CHAPTER 6
Saeed’s father says his farewell to his son and Nadia the following day, leaving the house without telling them where he’s going so that they can’t follow him. After double-checking that they have everything, the couple leaves the house, too,
walking to the rendezvous point and wondering all the while if the agent has set them up and sold them out to the militants,”
which they know is a possibility.
When they arrive, they discover that the meeting place is in an abandoned dentist’s office, an office that has long since been raided of its painkillers and other medicines. Inside, they encounter a man dressed quite similarly to a militant, but he only tells them to sit in the waiting room with several others, all of whom are too tense to speak.
When Saeed and Nadia enter the waiting room of the dentist andsee the other people waiting in silence to be transported somewhereelse, readers witness a strange kind of connection, one predicatedon fear and the desire to escape. Indeed, these people are all in thesame situation, seeking passage out of the city in order to save theirlives. In this way, they’re connected to one another emotionally andcircumstantially by the very same horror they’re from which they’rerunning.When Saeed and Nadia are called into the dentist’s office, the agent stands before a black door that used to lead to a supply closet. You go first he says to Saeed, and although Saeed originally
planned to go ahead of Nadia, he suddenly changes his mind, thinking that it’s probably more dangerous for her to go second. No, she will he declares, but the agent doesn’t care, merely shrugging and looking at Nadia, who walks toward the door—not having considered ahead of time who would go first—and is struck by its darkness, its opacity, the way that it
[doesn’t] reveal
what is on the other side, and also [doesn’t]
reflect what is on this side, and so feels equally like a beginning and an end Nadia turns to Saeed, squeezes his hands, and steps through the door.
The process of escape is portrayed in this moment as both a“beginning and an end On the one hand, Nadia looks into the blackdoor and knows it will take her to anew life in a foreign country. Onthe other hand, she also knows that the door will take her awayfrom everything she’s ever known. As such, Hamid frames migrationas a complicated emotional process, one full of contradictoryfeelings.“It was said in those days that the passage was both like dying and being born Hamid writes. This is what Nadia feels as she
moves through the blackness, gasping and “struggle[ing]” to emerge on the other side, where she lies cold and sore on a bathroom floor. Right behind her, Saeed fights to come through. Ashe does so, Nadia looks around and sees that they are in a public restroom. Once Saeed fully exits the portal, the couple hug until they feel their strength return, at which point they stand up.
Saeed wheels around, as if wanting to go back through the door, but he simply pauses in front of it before walking away.
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