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“I wasted my school years,” Gabi said, and she felt shit about that. If she could have gifted her education and opportunities to Aisha she would, and Aisha would have done something incredible with them.
“It’s difficult to appreciate what you have when you don’t want for anything.”
Gabi fell silent and felt even more of a shit for chucking away what Aisha would have treasured. Children’s laughter broke through her pity party, and Aisha directed her to the back of a building and into a small, gated area.
“This way.”
Gabi’s stomach did a jig, and her heart raced. And then she saw their faces as each one of the children looked up at her in turn, a Mexican wave of big smiles, white teeth, tanned skin, and dark hair. They were beautiful, and she had to bite back the sudden rush of emotion.
“Children, this is Gabi. What do we have to say?”
“Hello, Miss Gabi,” they said slowly in unison in English.
Aisha smiled. “We’ve been practising.”
“Hola a todos,” Gabi said.
The two girls giggled. The boys jumped to their feet and ran towards a dog-eaten, brown-skinned football.
One of the girls, no more than six years old, got to her feet and came to Gabi. She took Gabi’s hand and led her back to the other girl and pointed at the ground.
Gabi put the rucksack down and sat with them. The girl touched the back of Gabi’s neck, toyed with her short hair, and smiled.
“I’ll get some drinks,” Aisha said.
Gabi widened her eyes. “You’re leaving me here alone?”
“I’m just going inside. I’ll be back in a minute.”
The second girl, sitting cross-legged, pointed at the rucksack. Gabi noticed a scar on her cheek that looked like a burn mark. There was something captivating about her that Gabi couldn’t define.
“What’s in there?” she asked.
“Do you like to sew?” Gabi opened the bag and started to unpack.
The girl nodded. “My name’s Marta.”
“Would you like to make some jewellery?”
Marta nodded. She dived into the pile of bags and started looking inside them.
Gabi’s initial response was to create some sense of order, but she held back from controlling the girls and watched their eyes light up as they discovered the coloured leather laces, beads, carved wooden shapes, and the metal animals that Gabi had thought would be good for making a charm bracelet.
“My name’s Verónica,” the girl who had been playing with Gabi’s hair said.
“What do you want to make, Verónica?”
She held up a metal figure. “What’s this?”
“It’s a dolphin.”
“It’s pretty.”
“Would you like to make a chain for it?”
Verónica held the dolphin between her fingers and looked at it from every angle and frowned. “Can I keep it?”
Gabi smiled. “Yes. You can keep everything in here and what you don’t use today, maybe you can use another day.”
