Mama stood behind me, demanding to know, in her horrible English, what was going on. Baba invited the officer to please sit down, and did he want any coffee? He did not, and I think that was a good thing since Mama seemed unable to make it at that point. She stood, her eyes never leaving our guest, and demanded again to know what happened.

Baba asked me to go upstairs to my room, and I knew better than to argue. His eyes were exhausted, but his hands shook nervously, like he would explode if triggered. I climbed upstairs quickly, but crouched at the top and heard it all—the statement, the story, Mama freaking out, all of it.

Later, when I could see the police officer standing at the front door, I pulled myself back, away from the steps. “Good night, sir, ma’am,” he said. “We don’t have much to go on, but I’m going to make sure I personally patrol your area. A lot of vendors rent those garages for their carts, don’t they?”

“Yeah,” Baba said, “and most of us get back to our garages around 7 or 7:30.”

“I’ll keep closer tabs, then. These guys obviously know the routine—they were waiting for you.”

Mama didn’t sleep that night—I could hear her sobbing. I think Baba called Auntie Siham, Nadia’s mother, to come and stay with her because as I was drifting off to sleep, Mama’s strangled voice floated upstairs from the kitchen into my head. “Why did I even come here to this country?” I heard her wail, but that may have been part of my own dreams.

I had to fight with Mama to let me go trick-or-treating the next night. “It’s not safe,” she finally screamed, ending our conversation by pulling my costume from between the needles of her machine and stuffing it in the kitchen trash can. When she was in the bathroom later, I pulled it out, knocked off the wet tea bags, gritty coffee filters, and slick cucumber skins, shook out the lace and called Nadia. Auntie Siham finally convinced Mama by bringing Nadia over in her Wonder Woman costume, and offering to escort us around the neighborhood herself. Mama relented, but Auntie Siham had to bring me home by 8 P.M. anyway.

“I heard about your dad,” Nadia said. “That’s really scary. Do you know what happened?”