Part Five: mooshkiila fii al-hamamm

Monday, July 21, 2008

I know I promised to talk about my husband and Abdulkarem, but I have something more pressing on my mind right now.

Today, I got pulled out of class because there is “an administrative issue” going on. However, due to privacy issues they can’t tell us what exactly is going on. Here’s what I have gathered:

1. It must be somewhat serious since we’re (all the women on the 2nd floor of Hepburn) being interviewed, individually, by someone from Public Safety.
2. I was initially told, in English by a staff member, that there had been an issue between two girls on the second floor and that they wanted to talk to us individually to find out what we know.
3. Two of my suitemates were interviewed today and apparently there was a map of the 2nd floor and they were asked to identify where people lived and where the bathrooms were. Also, they were asked if they had seen any suspicious activity, including a man in the bathroom.

So, I basically have no idea what’s going on, but know my imagination is reeling out lots of really pleasant ideas and questions: is someone being stalked? Was there a sexual assault in the bathroom? Is this “man” from the Arabic school? Should I be concerned for my safety? Or, is some guy just taking a leak in the girls’ bathroom? Is there even a guy? Why did the first staff member tell me there was an issue between to women on the second floor?

THEN, my suitemate Tova said that the only weird thing that she was aware of was that this past Friday when the rest of us had already left for Montreal, someone – no idea who – took a shower in the bathroom of our suite. This is incredibly strange because there is a door between our suite and the main hall. How do people even know what’s behind that exterior door? I have never known of someone talking a shower in our bathroom before. Why did they do this now if most of the school was gone and it is very unlikely that the showers in the main bathroom are full? Was it just one of the girls, or was it some creeper man from who knows where?

Now, I’m kind of paranoid. I waited 30 minutes to go to the bathroom tonight because I didn’t want to go use the other one even though my suitemate was talking a shower. Then, we I went to take a shower, I tried to peer into the bathroom to see if someone was hiding behind the door in the shower. After my shower, I brushed my teeth with the door open and felt kind of stressed the whole time. What if some guy opened the door to our suite to use the freaking shower, and I’m standing there is my towel brushing my teeth?

I never lock my door when I’m in the room, but now I’m too scared to leave it unlocked while I’m asleep tonight. But, I probably won’t be able to sleep tonight now because I’m scared that if I leave the door locked and there is an emergency that I won’t be able to get out of my room.

I don’t need to know names or to understand the details of the situation. I just need to know if there is a freaking stalker creeper character running around the women’s bathrooms on the second floor of Hepburn.