

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