TE20 Migrant Mosaics

Disappearing

in the school playground and they would also talk about a florist

who’d help people run away in exchange for cash and about a boy who had been found drowned

he wanted to cross the danube on an inflatable mattress because he’d heard that this was the way to get to germany where his friend had already gone and one day one of emma’s classmates told them about their neighbour who was so upset about not being able to leave the country that she jumped out of her kitchen window the boy said that those who didn’t believe him could go with him as he’d show them the blood stain on the pavement they all went and the blood stain was still there still fresh right next to a hopscotch drawn in chalk the kids were all looking at the blood stain and emma could feel that someone was holding on tight to her hand it was gerd her deskmate emma liked him because he was different from the other boys he never got into fights he never spoke dirty and never spat on the ground he once cut off a piece from the bedroom curtain

to make a ball gown for emma’s doll gerd and emma were inseparable and when emma turned sixteen

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