Chapters 25 and 26 Summary

Bud is at the office tonight meeting with the state banking inspectors during one of their routine visits. Bud used to enjoy these meetings, but the issue of farm loans is so explosive these days that the discussion of each loan wears on Bud. Jasmine is holding dinner until Bud arrives home, because a good Punjabi wife never eats before her husband does.

Jasmine thinks about the reports from Du's school that Du seems to be doing well considering everything. Jasmine wants to scream that Du has lived through horrors and deprivations that none of these people can even imagine. She wonders what the school officials would think if they really knew the obstacles that Du has surmounted.

A phone call interrupts Jasmine's thoughts. It is Darrel, who insinuates that he is in a desperate state of mind. Jasmine rushes over...