In that madness, we flee. Not in the direction we were going but in the opposite. We do not let go of Taraana’s hands. Not once. It takes us seven minutes to reach a wall and thirty seconds to enter the Between. It is only when the door shuts behind us that Taraana realizes that Paheli is not with us.

He pulls the hood of his djellaba down and looks around at each of us, as if he has made a mistake and Paheli will somehow appear. His eyes widen and the stars in them dim. He looks at the door leading to Marrakech, and Valentina moves to stand in front of it.

“We left her behind,” he whispers. “I need to go get her back.”

He moves to open the door, but Valentina won’t budge from her position in front of it.

His panic spreads until he is practically shaking from the force of it. “Get out of my way. Please. I need to get her back,” he entreats. Then angrily. “How could you leave her behind?”

“She will return to us,” Valentina says gently. She tries hard, but we can see her uncertainty snag on her words until they are more of a question than a statement.

“How can you be certain of that? What if they take her? I can’t let that happen. I will go back.” He stands in front of Valentina, as if he will physically remove her.

“Paheli would never forgive us if we let you do that,” Talei says. “We didn’t leave her behind, Taraana. She chose to move in the other direction, perhaps to lead those men away from us. She knows what she’s doing. Come on, we need to go before our pursuers enter the Between.”

“You do not understand,” Taraana says, his head bowed, “and I don’t know what to say to make you understand. She wears my star in her palm. I can feel her terror right now. Don’t you get it? You think she’s prepared and strong and whatnot. She’s not. She just pretends she is. She’s always pretending!” He breathes harshly, on the brink of tears. “I can’t. I won’t stay here and be safe. Not when she is not here with me.”

“It is not that we don’t know she’s scared, Taraana,” Daraja says. “It’s not that we don’t know she’s pretending not to be scared. It is just that all of us here pretend. We pretend so hard that sometimes what we pretend becomes true. We pretend we aren’t scared. We pretend we’re all right. We pretend we don’t yearn for homes and roots. We pretend until we believe it and once we believe it, it becomes true. So, we will pretend Paheli is all right. We will believe she is all right. And she will be.”