Red Halos
Surprises come when you least expect them
Magdalene’s father is reluctant, he says the fighting may soon stop, but still the family is forced to flee.
They travel by boat from Juba. At Kosti they catch a train to Wadi Halfa where a friend waits to drive them across the border into Egypt and on to Aswan at the base of the river Nile. From there they will take another boat to Cairo, a train to Alexandria and a ferry across the Mediterranean to Limassol in Cyprus, her father’s birth island.
An old familiar voice calls, ‘Costaki, mou.’ Dino’s face surfaces in the crowd at Wadi Halfa train station.
The friends share the same name, Constandinos, but her father is much older and smaller, so as a joke, his friend calls him Costaki, affectionately interpreted as little man. In turn, Costaki has nicknamed his sizeable friend after the English word for dinosaur.
Costaki calls back. ‘Dino, mou.’
The men embrace, breathe in each other’s laugh and slap each other on the back.
Magdalene’s mother, Katerina, is next to step off the train. She sets little Taki down on the platform and greets Dino with a kiss on each cheek. Taki, impatient, pulls at Dino’s khaki shorts before being scooped up in big arms and swirled around. Taki can’t control his laughter, almost hyperventilates with delight.
Magdalene watches, framed by the carriage door. Dino sets Taki down, throws her a smile and takes her hand as she steps down. ‘Look at what I’ve brought for you,’ Dino says, moving his hand in line with her eye view.
She takes his closed hand and squeezes open each tight finger until she sees his open palm, dirty and calloused. In the centre is a brightly coloured tattoo inked red, yellow and green.
‘What is it?’ she asks.
‘What do you want it to be?’
Magdalene touches the colours and they begin to move and grow. Red halos release and encircle her. Yellow baby chickens scatter off his palm onto the dusty road. A green ball bounces into her hand before bouncing off, leaving an imprint on each fingertip. Five yellow stars glow, one for each year of her life.
