MARSEILLE

For her birthday, Amina asked to go on a trip. Her husband had travelled for work the previous month, and, although that wasn’t exactly for pleasure, it was now understood that anything which freed them from child care could be considered some type of holiday.

- Ayşegül Savaş

Besides, they were trying to allow each other leisurely activities—evenings out, morning runs, a movie from time to time. And, recently, nights away. They wanted to find ways of easing back into their life, which had been on hold since the baby was born.

It was so simple to slip into that old self, free of obligations; the exchange happened so naturally. Amina was already bored in the half hour she had to wait at the train station in Lyon, even though such time was hard to come by. She bought a coffee and a pack of biscuits, then sat on a bench, scrolling restlessly on her phone. Though this was her first trip away from the baby, who had recently turned one, it didn’t really feel momentous. It felt, rather, as if she were putting on a coat she hadn't worn in a long time, whose shape and texture she remembered immediately.

She was going to Marseille to meet her university friends Alba and Lisa, with whom she had studied in England. They were travelling from Madrid and Zurich and would arrive at the rental apartment at around the same time as Amina. It was Lisa who'd arranged everything—set the dates, booked an apartment, compiled a list of restaurants and neighborhoods they should go to. Amina and Alba had reverted to their old joke that Lisa was their travel agent; she'd account for their hours of sleep, for every minute in the bathroom.

Amina sent her friends a photo of herself making an excited face on the platform.

Eeeee, Alba responded. Lisa sent instructions for retrieving the keys, in case the others arrived before she did.

On the train, Amina sat next to a woman travelling alone with her baby, who was refusing to nap despite the mother’s frenzied attempts. Amina looked up from her reading now and then to offer the woman understanding smiles, meant to signal that she felt for her, that she didn't mind the baby’s crying, but from the woman's perspective she must have appeared smug, with her book and coffee.