“There is only one person ahead of me in the queue for the phone at school, which is in the corridor near the main hall and front entrance. It is morning breaktime on April 1st. I am trembling, ill-at-ease in an A-line, dark blue, crimplene skirt, white nylon shirt and gold and blue striped tie. I look down at the floor, see rows of thin, waxed, wooden diagonals slotted together, shiny, scuffed in places. I am shaking as I squeeze a bright silver coin in my hand. It is lodged, sharply cold in the centre of my sweaty palm, embedding a round, ridged, red mark onto my skin. My cousin – soon to be adopted sister – Banoo gave me this coin in the morning, sliding it into my hand – together with a phone number – as if it were a precious weapon. She looked me in the eye, and we each swore not to tell on the other if either one of us got caught.”

From ‘In the Skin of a Stranger’ – included in the showcase