Reem spoke English even with Khalid for she had been born in Oklahoma and lived there until she was twelve. When she came to Cairo, she went to the American School in Maadi, the CAC, and the AUC, the American University in Cairo, where she was now studying Islamic Architecture. It became the custom during that summer that whenever Khalid visited Reem or took her out – which was nearly every evening – Nadia would be with him. It was Reem who insisted on Nadia’s presence, wanting to please her, to show her more of Cairo. So Nadia would sit in the back seat of the Lada, Reem in the front next to Khalid, sitting twisted on her seat so that she could talk to them both at the same time.

In a faintly Southern accent intersected here and there with Arabic words, Reem talked about how cool Khalid was, what a drag a few of her lectures were, and how awesome some of Cairo’s mosques were. While scarves and long sleeves looked drab and old-fashioned on Lateefa, on Reem they looked fashionable. Loose fishermen trousers, colourful embroidered shirts, a gypsy-like scarf tied around her head, another rectangular transparent one on top with its two ends falling to her waist, and long sparkling earrings framing her face. Lateefa didn’t seem to warm to Reem but when she wore skinny jeans and an oversized ‘I Live to Shop’ t-shirt, Nadia smiled, thinking about how much that logo suited her mother.

Reem did take Nadia shopping, in all the new air-conditioned stores that Cairo had to offer – Benetton, Mobacco, Stefanel – and Nadia was pleased that she could buy things so much cheaper than they were in London. This was not Lateefa’s Cairo; this was a Cairo which offered spin classes, McDonalds, and a Pizza Hut where Nadia could order the ‘Suber Subreme’ because the pepperoni was beef.

Reem gave her a street map, unusual in that it was in English with cartoon-like drawings of the landmarks and the Nile. So Nadia would sit in the back seat of the Lada, the map spread out in front of her, feeling as if she were in a video adventure, navigating and lurching through a virtual maze, bit by bit unlocking the access to new areas of the game world. ‘You’re going the wrong way Khalid, this is a one-way street’, she would shout. And when it didn’t matter, she learnt to laugh too.