Love from A to Z(53)
I also want to be reinstated on student council. I worked damn hard for that.
At your service. Tell me what to do.
Kavi and that other girl found out he has a new online name.
@StoneWraith14. Kavi and Noemi.
Right. I need you to sleuth @StoneWraith14 from over there.
I tried to do a lot of sleuthing already. And failed.
Different countries have different firewalls. Including here at home. You’ll have access to sites and information we can’t get in the US.
I sat up completely in bed. What do you mean?
I mean there are certain things I can’t see that you can. That you can find for us.
Are you talking about censorship?
Yup, I know this from traveling. It’s not just China that does it.
So I can see things here in Doha that you can’t over there in Springdale?
And I can see things here that you can’t in Doha.
Whoa. But I couldn’t find anything on @StoneWraith14.
That’s because you weren’t looking in the right places. Fencer is very tight online with British Islamophobes. I’m guessing he’s got some internet tunneling service to pretend he’s in the UK.
I’m getting excited. Like I’ve been asked to join a secret spy mission of international significance.
I’ll send you the list of sites I want you to check for his presence. The ones I’ve tracked links to but can’t access.
I’M ON IT.
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For the first time in a long time, I went to sleep completely happy.
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And that’s why today I’ve recorded no oddity.
ADAM
SATURDAY, MARCH 16
MARVEL: ENERGY
ENERGY AFTER RESTING IN MY own bed. With Dad and Hanna in the house.
Energized that my vision is better, that there is nothing disconnecting my legs from me right now.
Energized with the knowledge I’ll be seeing Zayneb tomorrow, and we aren’t complete strangers anymore.
With hopes that maybe we can be on our way to something more.
ZAYNEB
SATURDAY, MARCH 16
MARVEL: COLLECTIVE POWER
EXHIBIT A: WHAT I FOUND on the breakfast table.
I woke up to Auntie Nandy’s rendition of “Wild World.”
Finally, a seventies song I knew all the words to. The singer, Cat Stevens, had become Muslim—in the seventies too—so any time one of his songs came on the radio, Mom and Dad would point it out.
“?‘Oh, baby, baby, it’s a wild world!’?” I sang along with Auntie Nandy, who was fixing breakfast. I brought the first plates she’d assembled on the kitchen counter to the dining table.
A stuffed toy blue bird was sitting in the middle of the table.
“Do you recognize it?” Auntie Nandy came up behind me. “It was in the box I found your mom’s burkini in. You left it here when you visited Doha last.”
“Oh my God. It’s my Angry Bird, the Blues!” I picked it up. “I was obsessed with collecting all of them when I was a kid, and this was my favorite. Do you want to know why?”
“Because it’s the angriest?”
“No, because look.” I undid a zipper at the bottom of its stomach and flipped it inside out. Three smaller plush birds emerged. “The Blues has the power of three birds. It’s like a surprise attack in the video game! When you strike it midlaunch, boom, three birds shoot out of the one, and bang, the enemy’s setup gets mangled.”
“So it’s like a Trojan horse?”
“In a different way.” I hugged the Blues to me as I walked back to the bedroom. “I’m taking this home with me. Thanks for keeping it.”
I sealed the three birds into one again and set it down beside Squish on the night table. They looked like an odd couple together—one, pristine, with colorful plush elements, including feathers, and the other . . . well, Squish.
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As we were getting ready to go to the Corniche, the waterfront promenade that edged the coast in Doha, where the city met the waters of the Arabian Gulf, Mom called.
She had news that gave me pause: Dad left to go to Pakistan today, having gotten more information about Daadi’s death.
For the first time in a while my grandmother’s face held still in my head for a long moment. But when I blinked again, into Mom’s face on Skype, Daadi was gone from my mind’s eye.
“Was it something important, the news about Daadi?” I asked after Mom told me a bunch of hows, including how Dad had learned there was new information and how he’d left from Chicago and other particulars—other than the news itself.
“No, don’t worry,” she answered. “Have fun in Doha,” she added with a clearly disturbed expression.
“But why did Dad have to leave so suddenly?” I asked.
“It wasn’t sudden. He knew he’d have to go when there were things to do.” Then she said bye, because she was prepping for her own trip to Doha.
Basically, she didn’t want me to know whatever it was that she and Dad knew.
So, as soon as I got home from the Corniche, I called Sadia—my sister who always tells me the truth.
I also wanted to talk to her about Adam.
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