Summary

In this section, Ma and Dadu turn from private panic to public institutions as they try to retrieve their stolen passports. At the neighborhood police station, an officer listens to Ma’s story while eating from his tiffin. He treats their loss lightly, jokes about “manpower” and “womanpower,” and suggests that their report is not serious compared to the many assaults and emergencies he sees each day. He refuses to file a case and tells them to go to the passport office and the American consulate instead, insisting that he cannot “make your items reappear, like magic,” which leaves Ma and Dadu feeling dismissed and humiliated.

Following his advice, they visit the passport office and then the consulate. There, an American officer behind a window confirms that the family’s climate visas still exist in the system but explains that without the physical...