Out of It Read Online Free PDF

blown away by the email. The first one was about work and the Centre as it was addressed both to him and to Khalil:
     
    Dear Rashid and Khalil,
    OK, I hope you guys are doing all right. It sounds a bit rough right now. Sorry that it’s been a while, but we’ve been working late and really slogging at it here, to the extent that we hardly get to see TV and know even what we are working away at! Anyway, I always say that, don’t I? I’m just working so hard – blah, blah, blah. But that’s not what I was writing to tell you, what I am really writing to let you know is that we have managed to get the meeting with the Parliamentary Committee set up! I know, I know, I’m a star and all that. It did take a lot of lobbying and pulling strings but I hope it’s going to be worth it. We agreed that it would be best to present on the following topics:
    (1) impact of closure
    (2) impact of bombing
    (3) assassination policy
    (4) situation on the ground in general
    The meeting is taking place next week (Thursday at 6 p.m. in Westminster! In the Houses of Parliament!). I told them there was no way you guys could get here by then and they were a bit disappointed, you being the real thing and all that, but don’t worry, they still want to hear from us. Can you get some data together by then? The more numbers the better – you know: declining nutritional rates, increased unemployment statistics etc.?
    Have we missed some of the assassinations? I get the feeling only the high-profile ones are being reported over here. Let me know about any small fry, will you?
    Anyway, send us what you can get. Look forward to hearing from you guys.
    Take care,
    Lisa
     
    She had delivered. Khalil would not show it, but he would be pleased.
    The second message from Lisa was just for him. Rashid read this more carefully.
     
    Rashid,
    It was a bad call, I know, and I realise that things aren’t great for you right now, but you do have to think of alternatives to just Getting Out . What you are doing at the Centre with Khalil is really important, honourable work. I know you don’t like voluntary work—
     
    Nor, as he had spelt out to her on numerous occasions, did he like being dependent on hand-outs from his father when he was twenty-seven years old.
    but we rely heavily on the data that the Centre provides, and I know that you are fed up and cynical but these things can make a difference. It is a war—
     
    Rashid had tried to explain to her on the phone that it was not a war, that it was more of a cage fight , where the other side could throw these flying kicks but their side was limbless or heavily disadvantaged in some way and kept getting disqualified for spitting. The audience loved it. He could hear them rattling their cutlery, but Lisa had grown impatient at the cage fight analogy.
     
    It’s not really something that you can just escape from. It’s part of you, part of your family. You have to remember that.
    I just wanted you to know that I think of you and worry about you. I do hope that you get the scholarship if that is what you really want and of course I would love you to be here, but I do so respect what you are doing and think that you would be so much happier if you viewed your situation differently.
    Miss you.
    Love,
    Lisa XXX
     
    Miss you. Love. Three kisses.
    Anyway, he had got it. Nothing else mattered. He would be there.
    Miss you. Love. Three kisses.
    London!
    Lisa!
     
    Iman’s bed had not been slept in and she was not in the kitchen either. It was his mother in the kitchen. He didn’t feel ready for his mother yet, but at least his sister was not in there trying to wash up or something. There was this state of mal-co-ordination that came over her after a night like the one before. Suds slipped out of basin on to the floor. She broke things. She walked into chairs that were where they were meant to be.
    Rashid’s mother stood firm in the kitchen, frying meat and onions in a vat. She was wearing her long,