Sometimes the flashbacks come when he's working around the hot kitchen, cooking up orders for steaks and watching steam rise above pots.
The memories stop him in his tracks. The horror must show on his face, because co-workers ask if he's OK. He doesn't want to talk about it, so he just keeps cooking.
It's been six years since Sekou Sylla was arrested, imprisoned and tortured. Four years since he escaped Guinea, a country that had been the only home he'd ever known.
"It's really painful when I think about what happened to me," Sylla said through an interpreter. He speaks some English, but is fluent in French.
The 27-year-old, who now lives in Memphis, is working as a cook at Outback Steakhouse, and holding out hope that a judge will let him stay here -- for good.
In 1998, Sylla took part in a protest against the Guinea government to free the leader of his political party, Rally for the Guinean People (RPG). Alpha Conde had been arrested for sedition just before an election.
The protest turned ugly when police officers used tear gas and batons to break it up.
They arrested Sylla and threw him in a small, dirty cell with no light, bed or toilet. He was there for 20 months and he wasn't the only one.
Guards beat him and others, demanding any information about the "rebellion" or Conde.
Every day for the first two weeks, Sylla said he was strapped upside down against a wall and whipped. He became very sick with ulcers while he was there, a sickness he still battles.
Guards eventually put him to work, doing their laundry and yard work.
After 20 months, his uncle bribed a guard to get him out. Soon after he flew to New York with a Guinea businessman who arranged his escape.
In New York, other Africans told him he'd be better off in Memphis, where cost of living was cheaper and others who were once in his predicament could help him.
A judge in Memphis denied his request for asylum, citing minor inconsistencies in his story, such as how much he paid for his RPG membership and if he was still enrolled as a student when he was arrested.
But last month, a Sixth Circuit appellate judge overruled the grounds for that denial. That means, according to Sylla's attorney John Richbourg, there's a good chance the United States will soon be his permanent home.
Sylla lives with an African man who took him in soon after he came to Memphis.
They're awaiting word, from the Board of Immigration Appeals, which could come any day, Richbourg said.
Sylla hasn't had contact with his family since he left Guinea, but heard they escaped the country.
He hopes to one day meet them here. He fears he will be killed if he returns to Guinea, but says if he stays here, he has hope.
"I'll work harder to help my family and have a better life."
--Sherri Drake: 529-2510
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