But eventually we spoke of him less and less, and fewer and fewer of my thoughts would turn to him throughout the day. Now it was like those first days again where the thought of him would pop into my mind so much, except that I didn’t speak to Rami or Yama about it because I didn’t want to tell them that I didn’t know if I wanted to see Baba now. It wasn’t because Yama had repeatedly threatened over the years to let him know of all the infractions I had committed, especially when I would storm out of the French boardinghouse; I knew she wouldn’t. It was that I wondered how things would change with him now that he spent so long in America, and if we would still feel like family to him.

The people she saw in the streets irked her, the way they looked at us, our long hair and full-length dresses that were so different from their short hair and short dresses

I resented Baba and Yama for feeding those British officials so much, depleting our supplies nourishing well-fed men

That’s why we have to fight! They have to know that we won’t leave.” That seemed to be take the last of Yasmeen’s strength because she covered her face and began weeping as the baby woke up with a cry.

Baba explained patronizingly that it was the British and the Jewish settlers who were invading our homeland, not the Americans. “In America, there are more protections for our property, our homes,

this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming