A Midsummer Weekend (The Extended Version)

6. Aftermath of the Afterparty

Farah

"Come on hurry up", I heard a knock on the bathroom stall.

"Give me a second! It's so difficult to change in this cramped space"

Ameerah and I were back in the student hostels getting ready for the Afterparty. As we were told by the young lady who handed me the 250 Euros as prize money, the conference encouraged students to work hard and then party harder. That should have been our first indication of what we would encounter, but the naive young women that we were, we just happily walked over to our rooms to put on our casual clothes.

The hostel was made up of several rooms, each with 6-8 bunk beds, and a large common area with a kitchenette and a table tennis setup along with several comfy sofas and floor cushions. Ameerah and I were assigned to two different rooms, and when we had tried to change it so we were in the same room, we were told that the assignment was random and were encouraged to get to know people other than those who we already knew.

All the beds in our rooms were occupied with people's belongings by the time we had reached the hostel that morning. We were already running late for my presentation so we too dumped our things and hurried out. When we had returned later that afternoon there was still only a couple of females in either of our rooms.

"Where is everyone?", I asked one of the other girls in my room who was sitting on the lower part of one of the bunk beds trying on a pair of aviator style sunglasses that seemed vaguely familiar.

"They're at the pool party", she told me, tossing the glasses on to the mattress of the top bunk.

Wow...there is a pre-party for the afterparty!

There was no way I was joining anyone in the co-ed swimming pool, so Ameerah and I decided to walk to a small museum we had noticed on campus and check out their exhibition on the history of East and West Germany. After WWII parts of Germany that were liberated by the the American, British and French formed West Berlin and the Soviet sector became East Berlin. The wall between these two sections, also called the Berlin Wall, would remain in place for 45 years after that. Dividing the nation, and with it families and friends, businesses and neighborhoods. The two parts of Germany finally unified in 1990.

"Imagine if Kamran was on one side of the wall and you on the other. How long would you be willing to wait for him?", Ameerah asked in a serious tone.

The idealist answer would have been 'forever', but I was never an idealist. And while Kamran and I were not separated by a wall, just a vast stretch of land and water, Ameerah's question was as valid for me in real life today, as it may have been if I was living in Germany pre-1990.

"I'd wait as long as he was willing to wait"

"And if he got married to someone else, would you move on?"

"I'd try to move on. I not am sure I would succeed"

She smiled and squeezed my shoulder, "Well I may not know much about men but something tells me that a man who writes a 1000 word essay in an email to you would wait for you forever. So I am sure you'll never face the dilemma of needing to move on"

I could only hope that was true, because I was beginning to realize that I was too far gone with my feelings for him, to turn around now.

"Acha come on, forget about Kamran for a bit. Let's go have some fun. Besides, I am still single as ever and now your job is to find me someone too", Ameerah pulled my arm while almost skipping out of the museum.

"You want me to find you someone here? We're only here for 3 days"

"Apparently even 2 days is enough to fall in love", she winked at me.