When he was a child, and he cried out in his sleep, it was Mary who would run to little N and scold him gently before reciting prayers in her village dialect, so dear to his heart. Then, when his nightmares started coming every night, she sprinkled his bed and all the floor around it with newly blessed holy water. Later, she beseeched the help of Mar Matanyous—the local name for Saint Anthony, patron saint of the mentally ill—as she tucked the blanket under his chin. Like N himself, Mary refused to inform Thurayya about what the boy was seeing in his dreams—nor would she tell his father, the doctor. This was natural enough, since she knew in advance it would do no good, and even knew what N’s parents would say: “Please, Mary, don’t worry me like this,” or “I beg you, Mary, don’t put such ideas in the boy’s head.” No, Mary wouldn’t say anything to anyone except N himself, reassuring the child that Mar Matanyous—“bless his name”—would drive away N’s “companion,” and afterward, he would sleep in peace, undisturbed by any fears or jinn. When the boy asked her what this “companion” was, she informed him that each of us has a counterpart in the world of the jinn, and that it’s best for us not to fear them, or else they will gain mastery over us.

Despite everything that Mary did, the boy continued to suffer from his dreams. He saw strange figures and heard terrible noises that frightened him so much that he would run, agonized and soaked in sweat, to Mary’s room. She would make room for him in her bed without bothering to open her eyes. “Come up then,” she’d say, throwing her blanket over him. He would get in and drift off. If only she had been the one who gave birth to him, he thought. If only she could adopt him and take him away with her! N liked to imagine that Mary was his real mother, and that, one day, she would reveal the truth. He would cry, she would cry, and they would fall into each other’s arms for a long embrace, just like in the Bollywood films she used to watch when she didn’t have any pressing tasks or when Thurayya went out. The two of them would say goodbye to everyone and set off on a journey, never to return.