“We don’t make deals with Allah,” Kadija said. “Making a deal implies that each side needs something from the other, and they’re coming to an accommodation.
“That’s my bike,” Jamilah said forcefully. “You stole it. And I’m taking it back.” She picked the bike up from the ground and began to walk...
January 2010 San Francisco, California If Jamilah didn’t get that bike back, she was done. What could she do? Go back home to the nowhere town...
Louis and Kadija sat in the crowded waiting room at Highland Hospital. The room smelled faintly of bleach...
What time was it? Louis had been dreaming that he was riding in a personnel carrier in the southern suburbs of Baghdad...
That next Friday afternoon, Kadija called. Louis could not have been more surprised if she had leaped onto the roof of his cab and done a...
October 2008 San Francisco, California Louis wondered if the Muslim woman with the sky-blue scarf would call for a ride that day, and if he’d manage...
“Sit.” Jessica turned from where she was parting the heavily brocaded curtains to peer outside into the darkness. She found a large woman with deep olive...
The cubicles were still, the hum of the computers absent and the office nearly empty except for one woman. She was typing intently, turning only to...
The hands on the clock said 1:45. She would come at 1:58, though her appointment was at two, and she would walk in and give a...