“The tongue I’m speaking with isn’t mine either,’ she said.

1 inquired if there was anything she could claim as her own?

“At times,” she said, “all I own, the only thing that I can hold on to for as long as I want, the one and only thing no one has come for so far, is, would you believe it, a shadow?” and she smiled.

“A shadow?” I repeated, in disbelief.

She nodded.

Nuruddin Farah, Maps, loc. 300376