Here, what do you think of this? Nasnet asked Saba, twirling around to show off her yellow dress. My client today is one of the aid workers. Maybe he will help me get out of this camp.

Please don’t leave, said Saba.

You only say that because you are scared of losing your job, said Nasnet. Perhaps you can take my place.

Now that will only make the midwife happy, said Saba. And make her prophecy come true.

Nasnet laughed and sat on the bed next to Saba.

Can I ask you a question?

Yes, said Nasnet, putting on her earrings.

Has my brother ever come to see you?

Nasnet turned and raised her brows. Saba, I am like my doctor back home. I never reveal any information about my clients, she said. Now come and help me choose shoes to go with this dress.

MEAT

The ground around Saba’s hut shook. Thinking new refugees had arrived, she hurried to watch from her door as children scampered off in different directions, running from the herd of cows and sheep stamping their way into the square. Her mother came out too and stood next to Saba. Through the thick cloud of dust Saba noticed a man, a woman and a young girl rushing around the edges of the herd on their donkeys.

The square was taken over by animals. A bull stared back at Saba, green saliva drooling from his grass-filled mouth. How long had it been since she had seen a cow, a sheep, heard the braying of a donkey?

Saba walked closer to the animals. A goat rubbed its horn against her leg, a cockerel with a leash around its leg tried to pick at her foot. A wave of animal odour washed over the square and she breathed it all in.

Next to the woman, who had taken a kitten out of a basket and held it in the palms of her hands to show to the children around her, Saba observed a girl in a shin-length red dress, with plaited hair and a half-crescent nose ring. Saba tried to imagine what this girl’s life must be like, moving from one place to another, with this huge herd of animals. Her home the sum of fragments of different places. The young traveller went around her animals, as though they were her best friends, stroking and quieting them.

As her attention returned to the animals in front of her, Saba realized the potential for business if the nomads stayed. Seized by that impulsive thought, she ran to Eyob’s hut in the east of the camp. Saba was breathless on her arrival.

Mr Eyob.

Please. What can I do for you?

Saba hesitated to say what she was thinking, but when she heard the bray of the donkey, the lowing of the cows, she wanted these animals to stay in the camp, not only to make business, but also to make life more colourful and more real. Besides, she craved the shoro with beef that Hagos had cooked for her back home.