Nottingham Academy (Greenwood Road Campus), Nottingham, 2013
I remember it was mid-December. Me and two of my cousins (with opposite personalities) were counting the stars that made the night sky look so magical.
‘Thirty-two!’ said one of them.
‘No, it’s thirty-five!’ said the other one.
I got thirty-three but did not say it, as my mind had wandered off the counting game. Instead I was thinking: where were the clouds? It’s winter, and that’s when the clouds come, right? But soon I forgot the question and became somewhat thankful.
It seemed as if these stars had come to bid me goodbye, like most of my relatives. It was my last night in this house, the house that had been home for me all my life.
Another one of my cousins shouted from the inside: ‘Come inside already! The sky in England will be the same.’
The other two next to me laughed. All I could say was, ‘You never know,’ and after thirty-odd hours it turned out that… we really didn’t know. We had no idea at all.
