7
Mourning
Zahra woke with a start and looked round the strange room. Ahmad was tugging at the heavy curtains. She remembered with a shock that they were in Rashid and Nasim’s house. In Iran! She jumped up, afraid he might damage something, and pulled the curtains open slowly. She blinked in the dazzling brightness and looked down at the garden below, dappled in sunlight. Pink flowers moved gently against a wall, and the spray from the nearby fountain arched in a rainbow across the grass. She stared at the green lushness, so different from the brown landscape she’d watched from the coach window, and a rush of tears tore through her body.
‘Wait there till I call you, Ahmad. Play with your toys.’ She tried to keep her voice steady as she grabbed some clothes and ran to the bathroom where
