Summary

Aaliya tells her reader that after witnessing an incident during the early years of the civil war in Beirut she made a resolution not to complain. She had been walking home from the bookstore when she saw a man wearing many layers of clothes across the road from her. He leaned against an open doorway. The doorway behind the man struck Aaliya because she believed the darkness inside was impenetrable. She suspected she was hallucinating. A few moments later she encountered a dead man on the side of the road and decided her vision had been a foreshadowing. The corpse was right in her path. She tried to be calm but as she looked at the dead man she had a thought of Ahmad. At that point she panicked and ran home. Once she was home she realized what a miracle it was...