Saba felt the urge to enter the screen and reach Jamal, fulfil his fantasy because it was hers too. And as she stood up and put one leg through the screen – the cinema yet to open its doors to the public – her body shook as if she was back on top of the camel during her journey to the camp. Come, said Jamal, extending his hand towards Saba. Come. Saba. Sabbina. Come.

I still recall that summer evening inside Cinema Silenzioso when a naked Saba crouched on my face. My eyes travelled across the long back of this woman I had loved since the first night in the camp. Above her arched neck, the stars glimmered around the moon. The call to the last prayer of the day was being announced via the plastic megaphone.

Saba rearranged herself, spreading her map of love over me.

This is our time, she said. This is my time.

I wanted to speak but I was breathless.

Saba caressed my face as I inhaled the scent of her, the scent of her history, the battles she had won and lost, her rage, her frustrated dreams, the violence on her thighs, the rivers of desire inside her womb.

She let go.

She filled my mouth from her rivers, so warm that as it slid inside me through my throat, I felt riches invading me, gushing towards my soul, the White Nile and its water running between my ribs.

The strings of the singer’s krar played a mournful song nearby. The forest whistled. That impious breeze of the summer wafted against my cheeks. Like a famished soul, I tried to grasp the warm air, my hands fluttering at my sides. Saba pushed down with her weight, screwing the lock of my existence to her being even more. North and south finally reunited, Saba erasing the boundaries that have separated us for so long.

THE GOAT

A lizard scurried across Eyob’s compound and up the wall of the kitchen hut. Saba gathered her hair and tied it into a knot at her nape. Her silhouette curved against the bundle of coloured clothes she’d yet to wash. She dipped her hands into the bucket and washed Eyob’s gabi. The goat bleated. It jumped and kicked. Tedros stormed out of his hut, with the white cloth still tucked into his shirt pocket. He screamed at the animal: Shut up, I need to sleep.

The goat continued its bleating. Tedros flung himself towards it and knocked it to the ground with a punch. Saba jumped over the bucket and rushed to the animal. Tedros grabbed her by her arm and dragged her inside the latrine.

Remember the spit on my face because of that goat? You will now pay for it. I am going to spoil you before my father even touches you.

Do it. The wedding night will be interesting when the white cloth you carry remains white and your guests have nothing to celebrate.

I always knew you were a slut. Just like my mother.