26

Ana had never seen Binta in clothes before, and it made quite a pronounced difference. Dressed in the kind of clothes she had worn when she had been arrested, she looked like just an ordinary girl from the provinces. She was sitting on the sofa in Ana’s Jadid flat, her legs crossed, thumbing through a newspaper. It was Ana who looked most like a prostitute in the work clothes she hadn’t bothered to change after a day in the office mostly spent in anxious anticipation of this very moment. She had earlier lent Binta a spare key to her flat, who, after being released from the Brothel, made her way there across the city, while Ana was pretending that this day was really no different from any other, even though it was the day for which she’d been most longing for the last two months.

The day had been meticulously planned ever since she received a phone call during work from a man she’d never spoken to before who greeted her with considerable familiarity and asked if he could see her after having met her at Kerhala’s party. Ana hadn’t been to any parties recently, or indeed at all in her time at Blad, but she knew from the coded reference that this could only be the long awaited contact from the Agdal Embassy. The man arranged to meet Ana at a café in the Honey district, and elaborated no further. Ana was impatient to know at last the outcome of her application, but prudently asked no compromising questions.

When she arrived at the café at the due time there was no man waiting for her and no man arrived. Instead, a tall woman with black curly shoulder-length hair and a summer dress approached her, asked her name and introduced herself as Kerhala. Ana was then guided to a table hidden behind a post inside the café, and sat opposite the woman, facing the kitchen and hidden from the street. The woman then informed her that she was an employee of the Agdal Embassy, as Ana had already surmised, that her real name was not really Kerhala and that Ana’s application had been successful. What was now required of her were passport photographs of herself and Binta to be sent to the Agdal Embassy as anonymously as possible. The two girls would be issued with Agdal passports which they would need to exit the country. These would be presented to them just before their departure. To receive them, Ana and Binta would be met at a certain café not far from the border with Agdal on the day after Binta’s release from the Brothel. Kerhala then went on to explain to Ana exactly what was required of the two conspirators to secure their elopement.

The cost of this troubled Ana as she looked around her flat, at the posters on the wall and the television she had spent so many hours watching. All this was to be abandoned. All that would be salvaged was only what she and Binta could get into her suitcases, and most of that was clothing. She had cashed as much as she could from the bank, and everything else she’d acquired was to be lost forever. Nobody was warned of their departure - not even their closest friends, and certainly not Mr Madir. Ana was not to give notice that she would leave and nobody was to know that Binta would ever see Ana on leaving the Brothel. She had attended work on this, her last day, as on every other day, accepting every humiliation the Director visited on her with exactly the same resignation as on any other day, and the following day not bother to call in sick until quite late. Nobody’s suspicions should be prematurely aroused.

She had also been required to keep her contact with Binta to the bare minimum, and they were instructed never to use any intermediaries, however apparently trustworthy. This was to protect their friends in the inevitable interrogations which would follow when it was discovered that Ana had absconded. Those few contacts Ana had with Binta were kept as brief as possible, and their main purpose was to arrange where they should meet, which was why Ana had presented her with a key to her flat. The only other thing required from Binta was a passport photograph, which fortunately Ana was able to obtain from a copy of the standard advertising literature for prospective clients of Binta’s services. She was also advised to give no impression that she and Binta were at all likely to meet on the day of Binta’s release.

Ana put down her handbag and raced over to Binta who looked up at her with a broad smile. “You’re free!” she exclaimed. “Free!”

Binta grinned, opening her arms to embrace Ana. “Yes I am! At last! After all these years. I’ll never have to make love to a man ever again.”

The two lovers kissed passionately, happy in the knowledge that there was no one to interrupt them, and indeed for the first time since before Ana’s fateful evening at Bezaffa’s home. Their arms locked around one another and Ana felt the familiar warmth of Binta’s body through the plain cotton blouse and skirt she wore over her hidden flesh.

“You have a very nice flat, Ana,” remarked Binta. “I didn’t know people ever lived with so much space. So much of it! And all yours.”

“Not for much longer,” mused Ana sadly, looking around her. “I’ll miss it! I’ll have to leave behind almost everything. I’ll never see it again. I’ll never see the bedroom, the shower, the television, the kitchen, ever again. But it’ll be all I’ll regret leaving. And you? You found the flat alright?”

“It wasn’t easy. I didn’t realise how big a city could be. All I’d ever seen of Blad was what I saw from the Brothel. I didn’t know how far it spread out. There’s so much of it! I was really disorientated. I could walk any way I wanted, but I just didn’t know where to go.”

“Did you catch a bus?”

“A bus? No, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know where any of the buses went. I just walked. It was miles! And the pavements are so hard. My feet are just a mess of blisters! But after being in the Brothel for so long and not being able to walk any distance, walking was really enjoyable, I can tell you.”

“How did you find Jadid?”

“I just asked people. And looked at street maps. I didn’t know it was so far from the Brothel. And the streets all look the same! I had your map, the one you drew me. That helped a bit when I actually arrived in Jadid. When I found the post office you told me about, and saw places with names like The Jadid Video Arcade and The Jadid Community Centre, I knew I was in the right place. It wasn’t difficult then to find your block of flats. It was a horrid climb up all those steps!”

“Did anyone see you come in?”

“I remembered what you said. There was that concierge at the door. I told him I was a friend of Zuja’s. That was the name you said, wasn’t it?”

Ana nodded. Zuja was a girl on the top floor who had a large number of friends, and another visitor for her wouldn’t attract any attention to the fact that Ana, for one of the few times she’d been in the city, was entertaining a visitor. Anything, however small, which might alert anyone to something unusual in Ana’s routine could sabotage the whole endeavour.

