9Three days after the family meeting I was in Ghassan’s flat feeling cold, though the weather was mild as far as he was concerned. I was wrapping my hands around a cup of coffee, toasting my feet in thick socks against an electric fire and watching one of the foreign film channels. Ghassan was reading a book. His mobile phone rang. He put the book upside down on his knees and looked at the screen of his phone. ‘It’s a call from your family,’ he said.
In a single leap I was on the sofa where he was sitting. ‘My mother? Or Mama Aida?’ I asked impatiently.
He didn’t answer. He put the phone to his ear and said, ‘Wa aleekum as-salam.’ The conversation went on for more than ten minutes, and throughout it Ghassan didn’t say a single word. He just nodded and murmured ‘Mmm’ every now and then. T
