02.31 XORIYO
Outside the tent Xoriyo hears churning, snuffling in the sand but out in the bright moonlight there is nothing there, just mole rat holes, dig scrapes, camel dung, she decides to walk home but where the compound was there is … Continue reading
05.15 Xoriyo
Xoriyo listens, learning English. Her Father has told her, listen for the words inside words. cast ford new gate gran peter king cross She asks her Mother, ‘Did you sleep at all in the night?’ ‘Of course, when you were … Continue reading
06.12 Xoriyo
The words inside words. field chest by on worth new street park way temple taunt abbot saint david tot mouth She loves the waiting sound, then the pitch rising, the pulling away. She is amazed her brother’s don’t wake, how … Continue reading
07.30 XORIYO
darling ham castle mouth wick tweed wave hay market mother well go central Sitting with the map spread on the bed, her father shows Xoriyo the places, it is a map for trains and had been useless in the minibus … Continue reading
09.05 XORIYO
out wood fit william south elm all wick bent cast meadow hall field Her Father suggests, ‘Why don’t you see which words might go together?’ She knows William is a name, she has seen photographs in the newspaper of a … Continue reading
11.00 XORIYO
Her mother has gone looking for the boys, her father is putting on his coat. There are only two ways to the big shop, one under the pigeons, the other past the door to Somalia. It was the boys’ fault, … Continue reading
11.57 XORIYO
Somewhere a child is yelping. Xoriyo and her father sit on the bench outside the main door of Angel Lodge. She waits for him to make his joke about the palm trees planted to make them feel at home, waits … Continue reading
12.06 XORIYO
‘No worries, no worries. Xoriyo. Xoriyo. No worries.’ Like rolling water in her mouth, fresh, no feathers, no pigeon shit. Smiling makes her warm. Looking up makes her cold. She keeps her head down. ‘No worries. Xoriyo.’ The man Muxsin ran into … Continue reading
13.45 XORIYO
Xoriyo knows what Mother and Father are doing. No one wants to go back to Angel Lodge so they follow the boys. The boys don’t know they are leading the family, they’re just following their noses, excited and full of … Continue reading
14.15 XORIYO
Her mother and father are arguing quietly about the English lady, whether she wanted to meet them because she is kind or whether someone made her meet them and why that might be. The boys are arguing about which way … Continue reading
15.05 XORIYO
Her mother and the boys go to the shop with the vouchers they were given at Angel Lodge. Xoriyo likes being with her father without the others, but today he is tight. Yesterday he taught her the queens, but today … Continue reading
15.10 XORIYO
Definitely not Wake Field. Definitely Many Different Clothes. A man and a woman wearing big metal necklaces. A lady with blue hair and a red dress. Balloon, she says aloud in English, a word she has just learnt, Pink. Green. … Continue reading
15.59 XORIYO
Xoriyo runs round the fountain and then wishes she hadn’t. She wobbles. Things are a bit blurry. There is a man in a grey t-shirt and she feels sick, can’t remember which way father was, realises you can’t hide in … Continue reading
16.06 XORIYO
The man in the grey t-shirt walks round the edge of the fountain, crosses the road and goes into Grind. Xoriyo looks at the faces of the people sitting, the man on his bike. No one is looking at her. The … Continue reading
17.20 XORIYO
Her father is in a good mood. He says, ‘At last we have met an intelligent English person.’ He walks fast. ‘We must get home before your mother starts preparing something.’ ‘Not under the bird bridge.’ ‘OK. Not under the … Continue reading
17.35
Mother Jamal Muxsin are standing outside the door of Angel House with all their bags. The driver of the black minibus who shouted at mother that time is there, smoking a cigarette, holding a piece of paper, talking on the … Continue reading
20.00 XORIYO
Xoriyo closes her eyes but can hear the lights, each one swishing air from her ears. She thought this moving had stopped, the truck, the coach, the airplane, the ship, the airplane, the minibus – then the quiet eyes open … Continue reading
20.46 XORIYO
For a while they are the only ones left in the minibus while the driver tries to work out where he is going from a screwed up piece of paper. They go up and down a street, up and down … Continue reading
22.01 XORIYO
She floats on her raft of beds, heavy with heat, fighting sleep, the beat of the TV, waiting for the baby to start crying again, Muxsin whistling across his floppy tongue, Jamal’s wheezing chest, her mother is stroking her head, … Continue reading
22.46 XORIYO
Xoriyo surges for the light, must stay awake until her father returns, ’Mother have you slept tonight?’ But she falls back from the edge, plunges. The smiley girl is waving her handkerchief and thousands of tiny birds fly out and … Continue reading