DANIELSON: Big man.

KHADIM: Whatever.

DANIELSON: Your parents must have a lot of trust in you to leave you alone for so long.

KHADIM: They do.

DANIELSON: How long will they be gone for?

KHADIM: Until they’re ready to come back.

DANIELSON: I know that Riyadh is not in Iraq.

KHADIM: I’m relieved.

DANIELSON: I know it’s not part of the war. But it is the Middle East. And there’s a lot of horrible things going on in the Middle East, and so I was just wondering, I was just asking if you are nervous for your parents when they go back there. That’s all I was asking.

KHADIM: My parents are fine.

DANIELSON: What’s Saudi Arabia like?

KHADIM: It’s hot.

DANIELSON: Did you like it there?

KHADIM: No.

DANIELSON: But you’re Saudi?

KHADIM: What?

DANIELSON: I mean, your nationality.

KHADIM: Saudi?

DANIELSON: Yeah, I mean . . . is that . . . ?

KHADIM: I’m Syrian. I was born in Damascus.

That’s not in my file?

Danielson checks the file.

DANIELSON: So you consider yourself Syrian.

KHADIM: I am Syrian.

DANIELSON: Syrian. And you’re eighteen.

KHADIM: Yeah.

DANIELSON: An eighteen-year-old Syrian man.

KHADIM: But my parents are from Iran.

DANIELSON: Is that right?

KHADIM: Yeah. My first language is Farsi.

DANIELSON: Farsi?

KHADIM: Yeah. And my second language was Arabic. And my third language was French. And my fourth language was Italian. And my fifth language was English. And my mother taught me how to write a thank you note in Sanskrit. And I know how to do calligraphy. And I spent most of my childhood in Paris, but also in Greece and Turkey and only some of the time in Riyadh, and before we moved to the States we lived in Mauritania. So what am I? I’m Syrian, I’m Middle Eastern, I’m Muslim, and what else? What else don’t you know about me? What else isn’t in that file?

Danielson looks at the file and then back up at Khadim, almost smiling.

DANIELSON: Not all that.

KHADIM: How many languages do you speak?

DANIELSON: I don’t speak as many as you do.

I speak a little Spanish.

KHADIM: Oh yeah? Cómo estás Dr. Danielson? Tu puta madre me la chupa.

(beat) Spanish was my sixth language.

DANIELSON: Well . . . I haven’t spoken it in a while.

KHADIM: Huh.

DANIELSON: So there’s more to you than just your file.

KHADIM: Yeah, there is.

DANIELSON: There’s so much stuff about you that I just don’t know.

KHADIM: Yeah . . .

DANIELSON: It’s funny, though, isn’t it?

KHADIM: What?

DANIELSON: The surface of things.

KHADIM: Yeah. It’s hilarious.

DANIELSON: We’re onions. You. And me. Everyone. Onions.

Khadim is tired of this and doesn’t answer.

DANIELSON: Perception. Stuff you think you know. It’s what I have to deal with a lot. As vice-principal, I have to keep my ear to the ground, you know?

(he cups his ear as if to hear something far away) I hear this, I hear that. I try to connect the dots.