First Experience

With every successful click, Samira's self-confidence and optimism grew. David gave her a few more tips and pointers while he packed his bag, but soon realized that she didn't need them. With a kind of childlike curiosity, she tried things out for herself and gained experience. She was clearly intelligent, skilled, and a quick learner.

“All right,” he said, “I'll be going now.”

Immediately, her gaze clouded over again. Samira jumped up from her chair. The confidence she had gained from his guidance had suddenly disappeared. Seeing this gave him a twinge in his heart. He really wanted to help her become more independent.

“I'll walk you to the door,” she offered.

“No need. I can find my way out on my own. Then you can practice a little longer.”

She lowered her gaze. “I don't know if my husband would appreciate this.”

David bit his tongue and swallowed his spontaneous remark. How could a man not want to or even forbid his wife from using the internet? That thought was beyond his imagination. But if Mrs. Rahman was afraid of it, it was real enough for him. Maybe he could do something about it.

“I don't want to persuade you to do anything. But he doesn't have to know about it.”

Samira turned pale. Lying to her husband or hiding something from him would contradict all the beliefs that had shaped her life so far. David didn't understand what was going on inside her and continued talking.

“You just delete the history afterwards and shut down the computer. I'll show you how to do it.”

She let him guide her hand on the mouse again until the computer died with a final hum. She still didn't seem convinced or reassured.

“I don't know if I can remember all that.”

David avoided telling her to write it down; that would have been a bit too much mansplaining. Instead, he lowered his voice and whispered conspiratorially: “I'm not supposed to tell you this. But if you call our hotline this afternoon and say that the error has reappeared, I'll be reassigned to the job and can come back tomorrow. And because it counts as a repair, the second visit won't be charged, so your husband won't see it on the bill.”

He handed her a card with a phone number and his name on it.

She looked at him with wide eyes. “Won't you get in trouble? For doing a bad job or something?”

“No, definitely not.” He tried to sound optimistic.

Samira insisted on accompanying David to the exit, where they said goodbye.

As the door closed behind him, he wondered if he had done something good. Or if he had, in a sense, shown this Eve the tree of knowledge and thus set in motion an ominous development that would end with her expulsion from paradise. But what preoccupied him even more was: Would she actually call and let him come to her apartment a second time?