Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow

Doria tells the story of Samra, a nineteen-year-old girl in her building “held prisoner” by the men in her family, who follow her when she goes out and beat her if she returns home late.  Now Samra has escaped and is rumored to be living in Paris. Doria notes that while Samra’s “escape” is the talk of the estate, no one ever found her confinement by her family worth mentioning. She contrasts Samra’s liberation with Youssef’s imprisonment. Samra’s situation also reminds her of a television show that reunites people with long-lost family members. The show focuses on the emotional reunions, but to Doria it just proves that the people involved didn’t really need or want their families.

Doria and Hamoudi discuss the “adolescent crisis” and the teenage quest for a separate identity, as explained to Doria by Mme. Burlaud (67). Hamoudi thinks the “adolescent crisis” is a Western excuse for poor parenting. Hamoudi notes that he would never have dared rebel against his own father. He also tells Doria that his relationship with Karine is over. Doria feels bad for him but is also secretly pleased.

Nabil helps Doria with her civics homework, which deals with the question of why people don’t vote. Doria understands how people in her community feel alienated from the system, but she thinks this makes them easy to ignore. She is determined to vote and make her voice heard once she’s eighteen. Doria and Nabil find themselves in an impassioned political discussion about the issue. Afterwards, instead of leaving, Nabil stays to talk, then abruptly kisses Doria. 

Doria, surprised by the kiss, rinses her mouth out and tells herself she’s repulsed by Nabil. She resents him for “stealing” her first kiss, which should have happened in a more romantic setting with a more ideal partner, and with Doria herself looking older and more glamorous.

During a free-association exercise with Mme. Burlaud, Doria responds negatively to a picture of a baby. Mme. Burlaud interprets this as hostility towards Doria’s new “so-called” half-brother in Morocco. Doria and Yasmina were informed of his birth by a letter from a neighbor. Doria denies feeling hostile towards the baby, but also refuses to regard him as a half-sibling. Later, she reflects on how Lila marks Sarah’s growth on a door and has photos of her everywhere. Doria only has her old school photos. She thinks that if she’d “had a dick,” she’d have “a big fat pile of photo albums” (73). 

Doria introduces Sarah to Hamoudi.  He is charmed by the little girl, even when she points out his ugly teeth. Hamoudi tells Doria that children are “the most honest thing in our hypocritical, corrupt society” (74). Doria notes that Hamoudi has become preoccupied with his future and with his failure to get out of the drug trade. She wonders if he’s frightened of change and reflects that, as a man, the only thing he was forbidden to do was cry.

Summer vacation arrives, and Doria watches her neighbors leave for Morocco, where they are building a house, in a van full of presents and luggage. She contrasts their departure with that of her father, who “left without any luggage” (77). Lila and Sarah leave to visit family in Toulouse. Nabil also is gone for the summer but, as Doria notes almost in passing, she won’t need help with homework any more. She failed her classes, but the school did not have enough space to let her repeat the year, so she’s been transferred to a vocational program in hairdressing. Doria accepts this change, thinking it will allow her to be her own boss. Hamoudi, on the other hand, is furious, and threatens to go to the school board on Doria’s behalf.

Aziz, the grocer she imagined pairing off with Yasmina, is getting married to a young woman from Morocco. Doria fantasizes about her mother disrupting the wedding, but then tells herself she has “got to stop thinking in movies” (79). But Doria and Yasmina may not even be invited to the wedding, as most people seem to forget to invite them anywhere these days.

Doria and Yasmina go to a rummage sale, where Doria overhears other girls mocking their cheap clothes. She reflects that they were not invited to Aziz’s wedding, either. Lila and Sarah are away visiting family and Mme. Du has gone on maternity leave. Her replacement is a woman whose voice and robotic demeanor lead Doria to dub her Cyborg Services. Doria feels that Cyborg Services, unlike Mme. Du, sees her and Yasmina merely as case numbers.

When Aunt Zohra tells her husband that Youssef was in jail, he loses his temper and hits her, then stops because it’s too much effort. Now she prays for his return to Morocco. Doria observes that Yasmina, who is doing well in her literacy class, is happier and more independent than when Doria’s father lived with them. Hamoudi has also found a new job as a security guard in an electronics store.