As if I had become happy: I went back. I pressed the doorbell more than once, and waited… (perhaps I am late. No one is opening the door, not a groan in the hallway). I remembered my house keys were with me, so I apologized to myself: I forgot about you, come in. We entered…I am the guest and the host in my house I looked around at all that space contains, I found no trace of me, perhaps…perhaps I was never here. I didn’t find a simile in mirrors. I thought: Where am I? And then screamed to awaken from hallucination, but I couldn’t…I broke like a voice rolling over the marble. And said: So why did you return? Then I apologized to myself: I forgot about you. Leave! But I couldn’t. I walked to the bedroom, Dream rushed toward me and embraced me asking: Have you changed? I said: I have changed, because dying at home is better than being run over by a car on my way to an empty square!

Translated from the Arabic by Fady Joudah