Csilla stops and turns to face me. She shuts the door of the room and then responds very quietly and calmly. She wants to humiliate me. She looks at me like nobody ever has. She looks down on me!
“Well, Jamal, too little too late. I’m Catholic and so is Anna. She has been christened.”
My world turns upside down. My hands clench. This is the one time I’m really close to beating Csilla. Perhaps she doesn’t even know how crushing her words are. This is the most important aspect of my life.
The birth of a child is a very important event in my culture. We whisper the ‘Shahadah” or declaration of faith in the newborns’ ears. These are the first words they hear. Babies don’t need to be named immediately at birth, only during the following week. When we name the child, we shave off his or her h
