6

Thanks for coming to meet me in this nasty weather, Suad.” She and our young housemaid, Warrood, were waiting for me as they did every Monday and Thursday when I left my math class at the Technicom Institute a few blocks uphill from our home. We leaned against each other as we walked under two umbrellas and headed toward the narrow pathway of the campus. Except for the students, the streets were almost empty. Not one car passed us, and police officers stood on each corner in pairs or in groups of three.