The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid

Author:Mohsin Hamid [Hamid, Mohsin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2022-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

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Anders had heard that the militants had begun to clear people out, dark people, running them out of town, and when he saw cars pull up to his house he knew what it meant, though it is perhaps always a surprise when what one is waiting for, what one is dreading, a calamity of this magnitude, actually happens, so Anders was prepared and not prepared, but prepared as he was, he was not expecting one of the three men who came for him to be a man he knew, a man he was acquainted with, it made it much worse, more intimate, like being shushed as you were strangled, and Anders did not pause for them to get to his door, Anders opened it himself, and he stood there in the doorway, his rifle in his hands, a ready carry, with muzzle high, the son an echo of his father on a hunt.

Anders hoped he looked more brave than he felt, and the three of them were armed but they stopped when they saw him, a few paces away, and they stared at him with contempt and fascination, and Anders thought the one he knew stared at him with enthusiasm too, like this was special for him, personal, and Anders could perceive how self-righteous they were, how certain that he, Anders, was in the wrong, that he was the bandit here, trying to rob them, they who had been robbed already and had nothing left, just their whiteness, the worth of it, and they would not let him take that, not him nor anyone else.

But they did not particularly relish that he had a weapon and seemed to have grabbed part of the initiative, that was their role after all, and they were not expecting this from him, and it muddied the simplicity of the situation, and so they halted, and they faced off, his acquaintance, the two strangers, and Anders, and Anders said hello guys, what can I do.

They spoke, and Anders listened, and in the end the men said he had better be gone when they got back, and Anders said they would have to see about that, and as Anders said it he almost believed he would stay, and he had an anger in his voice, an anger he was glad for, despite their dismissive smiles, but when they withdrew to their cars and Anders felt the magnitude of his relief, a relief that washed over him and drenched him with defeat, he knew that he would be gone, that, mere minutes hence, he would be fleeing, and this place, his place, so familiar, would be lost to him, his no longer.

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