The Waiter's Wife

In the spring of 1975, Samad and Alsana Iqbal left Bangladesh and came to live in Whitechapel, London, the other side of town from Archie and Clara Jones. Samad and Archie had a friendship dating back to the Second World War, back to the hot and claustrophobic Churchill tank in which they sat side by side for three months, close enough to smell each other and to recognize those scents thirty years later when Samad emerged from Gate 12, Hegthrow, with a young wife and a paisley patterned luggage set in tow. 'Long time no see,' Archie had said, reaching out to grasp his old friend's palm, but Samad converted the handshake into a hug almost immediately, 'Archibald Jones. Long time no bloody smell.'

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