Karen didn’t know what to talk about with her new boyfriend, but it wasn’t uncomfortable that words failed her. Besides—Patuk always had things to talk about. Things from television or his analysis of global politics, which always ended in the collapse of the Western world. Or he just kissed her and said that he’d never seen anyone with such white skin before and such beautiful hair and lips. Karen didn’t know what to make of that. Either everyone who had laughed at her was wrong or Patuk came from a country with ideals of beauty unknown in the Western world. Maybe in Pakistan they also thought earthworms were elegant. An elegant, speedy creature, the earthworm. Maybe in Patuk’s country albinos and earthworms were divine. Definitely.

It was the first summer Karen experienced in its full summery-ness. With the smell, the birds in the morning, and, once in a while, sun that fell across the pavement.