Eden wouldn’t approve.

Eli wouldn’t approve.

It had been dumb to go there, so he’d resisted the urge and moved on.

He knew his father had gone to the restaurant to empty the fridge of stuff that might spoil, so he went there thinking he’d explain: about how the device had been real, and had been showing a countdown—how it hadn’t been the craziest thing for that other kid to think it was a bomb. Maybe that would shift his father’s perspective back to a more default one—the sort of partially obstructed view that could see past Islamophobia in the day-to-day at least well enough to get on with the business of living here.

His father probably wouldn’t believe him. It sounded far-fetched even to Marwan, who’d lived it, and now the device was gone and there was no way to prove it had ever existed. He had to try anyway.

But his father had already emptied the fridge and left, so Marwan settled in at a table with his phone and started to look for a local glass repair shop. He found a tape measure in the toolbox in the office closet and measured the broken window. Then he called a place with a good Yelp rating and asked for an estimate. The guy said they could have someone there on Friday, so Marwan scheduled it just in case that was the best he’d be able to do.

He went back into the office and opened the filing cabinet and found a copy of the insurance policy, and he found the company’s website and initiated a claim. When his father came to his senses, he’d be grateful Marwan had already done the legwork on this.

He checked his phone.

Scrolled through the news.

A school shooting.

Another cabinet member ousted.

A massive data breach at a large hotel chain and one at a social media company, the last one possibly with Russian involvement.

Which was farther away, Russia or Egypt?

He opened a window to text Eden but didn’t know what to say, and if she was at school she wouldn’t be able to answer right away anyway.

The restaurant landline rang, scaring the crap out of him. He thought probably he shouldn’t answer so he didn’t and it eventually stopped. But then it rang again, so he picked up, half expecting it to somehow be the device.

It was a reporter, asking for a comment on the incident with the brick.

Marwan didn’t think he had a comment so was about to say “no comment,” but before the words reached his lips, new words presented themselves. “I think it’s clear that we need round-the-clock surveillance from undercover police if we’re ever going to stop this. We’re under attack because of our religion and culture, and it’s unacceptable in this diverse community, and anywhere, of course.”