me nervous. It felt as if I was carrying a bag full of eggs.
‘Two thousand euros for Denmark. Three thousand for Germany,’ the smuggler said. Then he paused. ‘You’re much better off going to one of those.’
‘How much to England?’
‘Seven thousand for both of you.’
‘Seven thousand!’ Afra said. ‘That’s crazy! How much does it cost to get a flight from here to England?’
The man laughed again, and she scrunched up her face and turned away.
‘This isn’t a trip to England,’ he said. ‘You are paying for our services. England is a special place – you will be safer, and it’s harder for us to get you there; that’s the additional cost.’
Afra looked as if she wanted to spit on him. I nudged her foot with mine.
‘That’s why we want to go there,’ I said. ‘We’re tired, really tired now. But we just don’t have that kind of money.’
‘How much do you have?’
‘Five thousand.’
‘In cash?’
I looked over my shoulder.
The man raised his eyebrows. ‘You’re walking around with that amount of cash on you?’
‘No,’ I said. ‘I have some in cash and the rest is in a private account. I’ll do anything, I’ll find work to make up the money. I’ll pick up rubbish, clean cars or windows or anything.’
‘Ha! Where do you think you are? Even the locals can’t find work.’
‘I’ve had enough of this,’ Afra said, standing up to leave. I grabbed her arm. Seeing my desperation, the man smiled.
‘You can do some work for me,’ he said.
‘What kind of work?’
‘Just deliveries.’
‘Just?’
‘The others are kids, can’t drive yet. I need someone who can drive. Can you drive?’
I nodded.
‘You can work for me for three weeks. If you behave yourself, then we’ll say five thousand euros for the two of you.’
‘OK,’ I said, and held out my hand to shake his, but instead he gave me a huge grin and chuckled.
Afra was quiet again, but I could feel her anger.
‘You’ll have to come and stay with me,’ the man said.
‘Why?’
‘To ensure that you don’t run off with the car and the packages.’
The rest of the ice in the plastic cup had melted now and he leant forward, taking the straw in his mouth and slurping as he’d done before.
‘And that way I’ll know you won’t run off because I’ll have Afra – that was your name, wasn’t it?’ Before she could reply, he raised his hand and asked the waiter for a piece of paper and a pen to write down an address.
‘Meet me here tomorrow at 10 p.m. If you don’t turn up, I’ll assume you’ve changed your mind.’
It was early afternoon when we got back to the park. Children were playing with a ball in the open area between the tents and blankets. Others were squabbling over marbles. Two children had made a village on the ground with stones and leaves. The thought of leaving this place filled me with energy, gave me hope, but later I found myself scanning the crowds of children, hoping to see Mohammed among them. Those black eyes, the way they filled with fear and questions, I could almost see him in front of me. It was Sami who had disappeared in my mind, and no matter how much I tried to bring him to life, to conjure an image of him, I couldn’t.
Angeliki was already sitting beneath the tree, waiting for us. Her face was covered in talcum powder again and her hands were resting in her lap. There was a stillness to her when she was like this, an aloneness that I couldn’t stand to see. Somewhere in the distance a baby was crying and I saw that her breasts were leaking again; the strong smell of sour milk hung around her.
Afra asked me to fetch the picture from under the blanket and she handed it to Angeliki.
‘You draw this?’
Afra nodded. ‘It’s for you.’
Angeliki stared at the picture and back at Afra, a long look, and I could see the questions in her eyes but she didn’t say anything more for a while; she sat with the picture in her hands, glancing down at it from time to time and then looking up again, either at the children playing or at something in her own mind.
‘In here,’ she said, ‘they hide everything they don’t want world to see. But this picture, it will remind me of another world, better world.’ And maybe she knew we were leaving, for she started to cry, then she stayed all night right beside Afra, lying down