Summary

Section 2 begins with a flashback to Sara's childhood. Dogs around town are inexplicably dropping dead, and the doom of war is slowly seeping into the country. Mrs. Ristovic, a townswoman known to both Lejla and Sara, was among the first to have her dog die. She claims that "'those pigs killed him for bein' Yugoslav...First the Serbian tricolor hunters, then the Serbs. Mark my words'" (51). Though Sara finds this ridiculous at first, "other dogs fell: Mrs. Talic's pug, the bulldog from that overgrown yard next to the school, my neighbor's ugly greyhound" (51). Fearful of persecution, Lejla's mother changed her name from Lejla to Lela, and the family name changed from Begic to Beric. Sara recalls resenting the new change, and the fact that as it was all happening, Lejla got her period before her.

One day, Sara goes to Lejla's house to...