Chapter 6 · Chapter 6

The house had been talking for three days. On the fourth it did its talking in a room where I could hear it.

They gave me the left side of the majlis, two cushions back from the Sadr. That is where a guest is placed when the host wants the room to understand she is being weighed and not seated. I had the Abaya closed to the throat and the shaila pinned, and I sat the way I was taught to sit in a room that has already decided against me — still, hands in my lap, chin where it was.

The gahwa came before business, as it must. The dallah went to the Sadr first, high pour, and the eldest took his finjan in his right hand, less than half full, and drank. The pour came down the line. When it reached me I took it in my right hand and held it and did not drink, because drinking is agreeing to stay.

Dates at the cup's edge.