Exiles in America(144)

cape and you want to stay, so I can be arrested? So I can disappear inside their

system and you will get rid of me?”

Her mouth hung open in disbelief. She snapped it shut to speak. “You re-

ally are mad. You are talking nonsense. You are talking shit. You will not cut

up our family like a pie. You will not take my son.”

“He is my son, and you are a selfish woman. I will do with him what I

please.”

Elena turned back to Zack. “You hear that? He is threatening to kidnap

Osh. He is a dangerous man. He is a crazy man. You must lock him up until

he is sane again. A hospital is where he belongs.”

“Elena. No. I can’t do that.” Strangers asked him to do this all the time,

the families of patients. But friends never. The idea frightened Zack. “Once a

person is hospitalized, it’s out of your control. It’s on their record forever.

They’ll never forgive you. It can lead to lawsuits and charges of malpractice.

No. We do not want to go there.”

“Listen to her,” said Abbas with a sneer. “She thinks that if she calls me

crazy, nobody will notice that she is crazy, that she is the one who needs to be

put into a hospital.”

Zack noticed Daniel watching him, as if wanting to know which of these

two were insane.

“Please,” said Zack. “You’re both under enormous strain. It does nobody

any good to call each other crazy. But if you want to continue this, why don’t

we go to your place? The three of us. We can leave the kids here. They can

have a sleepover, and Daniel can look after them. The two of you can finish

what you started. You don’t want your kids hearing their parents call each

other mentally ill.”

E x i l e s i n A m e r i c a

3 2 9

Abbas and Elena were silent, unable to look at each other or anyone else.

“No. We are fine,” Elena finally said. “I have said all I need to say. I want

my children with me tonight. I cannot leave them.”

Abbas nodded. “Yes, yes. We must take our children home. You have

heard too much of our shit. You do not need to hear more.”

“Uh, want me to go downstairs and wake the kids?” said Daniel.

“I will go with you,” said Elena. “I want them to see we are back and they

are safe.” She followed Daniel out to the kitchen and down the stairs, leaving

Zack alone with Abbas.

Suddenly Zack had nothing to say to the man. He was at a complete loss

for words. Finally he said, “I’m sorry about what you’re going through,

Abbas. It’s very unfair.”

Abbas looked at him, expecting something more.

“I hear you’re having trouble sleeping. Would you like me to give you

something?”

Abbas angrily flared his nostrils. “I do not need your drugs. I do not need

your pity. My life is none of your business.”

“Maybe not. But my friendship with your wife and Daniel’s friendship

with you have made it my business. I only want to help.”

Abbas looked colder than ever, stern and indifferent. But nobody could be

as indifferent as he pretended.

Elena came upstairs carrying Osh, heavily asleep, sprawled in her arms like

a big beanbag doll. Abbas tried to take him. She turned away. “I have him,”

she said. “You can help your daughter.”

Daniel was leading Mina by the hand, a little sleepwalker stumbling along

with her head down. She dreamily mumbled to herself when Abbas gently

helped her on with her coat.

Zack followed Elena to the door. “If there’s any trouble,” he whispered,

“call me.” The boy’s puffy, pouty face hung between him and her. “Don’t hes-

itate to call me. Okay?”

She nodded, but in such a curt, dismissive manner that he felt he had

failed her.

42

Daniel watched the Rohanis go out to their car in the cold, Elena

lugging the sleeping boy, Abbas leading the half-awake girl by the

hand. Not until they drove away did Zack shut the door.

Daniel remained shaken by the argument, the anger of the words, the bit-

ter intimacy in the husband’s and wife’s attacks on each other. He and Zack

never argued like that. Thank God. This went beyond a nasty marital spat

into something that felt as fierce and physical and real as a tornado. Daniel

almost envied the Rohanis their fine fury, even as he remembered that Abbas

was crazy and getting crazier every day. And Elena kept adding fuel to the

fire.

He and Zack returned to the living room, but only to pick up the wine-

glasses, as if afraid to stay in a room still radioactive with anger.

Zack said, “You would think an outside threat like this would bring them

together. But it’s made things even worse.”