“Oh! It’s wonderful to see you here!” Binta gushed. “I’ve been looking forward to this moment for so long. I’ve been counting off the days, counting off the clients, one by one, just waiting for the moment when I could be sitting here waiting for you!”

Ana gripped Binta as tightly as she could. “Me, too! Every day! Every hour! It’s been unbearable! And not daring to speak to you: that’s been the worst! I was dreading that I might get back here, and you weren’t here. That you were somewhere else...”

Binta looked into Ana’s eyes with a troubled expression. “You still doubted me?” she said betraying hurt in her voice.

Ana nodded gravely. “Or I thought some other disaster might happen. I don’t know. Any disaster. That the police had found out that we were planning to leave. That the Director had found out. That Khedra had chosen this day to pay me a surprise visit. But you’re here! That’s all that matters! Oh! I’m so happy! We’re together at last! And we’ll never have to go back to that hateful Brothel ever again! How do you feel about not having to go back?”

“It’s a hideous nightmare that I’ve finally woken up from. Did I really have sex with all those disgusting men? And I was kept busy right to the end. It was horrible! They kept threatening to lower my grade if I performed badly, and, as you know, the lower the grade the more disgusting the client. And Khedra kept trying to persuade me to stay on as a prostitute when I finish. She told me that life as an employed prostitute was fundamentally better than that of a prisoner in the same place. Once I earned money, I’d appreciate it more. You didn’t find that, did you?”

Ana shook her head, although it was true that her income had increased quite dramatically since she started working part-time in that capacity. “I’ll never have to see the Director again! Those horrid cigars he smoked. The taste of them was foul. All those vile things he got me to do. He was particularly taunting today. He told me such lies! That you had agreed to work in another brothel and that you were likely to share a flat with Ferhana when she leaves.”

“Did you have to ...?”

Ana nodded her head. “Let’s not talk about the Brothel. I never want to see it again. One thing that most upsets me about it is that I shall never get paid for the last month I worked. All that suffering for nothing!”

“I’ll miss the other girls,” sighed Binta.

“Like Ferhana?” snarled Ana.

“Oh, Ana! Please forget Ferhana. But, yes, I will miss Ferhana. She was a good friend. And Zabba, Ketaba and all the others. I’ll probably never meet them again. Ever.”

“In a way I hope I never do. They’ll only remind me of the Brothel. I want to forget every detail of it. I want to start afresh with you. Every aspect of that chapter in my life to be erased forever from my memory. That’s what I want. The only thing I want left of my time there is you. Nothing else. Just you!”

Binta kissed Ana passionately. “And I, you! That little room in which I was confined for so many hours, with the stains and smells of the clients. Those long corridors. That horrid mirror. The light above the door. Never again. I don’t even care what happens to my little garden. Slugs and greenflies can eat every morsel of it. I don’t care if I never work in a garden ever again!”

“I’ll miss never seeing Rif again. I wonder if I’ll ever see any of my family again. They don’t know I’m leaving. The first they’ll ever know is when I write them a letter from Agdal. They don’t even know that I work in a Brothel - and certainly nothing about my non-secretarial work. They’d be horrified if they knew!”

“Where have you said you’ve been working?”

“An insurance company. I thought of making up a name, but they might suspect something, so I told them it was Floose & Co. I’ve been dreading that they’d visit me and find out that I’d been lying. And of course I haven’t told them anything about you, except that you’re a friend of mine. I don’t know whether I’ll ever have the courage to tell them the whole truth. They would be so ashamed.”

“My parents don’t know about you either, Ana. I’ve written to them, but I’ve always had to be careful about what to say. My father’s never written to me. My mother’s letters are always so evasive. She doesn’t admit even in her letters exactly where I’ve been sentenced and the reasons why. I might as well be abroad in Agdal already as far as she’s concerned. She doesn’t seem to expect me to come home again either. It may even be a relief to her if I’m abroad and they have no reason to feel ashamed for never seeing me again. I’ll never see Jebel again any more than you’ll ever see Rif. I look forward to seeing the countryside in Agdal. Do you think we’ll be living in the countryside? I do hope so. I didn’t enjoy walking through Blad at all.”

Ana smiled compassionately. “I hope we do, but I wouldn’t rely on it. When I asked Wahata where it was likely that we would be living, she simply said it was most likely to be where the jobs are. And most jobs are in big cities, aren’t they?”

Binta nodded sadly. “However much I’m looking forward to leaving Alif, I still have apprehensions about Agdal. I do hope we enjoy living there. But it must be better than living in Alif. Surely!”

“We’ll be able to live together. We’ll be able to be open about our love together. I don’t care where we live really. If we don’t have to worry about being arrested then I’m sure we’ll be happy.”

“Yes, you’re right!” sighed Binta. “Agdal must be better than Alif. But I can’t believe it’s going to happen. It seems so unreal. I’ve only just got out of the Brothel! It’s the first time I’ve been free to wander anywhere other than Jebel. Blad seems foreign enough to me. The tall buildings. All the people. The busy traffic. And tomorrow at this time I won’t even be in Alif at all!”

“But at least we’ll have each other!”

“Yes, we will!” said Binta with a broad grin. “We’ll be together. Free and together! Forever!” She squeezed Ana tightly to her and peppered her face with kisses. “I’ve been aching for this moment for so long. I’ve been so wanting you. Just to be close to you. Just to feel you. Oh, Ana! I love you so much!”