Shuttled by Randah’s driver, Hannah gets back to the apartment after two in the morning, feeling satisfied, though quite a bit sheepish that the poor man had to stay up so late to drive her home. The stories Randah told her tonight were like sandstone bricks slowly stacking up, building for her a past she’d never known she had. It isn’t a solid structure. But she sees the ruins of the life her mother left behind, rather than an empty expanse of nothing. She’s grappling with some of the details, things that would be punch lines in America but seem to be normal here. How her parents are cousins. How her mother’s father for a short period had two wives at once. Randah told her about these aspects of their family as though they were nothing to hide. How shocked should she be? Could she love two people at once? Could she be married to two people at once? Should she see any kind of equivalency between her grandfather’s polygamy and kissing Zee at the beach?

How much a part of this family does she want to be? It’s a constant thrumming question, but it confronts her loudly now. Her father stands outside the apartment building, bareheaded, his thawb unbuttoned at the neck. His white undershirt peeks out. She has never seen him angry before.

He opens the door for her, and the courtesy makes her want to spit before he speaks.

“Where the hell have you been?”

“You know. Aunt Randah’s. Why are you shouting?”

“I’m not shouting.”

“Why are you swearing at me? You could have called me at her house.”

“You can’t go gallivanting around Jidda in the middle of the night. If you get in trouble, I’m the one who’ll go to jail. That’s the way it is here.”

She leaves her father in the apartment’s entryway, pretending she’ll never see him again, and crawls into bed, a thin wall separating her from the rest of the family.

The next morning, her father is eating breakfast on the living room floor when she comes out of her room. He apologizes.

“You came here to see people, to see your family. But call next time.”

“I should go back home,” she says.

“This is your home.”

She hears how hard he’s trying to persuade her.

RESOLUTION 678

Summer hears from someone who hears from Zee: He doesn’t understand why Hannah stood him up. He wants to see her again.

“He’s got a girlfriend,” Hannah tells Summer over the phone.

“I can take you to the American Consulate to meet him. At the canteen they have ham sandwiches, beer.”