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At some point in the night, after Ellie had fallen asleep in Yusuf’s arms, he’d lifted her onto the bed and pulled the covers over her. But the bed was cramped, and she became claustrophobic under the covers, and so she woke to find him sprawled next to her, peaceful and serene in the lamplight.
She craned her neck to locate her phone. She’d tossed it aside when she entered the room, without a thought for where it might land, and now she cursed her recklessness. The notification light pulsed on top of Yusuf’s chair. She lifted Yusuf’s arm and extricated herself from his embrace before retrieving her phone and laptop. Then she slipped on his t-shirt, still warm from his body, and sat on the floor, propped up against the bed with her computer on her lap.
Half an hour later, she finished tweaking her article for Die Welt, and sent it to Simone. Inside her, a slow burn of excitement took root. Isaiah’s footage had gifted the circus and its allies more than a fighting chance of survival. She wished she could share this news with Doris. With the deadline for the circus closure two days away, Ellie had no time to lose.
Yusuf’s breath fanned her neck as Ellie checked her work. Tom had confided in her once that Marina had a Google alert on her own name; she expected any articles mentioning her to be printed out and placed in an urgent folder on her desk. He was sure to tell her of Marina’s reaction to the exposé in Die Welt. With or without a Google alert, she’d find out: the publishing industry would ricochet with the ramifications. There could be no doubt that Marina would come for Ellie. There would be a BAZ editorial at the very least, in which Marina would see-saw between rage and victimhood, riling up the anger amongst her newspaper’s readership.
Still, a small part of Ellie hoped Marina would develop a grudging respect for her, and perhaps even regret ever firing her. She was proud of the writer she’d become, having stepped out of Marina’s shadow. She’d finally found her voice away from BAZ; it was fierce and uncompromising, spurred on by the injustices she’d witnessed. Marina would never have sanctioned her taking on the establishment; but then, Marina was in their pocket.
Let her come for me, thought Ellie. I am ready.
All she needed was for Berlin to show itself as the city she knew it to be.
Berliners were an open, tolerant people for the most part. They just required a nudge to step beyond their mind-your-own-business culture.
Ellie had faith; the alternative remained too bleak to contemplate.
