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MARCHING POWDER

‘Who is it?’ I yelled through the closed door, assuming it was another tourist and not really caring if the taxista heard me or not.

‘Tho-mas Mc-Fa-dden,’ came the call again, closer this time. I opened the door. It was a taxista called Freddy. He had climbed the two flights of stairs and was now looking up at me from the bottom of my wooden ladder and waving for me to come down.

‘Who is it?’ I asked him again.

‘Your chica. Your girlfriend.’ My heart started racing. I had to be careful not to get too excited, though; the taxistas always said that any girl who came to visit was my girlfriend.

‘What does she look like?’

‘Your chica! The beautiful one! Hurry up! She’s waiting.’
It had to be her! But I wanted to be certain, so I asked again. ‘What does she look like, Freddy?’

‘How many novias do you have, inglés?’ he teased me, showing his toothless smile and holding out his hand for a coin.

‘Freddy, I’m serious. What does she look like?’

‘You don’t even know what your own girlfriend looks like! Lend me a boliviano, Thomas. Please! I haven’t eaten. I’m hungry.’

I reached into my pocket, threw him a silver coin and received my answer immediately.

‘Long black hair. Good body. It’s her. The one you have been waiting for. Your israelita. The one from before. ¡Apúrate! Everybody is trying to steal her from you!’

I was so excited that I slammed the wooden door behind me without thinking and leapt down the stairs, two at a time, almost falling over at the bottom. Freddy chased after me, begging for more coins, but I was going too fast for him to keep up. I rounded the second corner without looking and crashed into Ricardo, who was on his way up to visit me. I didn’t have time to stop and explain. Halfway down the next set of stairs I began to worry about whether I looked OK. But it was too late for that now. I had to get to the gate in case the guards turned Yasheeda away. Behind me, I could hear Ricardo calling something after me, but I was already too far away to hear what it was.

Yasheeda!

There she was, more beautiful than I remembered. One of the guards was trying to make her leave. I went straight up to the bars, ignoring the head taxista’s warning to keep my distance.

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