"An End of a Beginning" Summary

Anna and Sharif are bound for Sinai; Amal and Isabel are bound for Tawasi. Isabel considers how alike Amal and her brother 'Omar are, friendly and bemused, although Amal seems more reserved. During a rest stop, however, Amal breaks into conversation with a fella taking sugar cane to market. Isabel worries what she will do if anything happens to Amal - the newspapers say this is the heart of terrorist territory. At the first security barricade, Amal is warned ominously to take care of her brother's American fiancye, lest foreign blood be shed here. After a second barricade, the car overheats and they wait until a passer-by tows them into a ramshackle town. While the radiator is being repaired, Isabel nearly goes into heatstroke, and she cannot remember when she was as dependent...