“Dossier?” asked the security guard.
Yasmine blinked. “The what?”
He tipped his wool cap and disappeared into the metro, leaving Yasmine clutching the procuration —a simple piece of paper that held the weight of a house, a father’s dream, and a stranger’s kindness.
Mme. Leila raised an eyebrow. “Monsieur Omar, this is an administrative procedure, not a souk.”
Her father was in Marrakech. He had finally bought the riad he’d dreamed of for thirty years, but the seller was threatening to back out. The signing was in 48 hours. Yasmine couldn’t fly down; she had a presentation. So, she needed the consulate to authenticate a power of attorney allowing her cousin in Casablanca to sign the deed in her father’s name.
“I have it,” Yasmine said, sliding the papers through the slot. “He scanned it from Marrakech.”
At 4:55 PM, the deed was done. The procuration was stamped. The green ink seal of the Consulate of Morocco pressed into the paper like a medal.
“Monsieur Omar is correct,” Mme. Leila said. “It is called visio-procédure . It is slow. It takes two hours. But it is legal.”