It was impossible to sleep after that. Saleem stared into the dark and listened for the sound of footsteps. He cursed Abdullah for sleeping through the whole thing. But how long had Saboor been there? Had he put his hands on Saleem as he slept?
The last thought made Saleem wild with fright. He had heard from the others about Saboor pilfering from others but nothing more than that. It was so freakish he almost believed he’d imagined the whole thing. But even under the cloak of night, it was real, fresh, and made his skin crawl.
AT DAWN, SALEEM’S EYELIDS GREW HEAVY. EVEN IN THE RELATIVE safety of daylight, it was hard to resist closing them.
Abdullah woke up and found Saleem blinking slowly.
“Eh, you are awake already? Good morning, my friend! Welcome to another day in Attiki. Wish I could offer you a proper breakfast, but if I could, then you would not get the true Attiki experience,” he quipped.
Saleem, grim faced, was suddenly alert—the slumber quickly vanished with the need to share his overnight encounter.
“Abdullah, something strange happened last night,” Saleem began, his voice tight and tense. He was not sure how his friend would react. Maybe the whole thing would sound made up.
“Not that strange, actually. Happens to all guys. Welcome to manhood, little boy.” Abdullah sat up and stretched his arms over his head.
“Listen to me for a minute, will you? I woke up in the middle of the night and Saboor was sitting right there, just over my feet.” Saleem pointed to the spot where he’d seen Saboor’s crouching figure.
“That bastard—he was trying to steal our things!” Abdullah turned around and checked for his plastic bag of belongings. He relaxed when he saw everything still in its rightful place.
“I do not know why he was here. I don’t think he was stealing anything. He was acting . . . he was acting strange.”
“Strange? What do you mean strange?”
“I mean, he . . . well, when I woke up he was . . . he was just sitting there watching me.” Saleem rubbed the fog from his eyes. It was difficult to form the words. “And then he touched my leg.”
Abdullah sat up straight. His face tightened with alarm.
“He touched your leg? Why didn’t you wake me up?”
Saleem shook his head. He didn’t know why.
“I asked him twice what he wanted and I thought that might wake you up, but then he stood up and I didn’t know what he’d done.” Saleem felt exceptionally filthy this morning. He hated that Saboor was just a few yards away.
Abdullah paused, rubbed his eyes roughly, and lowered his voice.
“There was a young boy here last month. Do you remember him? Just a little school-age kid. He was here with his older brother. Anyway, one day the kid woke up like the djinns had come for him in the night. We woke up in the morning and he was vomiting. When his brother tried to talk to him, the kid started screaming his head off. We had no idea what had happened to him but I happened to notice the boy look over twice in Saboor’s direction. Saboor gave him the iciest look I’ve ever seen. Scared me, really. Two days later, the boy ran into a busy street and got hit by a car. He died right there in the road.”
Abdullah shook his head at the memory.
“It was terrible. His brother was a complete mess after that. The police came and took him away and none of us said much of anything. He wouldn’t have survived long the way he was carrying on.” Abdullah let out a heavy sigh. The memory troubled him. “I don’t know what happened, but since then I’ve wondered if Saboor didn’t have something to do with it. There was something really strange about the way that boy looked at him. And Saboor, it was like he’d silenced the kid from across the square with just a look.”
Saleem felt his throat knot.
Abdullah sat with his bent knees drawn to his chest. His right foot tapped out the urgency of his story.