Chapters 17-18: Salted Miqta, Passing Danger Summary and Analysis

Unexpected projects pop up around Shadid's house. A cistern that Bahija used to water her tomatoes is uncovered, and unfortunately filled with sewage. Shadid industriously uses the contents to fertilize his garden, which grows many of the same plants as his grandfather Abdullah's garden in America. Shadid uses this segue to summarize his grandfather's life in America. He began as a peddler in Texas with his brother Miqbal, dragging trunks of goods door-to-door and enjoying their freedom. He briefly works in the oil fields and does military service before marrying a woman named Vera and moving to Oklahoma. She soon abandons him and their son Ayyash, named for Abdullah's dead father. He joins his mother Shawaqa and siblings in Oklahoma where Miqbal gets them all jobs working in a farm. Shawaqa...