Saba dried her body and stood by the pole, as water dripped from her hair. She wrapped her arms around herself. A tremor of unsatisfied desire went through her. It took her a while before she managed to contain the fire under her wet skin. Instead of walking up to her mother, Saba sat on her blanket and asked her mother, in a low voice, what had happened.

Her mother didn’t respond. Saba let out a long breath as if relieved by her mother’s silence. But a familiar guilt resurfaced quickly when the mother hunched herself into a ball, making herself small. Seeing her mother in this position stirred Saba’s soul, yet she couldn’t move, she couldn’t rush to her mother’s side. She was sure that in the past she had known how to react to her mother’s sadness.

Her head throbbed. She stood up, and was about to leave the hut, when the midwife arrived with Samhiya’s mother. Saba lay back on the blanket and faced the wall, but she could still hear their conversation.

You should know by now, said Samhiya’s mother. People talk. You have dodged bullets, you will survive sharp tongues. Come back, our coffee will get cold.

How can I sit there and listen to the things they are saying about my son? said the mother. You know what that man asked me, ah, why a wealthy educated businessman from the city is interested in a villager who is mute and cannot read or write?

Stop whimpering. At least they are not talking about her, for once, said the midwife, bringing a smile to Saba. And don’t let crying be your first response. Can you not see it is good news?

What’s good about people belittling my son?

Saba smiled when her mother talked back at the midwife, an elation that didn’t last when the midwife said: Think for yourself and try to understand why Eyob is doing it. I expected you to realize this, but let me explain.

You don’t need to explain, said the mother. That man told me my son is … I can’t even say it.

God forgive us, said the midwife. Don’t even say it. We don’t have these things in our culture. Eyob is a man of God. He was married and he has a son. How can he do that if he goes with boys, ah? But people in this camp are jealous of your son and you.

The midwife laughed. Listen to this carefully. Men, my dear, are easy to read. The businessman is in love with Saba and he is waiting for her to become a woman.

That makes sense, Saba heard Samhiya’s mother say. In our country, men used to buy jewellery to make a girl love them. But we are in a camp, and all we have left is each other to use to get what we want.

Saba lifted the scarf off her face and glared at the wall. The women talked about her as if she wasn’t in the hut. As if she couldn’t hear. Yet, she was the centre of their attention. And for that they had to make her invisible in their eyes.