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Back The Wild Ones Save as PDF
Chapters (61)
  1. Cover
  2. PRAISE FOR The Wild Ones
  3. Title Page
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. The Beginning, or How Paheli Became the First Wild One; With a Cameo by Taraana, the Boy Made of Stars.
  7. An Introduction; Hold On to Your Hats.
  8. The Sweetness in the Sugarcane, or The Impractical Nature of Immortality
  9. Paheli: The Vagrant Experiences of a Mango Addict
  10. Cotton Candy Sugar Screams
  11. From the Book of MEMORIES
  12. “Will You Walk into My Parlor?” Said the Spider to the Fly.
  13. The Best Ice Cream in the World, Teddy Bears, and a Tree Creature.
  14. From the Book of MEMORIES
  15. I.
  16. The Reappearance of the Boy Made of Stars and the Plight of the Girl by the Oleander Lane.
  17. Paheli: An Interlude in Blue
  18. Besieged in the Between
  19. Tea, the City of Stairs, and the Story of a Boy
  20. From the Book of MEMORIES
  21. Heartbreak, Stone Buildings, and Tandoori
  22. Observations, Conversations, and Hot Parantha
  23. Paheli: The Spies Who Came In from the Between
  24. From the Book of MEMORIES
  25. The French Quarter, the Spanish Half, and Eulalie
  26. Paheli: The Eggplant Overture
  27. Sunny Jelly Beans, Po’Boys, and “Alouette”
  28. From the Book of MEMORIES
  29. The Keeper of the Green and the Mysteries of Magic
  30. Blood and the Between
  31. The Library of the Lost and the Stories of the Silenced
  32. Walking in Wicked Ways or The Importance of Balık Ekmek
  33. From the Book of MEMORIES
  34. Looking for the Needle in the Haystack
  35. Paheli: The Peculiar Crackle in the Electricity
  36. Ten Degrees Past Despair
  37. The Fault in the Stars
  38. The Blue City in the Mountains
  39. Paheli: Disharmony in the Attics
  40. From the Book of MEMORIES
  41. Paheli: Continued
  42. The Politics of a Body, the Politics of Pleasure
  43. The Medina, the Riad, and the Red City
  44. Paheli: The Atlas Mountains, the Cozy Rooftop, and the Confession, Possibly of Love
  45. From the Book of MEMORIES
  46. Souks, Spices, and Survival: A Guide into Chaos
  47. Jemaa el-Fna: The Mosque at the End of the World
  48. Paheli: A Moment in Chartreuse
  49. From the Book of MEMORIES
  50. Paheli: On the Frailties of the Heart
  51. Sonagi, or A Sudden Rain
  52. Paheli: The Cheese in the Trap
  53. Paheli: The Maze and the Minotaur
  54. A New Era, a New Dar; the River Sings
  55. The Burning Door, the Fallen City, and Taraana 2.0
  56. Paheli: The Beginning of Forever
  57. From the Book of MEMORIES
  58. Moving One Rock at a Time Will Eventually Move a Mountain, aka Goodbye
  59. Acknowledgments
  60. More from the Author
  61. About the Author

She doesn’t give us any chance to protest and leaves immediately, walking so fast that Tabassum Naaz has to run after her.

Valentina sighs loudly. “Let’s get Taraana to New Orleans.”

“She needs to do something about her habit of running away,” Taraana grumbles, getting to his feet with some difficulty. He looks in the direction she has gone. “Their actions weren’t her fault.”

“When she comes back, you can tell her that. We’ll sit on her so she has to stay and listen.” Etsuko beams at him.

The Burning Door, the Fallen City, and Taraana 2.0

It takes Paheli five hours to return to us. Taraana, sporting a slew of new bandages on the cuts on his face and arms, sits in the spot nearest to the front door, waiting for her. When she finally enters the house, she looks at Taraana first.

“Does it hurt a lot?” she asks him.

“It hurt more since you walked away,” Taraana replies.

“Wow, this is exciting,” Ligaya says, taking a seat right beside Taraana before she gets back up. “Wait, wait. Let me get popcorn. Don’t continue.”

She runs to the kitchen while we try very hard to maintain our serious faces. Honestly, we all want to see this show, but only Ligaya would say so outright.

Paheli scrunches up her face and drops into the chair opposite Taraana’s. “You’re going to say you being hurt wasn’t my fault. And you are right. It wasn’t.”

“So?” Taraana leans forward. “If it wasn’t your fault, why are you sitting so far away from me?”

“Because we don’t need to be stuck together at all moments. That’s just gross.” Ooh, Paheli, a fatal hit.

“You’re lying,” Taraana says, leaning back and fixing Paheli in place with a gimlet look.

“I am not. Tina, I told Tabassum Naaz you’d be visiting her next week,” Paheli says airily.

Valentina, who was watching the show as avidly as we were, is caught by surprise. “Why?”

“Because I felt like it.” Paheli beams briefly.

“Paheli,” Taraana says.

“Yes, it wasn’t my fault, and yes, I blame myself anyway because I should have known better than to use such a foolish plan. It wasn’t my finest moment, and I’m still dealing with how close I came to losing you. Can we not talk about this, please?” She speaks quickly.

“Why not?” Taraana asks.

“Because I saw them hurt you and I keep thinking about how there have been so many times in the past when they hurt you as badly, if not worse, and there is nothing I can do about it. It hurts me.” She looks at him and sighs.

“All right. Fine.” It is clear the conversation is not over, but Taraana is giving in right now. We nod at him approvingly. “I need to go back to the Between and look for a burning door,” he says.