Summary

Daniel does not know how to tell the rest of his mom’s story, because nobody “speaks about what happened” when “the secret police took her” (209). This was not a problem for Scheherazade, because she invented her stories. For Daniel, he has to ask his mom. When she finally tells him, Daniel does not “want to hear” the story anymore (212). Sima says they took her to an empty room. In the room, they threatened to kill her and her family if she did not reveal the names of everyone in her secret church. They gave her “one week to think about it” (215).

Daniel thinks “this is a good place in the story” to discuss different kinds of gods (216). Everyone wants one of two: “a god who listens or a god who speaks” (216). The god who listens “is love,” and the one who speaks...