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hair most
    of the time. If we want to find out who she is, we’re going to
    have to talk to them again. Maybe we could call her and say
    hat we’re having a promotion at the salon and that she was
    randomly chosen from a list of new clients to receive a free
    facial or something. If she comes in again, we might be able to
    figure out how she and Michael are related.”
    “That just might work. Let’s call her today.”
    “OK,” I said and I lit my cigarette.
    A few minutes later, we were interrupted by a loud knock on the door, followed by her brother Rafiq’s voice bellowing, “Dalia, where’s the coffee?”
    “Hiene Jia (I’m coming),” she hollered. She gave me an exasperated look.
    Rafiq, although the youngest of her four brothers, was one of the most cruel and argumentative young men I’ve ever known. Although he was gorgeous-looking, his temperament was reflected in his face, making him ugly, in my opinion.
    “Let me help you make breakfast, that way you’ll finish faster and
    we’ll have more time to talk,” I said. \020”OK, that sounds good.”
    Dalia hid the cigarettes and matches and sprayed air freshener, while I emptied the ashtray in the bathroom and flushed away the incriminating butts. I followed her to the kitchen, where, after preparing a gallon of mint tea and Turkish coffee, we began to cook breakfast. First the eejay eggs, onions, flour and spices, mixed together into a semi-liquid batter and fried) and then the fried tomatoes. We arranged the Jaban, cheese, zayt and zayter, olives, ka’ik, and Arabic bread On the table. Our job complete, we refilled our coffee cups and
    went out to the back patio. Um Suhal came into the kitchen as we were leaving and began taking out the tea and coffee cups. When Dalia’s brothers and father came down, she would serve them before leaving the kitchen so they could eat. Dalia normally had to help her mother tidy the bedrooms and do the laundry as the men ate their food, but since I was there, she was excused.
    We sat on wrought-iron chairs on Dalia’s patio, a large cement slab shaded by a prehistoric grapevine fastened to a metal canopy, and placed our coffee on the marble top of the wrought-iron table. The shade from the ancient grapevine was pleasant and the coffee good. We sat in silence for a while, taking pleasure in the morning calm. Since the back patio was near the kitchen, we didn’t want to resume our conversation for fear that Dalia’s father and brothers would hear us through the open window.
    All of the men in Dalia’s family were in the kitchen except for her brother, Nasar, who was married and had moved out nine months before. Nasar was an older and, if possible, nastier version of Rafiq. He was an agricultural engineer at a government office. His wife Diana had a dental degree but had never been allowed to work, either before her wedding or now. She wasn’t allowed to leave the house without Nasar, even to take out the rubbish. The one time she complained, he broke her nose and sent her back to her family, who told her that he was well within his rights and that she deserved what she got for trying to defy him. Then they sent her back to beg his forgiveness. In the nine months of their marriage, she had left the apartment four times, once when he allowed her to accompany him to the Abai’ala (a supermarket), once to go to her family’s home, and twice to visit Dalia’s home.
    Dalia’s brother, Suhal, dropped us off in front of ND’s, and
    for us to unlock the door and go into the salon before
    1 it
    Now’ said Dalia, we have to find that Jenah’s or Jehan’s number and set something up with her. Since you worked on her hair you make the call.”
    “I knew you were going to say that!” Then, a dramatic sigh Of resignation, and “OK, I’ll do it.”

CHAPTER SIX
    The phone rang five times before someone answered it. As it was ringing, I almost lost my nerve and hung up, but when I tried to put the receiver down, Dalia