For it is the 12th of the month – St Ammonaria’s Day – and Farida is particularly fond of female saints. It is not that Mickey Ibn Mudar’s wife is devout in any way, but she does love a good story and the tale of the Catholic martyr Ammonaria refers not to one girl killed for her faith, but two. In addition, St Anthony had the devil of a time resisting his desire for a woman named Ammonaria – a friend of his sister with whom he was clearly if not in love, then very deeply in lust. Farida marks her time often with such stories – a day in remembrance of a saint or a mythological figure whose tale captures the spirit of a change in season or calls to mind a particular time of life. Farida does not know the date of her own birthday, for her family did not mark such fripperies, but, as a child, saints’ days were hallowed and the life of the whole estate was built around them. In celebration of Ammonaria’s martyrdom and, indeed, the love of St Anthony, Farida has donned her burquah, slipped down the back stairs and emerged furtively onto the dusty street.
