Salma, Moni and Iman heading out. Salma was the oldest but not the tallest. Moni was the tallest and the fattest. Iman had the best hair, Moni the best teeth, Salma was the most stylish. Moni had a postgraduate degree but no job. Salma’s rate for a full-body sports massage had doubled since she first started out. There was little that Iman was qualified for. Salma still spoke English with an accent, Iman’s English was poor, and Moni spoke English well but most of the time she couldn’t be bothered to speak at all. Iman could recite the Qur’an better than the other two could, Salma knew more of it by heart, it was only after giving birth that Moni had become religious. Moni could bake anything, Salma stuck to her national dishes and Iman made the best pickled aubergines. When Salma spoke people listened, when Iman spoke it brought attention to her looks, when Moni spoke she sounded highly strung. Salma, Moni and Iman together but not together, fellow travellers, summoned by Fate. Salma wanted to visit Lady Evelyn’s grave, Iman wanted to be with Salma, Moni was worried about the amount of walking involved.
Chapter Two
After driving for an hour, Salma couldn’t resist the need to check her phone. She stopped at a motorway service point after Forfar. Iman got out to use the toilet, but this did not wake up Moni. Salma reached into her handbag. She found that her phone had slipped between the pages of Lady Evelyn’s book, Pilgrimage to Mecca. The book had an introduction about Lady Evelyn’s life with plenty of photographs. As Salma pulled out her phone, she caught a quick look at the hunting lodge beneath the dark slope of a mountain on the Glencarron estate. How exciting that they were heading there now! And it would not be in black and white like in the photo. It would be spread out in late-summer colours.
The feel of the phone in her hand was a welcome relief from the waiting. Again she admired it and smiled. Checking messages had become a reflex. Her excuse was the children. They might need something. She was good at organising things from a distance. She had even set up a group page so that the six of them could circulate their whereabouts and news. At first, David had thought it unnecessary. But it did turn out to be useful when Daughter No. 2 missed her bus coming back home from school and Son No. 1 broke his arm at judo. Diligently, Salma checked the family group and sent an update of her whereabouts with a ‘miss you already’. There were no phone messages for her and only a few inconsequential emails.
On social media, there was no message from Amir either, and he hadn’t updated his status. Instead of feeling disappointed, she felt calm. It was the need to check that was becoming more and more urgent rather than the communication itself. In his last message, sent yesterday when it was late at night for him and teatime for her, he had asked her to phone him. It thrilled her of course, this request to move the relationship up a gear. They would talk properly, hear each other’s voices, maybe even use the camera and see each other. It was flattering and intriguing, but his request also flustered her. Receiving it, she skirted past David setting the table and went to check on the bubbling pasta. Phone in hand, feeling the slightest bit uncomfortable.