WILLOCK 42

My conversation with Princess Hasmin had taken the better part of me, to the extent that I forgot everything I had in mind and all my anxiety. We spoke of the artistic things in this house, of the party, and how somehow it was draining her energy. She actually ended up telling me that during that day when we met, she was just looking for a way to pass time with me; it was always something she did when bored in apartheid, and no gentleman in the royalties bachelor courtship programs interested her. She added that she came to know my name from Amir. He had told her the whole story—that I was his teenage friend while pursuing his education overseas. We quite spoke a lot when I remembered my conversation with Amir.

“When do you tend to marry?” I asked, inasmuch as I knew I did not make that statement as well as was expected of me.

“To marry?” She asked, looking at me with weird eyes, and I knew, yeah,