iris & zerah 23 min read

a few days later they invite me over to their house. they do wanna hang out, but quickly it becomes apparent, that zerah has also a different agenda. when iris is not in the room she asks me, if i want to make love. this shocks and confuses me. did i come off as a potential customer to her? it’s hard to make out exactly what she is saying, since her french is more than rudimentary. but somehow i understand, that she wants 200 swiss francs for this. i am not interested and i tell her that. she says, it’s not a problem. so we hang out on the scruffy couch and talk.
the girls love shopping. the two times i have met them, they were surrounded by shopping bags. shoes, lingerie, socks, lighters…
iris is 21. she owns 4 mobile phones. whenever she needs a certain phonenumber it happens to be stored in one of the other phones. she seems to be constantly in the process of changing her chip from one phone to the next. she has been working in switzerland for 3 months. she plans on doing it for 2 years. then she wants to go back to her country. after one year, she says, she will be able to buy an appartement there, after 2 years a car. she smiles at the thought. she tells me that 2500 swiss francs is worth 1’000’000 in her country. 1’000’000 must represent a lot of money in her country. she has a boyfriend in paris, they talk on the phone all the time. she has bought 5 lighters as gifts for her brothers.
zerah has been doing this work for 1 year and two months. she has 8 more months on her contract left. she is 22. her older sister, 24, lives also in switzerland, she did the same kind of work, but then she found a man and married him. zerah says, she has many boyfriends. she says: “oh, me, have boyfriend, many many many… there there there” she gestures around on an imaginary map. she laughs. she says, whenever she sees a pretty boy, she falls in love. now she is in love with the bartender at the new cabaret. in the previous cabaret she was in love with the son of the owner. she has a boyfriend in lausanne, and one in marocco. she plays us a tape the maroccan boyfriend made for her. he is a dj. there are cute spoken word dedications between the songs. i ask here what he is saying. “oh just that he wants to marry me and such…”. but zerah wants to stay in switzerland. she wants to marry a swiss guy, drive a car, have a house. she laughs her infectious laughter. her french is surprisingly poor for someone who has worked here so long and comes from marocco, where the second language is french. nevertheless she talks alot.
time to get ready for work again. they quickly prepare their standard menu: meat with onions and tomato sauce. they say, it helps them not get too drunk from the champagne, if they eat well. i ask them how it is for them to drink lots of alcohol each night. they evade the question. zerah is a muslim, and it is still ramadan season as this takes place.
they tell me i should come visit them at the cabaret. they don’t seem to understand my explanation of why i don’t like these kinds of places. i tell them i never drink alcohol. but i should come and buy them some anyway, they say. one bottle “only” costs 200.-.
one night, a few days later, i quickly stop in to see the place where they work. i have to leave immediatly. it is too odd.

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