Faizullah."
She turned and walked around to the side of the bus. She could hear him following her.
When she reached the hydraulic doors, she heard him behind her.
"Mariam jo."
She climbed the stairs, and though she could spot Jalil out of the corner of her eye walking
parallel to her she did not look out the window. She made her way down the aisle to the
back, where Rasheed sat with her suitcase between his feet. She did not turn to look when
Jalil's palms pressed on the glass, when his knuckles rapped and rapped on it. When the bus
jerked forward, she did not turn to see him trotting alongside it. And when the bus pulled
away, she did not look back to see him receding, to see him disappear in the cloud of
exhaust and dust.
Rasheed, who took up the window and middle seat, put his thick hand on hers.
"There now, girl There. There," he said. He was squinting out the window as he said this,
as though something more interesting had caught his eye.