"Where have you been?"
I turned my face in the direction of the voice. There he was, standing at his vegetable stall in the weekly market, filling a brown paper bag with strawberries for one of his regular customers. An Iranian young man with Middle Eastern features, in his twenties, I would say. I smiled and replied, "I was on holiday with my family. Did you go anywhere too?"
"Yes," he said, "to a small town nearby. Mind you, my girlfriend wanted to go to Paris, but I resisted her! I am saving it for the one!" he explained. Seeing my shocked look, he quickly added, "The one I am going to take to Paris should share our traditions, you know! Like us from the Middle East!"
I saw my son coming out of the school, abruptly waved goodbye to him, and hurried away, furiously thinking, "Who is ‘US’?!