“And what good is that? She came to Orchid House. She disappeared from Orchid House. I’m the face of Orchid House and I was the one giving the interviews. And what are we now, at Orchid House? We’re the ones who shouted wolf when there was no wolf. So the next girl who’s afraid she’s to be harmed in some way . . . ? Exactly where is she supposed to go now that Orchid House has been thoroughly tarnished?”
There was a moment of silence before Narissa said, “So let me interview you for the film. Zawadi, you can emerge from all this as a heroine if we approach things correctly.”
“Oh, too right. This is all about your film, as usual. Everything is about your film. I want no part of it.”
“But, Zawadi—”
“No. I’m finished with you. You’ve done your damage. You stay away.”
“I know you’re angry, but don’t you see how you can channel that anger to—”
“No! Finish your bloody documentary someplace else. I want you gone.”
Deborah was compelled to intervene. She went to the door of Zawadi’s office. Both of the women were seated: Zawadi behind her desk and Narissa next to a water cooler, as if she needed distance.
Zawadi saw her first and said, “And why are you here?”
“Please don’t blame Narissa,” Deborah said. “I probably could have solved her problem by taking Bolu home with me. But my husband agreed with my dad about returning Bolu to her parents, so I didn’t think I could trust them. I didn’t want to risk it. Narissa wasn’t . . .” Deborah found she didn’t know what else to say.
Zawadi, however, did. “Get out of here. I want you out of here. People like you think this is a game. People like you haven’t got a clue what it’s like to be people like me. Or like Bolu. Or like anyone who’s not lily-white English.”
“That’s completely unfair,” Deborah cried.
“I don’t care what you think it is. Leave. Both of you leave.” Zawadi pushed back her chair and rose to her impressive height, made more impressive by the head wrap she wore. She gestured first to Deborah and then to Narissa as she said, “You’ve taken your pictures. And you have made your film. You both have what you want.” She pointed to the doorway.
A few moments of tense silence ticked by. Narissa rose. She came towards Deborah. She slipped past her and into the corridor. Zawadi’s eyes narrowed. Deborah joined Narissa.
They didn’t speak until they were outside, where Narissa squinted in the sun, her head turned in the direction of Mile End Road. She said, “It’s not the end of the world. I’ve got a lot of footage. But Zawadi’s right in one respect. This could kill Orchid House.”
“That can’t be the case,” Deborah said.
“I’m going to need a meeting,” Narissa continued, more to herself than to Deborah. “I can make a go of today but tomorrow . . . ? No. I’ll need a meeting tonight and another tomorrow morning and then perhaps I can work out what to do.”
Deborah considered this for a moment before she recalled earlier conversations with Narissa. She said, “Have you found your film’s narrator?”
Narissa laughed derisively. “Please. This is not the time.”
“Hear me out, just for a moment.”
“Look, everyone I’ve spoken to is on board with the film’s importance straightaway and two have offered to do voice-over narration once the piece is edited. But that’s not what I want. I want a presence on film, not just a voice.”
“Zawadi,” Deborah said.
“As narrator? That’s a mad idea, that is. I don’t see her helping either one of us.”
“Oh, I doubt she’d help me,” Deborah admitted. “And she won’t help you either, if you frame it as help. Thing is, Narissa, she needs you as much as you need her.”
Narissa was silent as she took this in. Finally, she said, “Orchid House. Its reputation.”
“Isn’t Orchid House the real point? Orchid House and the work it does?”
“The real point is to open people’s eyes about FGM. That it still happens and how it happens.”
“Right. But, from what I’ve learned from being here, this seems to be a cultural . . . I don’t know . . . is problem the right word?”
“It’s definitely that. Go on.”
“And at the same time, it’s something not practised as widely as it once was. Yet it’s still practised, even today. So girls are still at risk, even today. Which is what the documentary is shining a light upon.”