Khalid had prepared for the assault of their suitcases on the carrying capacity of his Lada. He had attached a metal frame to its roof and Nadia imagined him doing that after finishing work in the pharmacy, in the midst of moving out of his room, packing some clothes and climbing the three flights of stairs to share a room with his sister’s children. His sister, her husband and their three children lived in a two-bedroom flat in the same building. It would be his home for the coming months while Nadia and Lateefa occupied his room downstairs. Khalid’s room and sleeping in his bed were part of the rituals of the summer. Lateefa on a mattress on the floor which she rolled up in the morning and put on top of the bed. Then Nadia waking late to the din from the street below and the smell of cooking, making her way through the crowded, elaborate furniture, towards her aunt’s voice. Her aunt Salwa absorbed everyone’s news and concerns; she was like an octopus reaching out for all her relations. Especially to Khalid’s sister and her life in that more modern upstairs flat; her children’s ailments, even her husband’s problems at work seeped and overflowed down the three flights of stairs and into Aunt Salwa’s home.

‘What took you so long? You were almost the last passengers to come out.’ Khalid fastened a rope on top of the suitcases so they would not fall off.

They were late because of a scene that had taken place in the customs hall. Fingering their green Egyptian passports, lifting their suitcases off the trolley to test their weight, a lanky custom’s official told them to stand aside and open the suitcases for inspection. The weight of their bags had filled him with the suspicion that they were bringing in goods to sell in Egypt without paying custom duties. After keeping them waiting for half an hour, he demanded that every item be taken out, examined, priced and eventually taxed. Lateefa explained that all the things in the bags were gifts. The man listened unmoved as if he had heard all this before. He turned instead to wave through a group of tourists, bestowing upon them deferential smiles.