“3555 Woodland,” said Lulu, because she’s the smart one in the family, Jameel says. She memorized the car’s license plate, too.

They drove out of the neighborhood. Muneer knows that place. He imagines billowy summer oaks and maples giving way to low blond-brick strip malls and cement-colored synagogues. They passed the shopping mall, nearly home. In the silence, Jameel says, he almost heard his wife and daughters, like he was, repeating the address over and over so they wouldn’t forget.

Their four minds churning together, Muneer thinks, and his throat aches. He swallows painfully. His years of sorrow, held back by a gate inside his esophagus, are threatening to burst through.

After work, he finds Lamees in the kitchen, showing Mary, their nanny and maid, how to stuff zucchini. Somehow the boys are napping. Lamees senses his presence, looks up, and catches his eye. She starts to smile, but her mouth straightens when she sees his face. She knows better than anyone that Muneer has become jaded; time has eroded his hope of finding his daughter and built a wall around the section of his heart that belongs to Hanadi. His love for his wife stands strong, though. She saw him cry after she gave birth to Fouad, their oldest, who is four. Though Muneer never said it out loud, he thinks she knows that the rush of joy he felt welcoming his first boy into the world was followed by a sharp pain, a knife severing the umbilical that connected him to his first child. When Lamees leaves the kitchen to check on the boys, he kisses her discreetly on the cheek as she passes, so Mary won’t see. His wife touches her cheek where his lips brushed, then touches her heart.

TRESPASS

Muneer can’t grab a flight for five days. He is determined to find his daughter. He despairs he ever will. For years he’s had these feelings in his liver. Now they lurk beneath the surface of his skin. He’s on edge with Fadi and Lamees, who keeps saying, “God willing, God willing, God protect you and guide you,” and so on. He starts praying extra Sunnah prayers throughout the day, and Lamees prays with him. He can hear her muttering du’aa behind him at the end of prayer. She is asking God to guide Hanadi back to him—to them.

They are between drivers. Lamees, the boys, and Mary go to stay with Muneer’s in-laws so Lamees will have someone to drive her to work.

Before he leaves, Muneer plays a finger game with Fadi and chants the little chant that goes with it. Nicknames for the five fingers: small mind, wearer of rings, big crazy, scooper of stews, crusher of lice.

Fadi barely smiles when Muneer tickles his armpit at the end of the song. Muneer can’t remember if he ever played this game with Hanadi.

Lamees asks, “Will she know Arabic?”