Minaret: A Novel by Leila Aboulela

Author:Leila Aboulela [Aboulela, Leila]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780802170149

Twenty

e shook hands. I thought we would laugh but we didn't, not like yesterday on the phone. He had answered, not one of his flatmates, and I had teased him saying, `Do you recognize my voice?' When he immediately said my name, we laughed. But now, meeting face to face, we were awkward, self-conscious. To avoid arriving too early, I had showed up too late and that annoyed him. Also `in front of Marble Arch tube station' wasn't specific enough. I had gone from Speaker's Corner and walked up and down in front of McDonald's. Anwar stood in the same spot, looking at his watch, waiting.

He looked different, broader, maybe because he was wearing a thick blue jacket. I had never seen him wearing a jacket before. It looked cheap as if he had bought it from C&A. I said, `Let's go for a walk in the park.' He said, `It's too cold, let's sit somewhere and have coffee.' His left leg was stiff when he walked; he limped a little. `Did you injure it?' I asked but he just looked away as if he hadn't heard me. We wandered around, looking for somewhere suitable. This place was too crowded, that looked like a restaurant and we didn't want to eat. Things were much simpler in Khartoum University. I said that and he smiled.

Finally, we found a coffee shop, an empty table. I took off my coat. He looked at my sweater and jeans, took out his cigarettes. `You're not allowed to smoke in here.' I pointed towards the sign. He flushed and shook his head, put the packet back in his pocket. Had he always been that touchy?

`When did you come from Khartoum?' I asked him.

December.'

`You've been here all this time and you didn't get in touch?'

He smiled and looked a bit more relaxed. `I went to Manchester when I first came - I have a cousin there. Then I came here and it took some time to settle. I thought I would meet you in the street one day. I used to look out for you. I thought I would he in the underground station going down the escalator and then I would see you on the other side, on the escalator going up.'

I laughed. `We wouldn't have met then. You would have gone to catch your train and I would have walked out of the station.'

`I thought about that. I would have called out to you and told you to wait for me at the top ...'

`Shouting in the middle of the station - what a scandal!'

He laughed. `People would just think, "Look at the stupid foreigner.- He looked away. 'I'm realizing I can make my way here pretending I'm stupid - they kind of expect it - but anyway,' he looked back at me, `I did hope we would meet by chance.'

`London isn't that small.'

It isn't. It's a big city.'

`What do you think of it?'

He made a face as if to say, `Wow.'

I tried to see London as he would see it, not like my second home.

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