The Girl from Everywhere

Sometimes a person has to let go of something to take hold of something else.

When I was young, I learned to expect loss. Every time you slept, something disappeared. Whenever you woke up, someone else was gone. But . . . I also learned that every day, you created everything anew. And whatever you had, you enjoyed as long as it lasted. Spend money when it’s in your pocket.” He took my hand and put the orange in it. “Eat fruit while it’s ripe.” His other hand found my cheek, his thumb brushing the corner of my mouth. “Paradise is a promise no god bothers to keep. There’s only now, and tomorrow nothing will be the same, whether we like it or not.

After all, you can only hold one person tight if you're holding on with both hands.

And once everyone agrees something is one way, all the other ways it could have been disappear.

Jealousy is nothing but a fear of being abandoned

Love makes fools of us all. He has to believe it will work, because he’s in love.

Paradise is a promise no god bothers to keep. There’s only now, and tomorrow nothing will be the same, whether we like it or not.” I bit my lip and tasted oranges; the juice was very sweet. “Is that really true?” His smile was bright in the moonlight. “I promise.” “Then I suppose . . . just tonight—” This time I did not turn away, and so I discovered that his lips were even sweeter than the orange.

I was a closed book, a rolled map, a dark territory uncharted; I was surprised by my urgency, but after all, to be known was to exist.

There are a lot of things that are illegal but not wrong. And probably more that are wrong, and still legal.

The age of exploration is long over, amira. Now it’s the age of globalization. And once everyone agrees something is one way, all the other ways it could have been disappear.” I

You know, if I had your morals, I could solve all my problems.” He shrugged one shoulder and slipped the watch back into his pocket. “If I had your problems, I could afford to have better morals.

There has to be a line, Kashmir,” I said angrily. “A person can’t do just anything for love.” He shrugged one shoulder. “I would.” “Yeah, well, you’re a thief. Your relative morality is already suspect.” “Ah,” he said then, standing. “Well. I’ll leave the morality for those that like the taste of it. I always preferred bread.

The laws of the jungle remind me of the laws of the street. When I came abroad, I had to learn a different set of laws. Everywhere we go there is a different set of laws. Most of them unwritten.

I bit my lip to keep it from trembling; he'd let me go a long time ago. After all, you can only hold one person tight if you're holding on with both hands.

His eyes were so inviting that for a moment, everything in me wanted to reveal this part of myself, as though the truth was a butterfly, wings fluttering, green and gold and quivering to be free. I was a closed book, a rolled map, a dark territory, uncharted; I was surprised by my urgency, but after all, to be known was to exist.

Blake . . . it’s inevitable,” I said, repeating the words I’d learned. “You’ve seen it on the horizon. You know what’s coming. Paradise is always lost.” “That’s a convenient turn of phrase,” he said. “But paradise is never lost. Only destroyed.

Don’t get caught. The last thing we need is for you to go to jail.” “For treason?” he said, running a comb through his tousled hair. “We wouldn’t go to jail.” “Really?” “We’d be shot.” “You always know just what to say.” “I try to look on the bright side.

Who said it was thieves who know the price of everything and the value of nothing?” “Oscar Wilde,” I said. “And it’s cynics, not thieves.” “Ah! That explains it, then.

And Mister . . . ?” “Firas,” Kashmir said, folding his handkerchief neatly and making a crisp bow. Blake’s brow furrowed as he took in the fine clothes. “A sailor?” “Her tutor,” Kashmir said smoothly. Blake cocked his head. “You’re much younger than any of my tutors.” “Baleh, I am wise beyond my years,” Kashmir said. “And of course I have a natural inclination to it. My people did, after all, invent algebra. Including the zero.

Aye, Captain!” With little effort, he swept me up and hoisted me over his shoulder, knocking the air out of me. “Shore leave!” he shouted as he trotted down the gangplank. “Kashmir!” “Ah!” he said as I pounded him on the back. “That was my kidney!” “Put me down,” I said breathlessly, “or I’ll take out the other one!” “You should know, amira,” he said, emphasizing the Persian accent he often kept hidden. “We don’t negotiate with terrorists!

There is something terrifying about seeing someone strong standing on the edge of the abyss, like a ship on the lip of a whirlpool where the whole sea plunges into the maw of Charybdis. There is that moment when they reach out—like a drowning man will—and if you’re within reach, they will pull you down with them. I didn’t want to stand there beside him. I didn’t want to be dragged down.

Why hold off the inevitable? Why, for the ephemeral.

Where are you going?” “Out. Like you.” He raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t press for more information. “One should always make one’s own mistakes, instead of the mistakes of others, amira.” “Out like me, then.” “Dressed like that?” “And what’s wrong with it?” “It looks like you chose the pieces by throwing darts. And you are terrible at darts. Besides, it’s much too short.” He pointed vaguely toward my ankles and winked. “The whole world can see the top of your foot. You look like a hussy.” I grabbed my skirt and flashed him my knees. He pretended to swoon. “Don’t worry. This is late Victorian, not early. More permissive.

I never knew you had such a fine eye for fabrics,” I said as we continued up the street. “You should have been a tailor instead of a thief.” “I have a fine eye for all things, amira, which is why I’m a thief and not a tailor.

I glared at him. “I wish you’d stay out of my room.” “That’s a funny joke, princess, when you’re talking to a thief.

I should have guessed Kashmir would become a nuisance. And a bad influence. But most importantly, a friend.

I was written into that map as a landmark. Before I'd even known it, I'd been a part of this place, and it was increasingly hard to pretend it wasn't a part of me. Something of it lived under my skin, indelible as a tattoo. It was the home that might have been and for the first time I felt the loss of it.