“Very nice!” Layla said.

“Only a matter of time before I turn this into a brand-new Lincoln Continental. We’ll dress up and go to the best restaurant. How’s that, Layla?”

Layla nodded and laughed.

Ashif imagined his father in a black tuxedo, shouting “Abracadabra-Alakazam!” as he turned this car into another, then another, and another.

Mansoor kneeled down to Ashif. “And you? What’s your expert opinion, sir?”

“Super-duper.”

Mansoor rustled his hair. “Let’s go for a drive. Come, Layla, all of us.”

“You go ahead. I still haven’t finished cooking,” Layla said.

“Okay. It’ll be just the men today,” Mansoor said, turning to Ashif. “Ready, son?”

“Yes!” Ashif said then hesitated. He didn’t want to get his mukluks wet. “My boots, Pappa.”

Mansoor scooped him back up and carried him to the passenger side. In his father’s arms, he soared over the slushy pools, like an astronaut over the moon’s craters.

“Wear your seat belt,” Layla called after them.

His father swung open the door and sat Ashif inside.

Mansoor stepped into the driver’s side and patted the dashboard. “There are two kinds of people in the world, son. Those who ride buses and those who drive cars. And what kind are we?”

“Car people!”

“Look, it has all the latest gadgets: cruise control, double tape deck instead of an eight-track, 140 horsepower—a muscle car!” Mansoor said, turning the ignition. The car roared to life. The dashboard lit up, a halo of green under the wood panelling.

“Just like a spaceship, Pappa!”

“Our mission: to go where no man has gone before.”

Mansoor drove them up and down the flat, well-organized streets of Calgary. Near Bowness Park, they came to a hill. They climbed up and zoomed down many times, with Mansoor’s hands floating above the steering wheel and Ashif’s in the air, screaming with the thrill of it.

On their way home, Mansoor pulled the car into an empty parking lot. “Son, your turn now.”

Ashif giggled with nervous excitement. “But I’m too small.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be right here.”

He sat on his father’s lap, his back pressed against his father’s chest. The sweet-spice smell of Yardley’s hair cream filled his nostrils. He could barely see over the dashboard, the street a black slither. His father lifted his hands to the steering wheel and laid his own hands on top.

“Ready, Captain Visram?” Mansoor asked, shifting the car into drive.

Ashif nodded.

“Are you super-duper sure, Captain?”

Ashif laughed and gave him a thumbs-up.

First, they drove in circles around the parking lot. He was amazed at how a small turn of the wheel could turn so much steel. They were driving down a street where all the houses looked like castles when suddenly a golden dog leapt into the road in front of them. The car screeched to a halt. Ashif’s head hit the steering wheel and snapped back. He started to cry, mostly from the shock and partly from the pain. Mansoor quickly pulled the car over and set his son back into the passenger side.