But, with each trip, she knew that she was that much closer to seeing Tariq again,
and, with each trip, her legs became more sprightly, her arms more tireless.
“We're going to need a big taxi.” Laila looked up. It was Mammy calling down from her bedroom upstairs.
She was leaning out the window, resting her elbows on the sill.
The sun, bright and warm, caught in her graying hair, shone on her drawn, thin face.
Mammy was wearing the same cobalt blue dress she had worn the day of the lunch party four months earlier,
a youthful dress meant for a young woman, but, for a moment, Mammy looked to Laila like an old woman.
An old woman with stringy arms and sunken temples and slow eyes rimmed by darkened circles of weariness,
an altogether different creature from the plump, round faced woman beaming radiantly from those grainy wedding photos.
“Two big taxis,” Laila said. She could see Babi too, in the living room stacking boxes of books atop each other.
“Come up when you're done with those,” Mammy said. “We'll sit down for lunch. Boiled eggs and leftover beans.”
“My favorite,” Laila said. She thought suddenly of her dream. She and Tariq on a quilt.
전체재생
다음페이지
문장검색