An interior life

Daytime view out kitchen window

 

      Our house turns inward.  It is surrounded by a high cement wall and oriented toward an interior air shaft.  There are bars on all the windows.  On the north side of the house, outside the kitchen and the dining room, there are heavy green shades fastened down.

Other view from living room

View from picture window

     "Stay in your cell," advised the Desert Fathers, "and your cell will teach you all things."  Staying in this cell brings me the blues, so Maxine and I go out every morning.
     The trick is to leave after 9, when the mosquitoes stop being so bothersome, and to get home before 10, when the sun becomes brutal.  I tame Maxine's wild and wonderful hair. We slather sunscreen on us, and spread insect repellent on Maxine's legs and ankles. We fill our water bottles, pack a snack  for Maxine, find her hat and sunglasses, select which shoes she will wear, and find her bear to carry in her princess backpack.  I fashion a headband by wrapping my washcloth around a cord, stuff one pocket with tissues and the other with paper napkins for wiping my brow, grab my hat, and work the keys in the two sets of double-bolted locks.  We're off!
    We might walk to the public library, or to Fazaa, the general store that has everything from baby mattresses to glitter.  We can venture as far as Multi, the crammed grocery story, or find a path to the Indian Ocean.  We might buy stickers at the Book Nook, a paper-goods store staffed by our next door neighbor, Nasim.  Wherever we go, we stop every day at the corner store, where we can buy bananas, eggs, milk, butter, cheese, and cookies.  And of course a treat for Maxine.

Corner store