Summary

The Mothers talk about leaving the world, an inevitability that becomes imminent in their old age. The more they hold on to the world, the more it tries to break them, whether by the decrepit age of their bodies or with the world turning against them.

While in Michigan, Nadia was exposed to the cold for the first time in her life. Her boyfriend, a Sudanese-American boy named Shadi from Minneapolis, provided her with some comfort in a place where she felt out of place amongst so many white people. Shadi was passionate about different issues and active on campus, something Nadia admired. With his encouragement, she applied for a study abroad in Oxford, where she received a break from the cold of Ann Arbor, but at least Michigan was distant from the pain at home. Whenever Aubrey asked if she would return to...