NELLE 8 | 2025
Excerpt
—Kigali. Rwanda, 1994
Scene One, April 1:
I answer a ringing phone. A woman asks for The American. Slams down the phone when she hears my voice. I tell him.
“Another woman trying to make me give her money. Her father was just out of jail and needs medicine.”
A change in character from a man who never bought anything for anyone. I let it slide.
Scene One, April 2:
USAID provides a house and watchmen for The American.
He’s responsible for his maid, a village girl. She approaches him.
“Sir, I would like to have time off in the day to continue my English classes at The American Club. My previous employer allowed me to go.”
He glares at her. She turns her gaze down to the floor and walks away.
“That incapable, stupid baboon, she’s crazy, a waste of money.”
That nag in my chest, like an invisible hand, squeezes my
heart, and I think of booking a return flight to Germany.
Read as PDF: The World Ends: Scenes from a GenocideOpens a PDF.