Hollow Fires

Jawad celebrates because he was able to communicate with Safiya by breaking the twig and calling out to her. He’s scared for her, because “the truth can be scary. And now the scary truth is so, so close to her” (181).

Asma, who loves true crime documentaries, texts Safiya a list of 10 pieces of advice for working on a cold case.

In her library detention, Safiya watches episodes of Nate’s YouTube channel, Fowl Play. He’s incredibly popular and likable online, which Safiya notes is completely different from his attitude at school. Richard surprises Safiya in the library and she tells him about Nate’s racist outburst in class. Richard is upset and defensive on Safiya’s behalf. He asks her on a date to Medici’s Bakery that afternoon. On the way out, she checks out the library’s one Nietzsche book. The only other person to have checked it out this year was Nate.

In an excerpt from the Nietzsche book that Safiya checks out of the library (previously read by Nate), the author writes, “While some of Nietzsche’s work appears contradictory, his views are often interpreted as anti-democratic, anti-labor, and anti-socialist…he often made racist, classist, and anti-Semitic remarks'' (190). The superman quote sent to Jawad’s parents comes from Nietzsche's idea of the superman, a white man who is superior to all other races and refuses to be censored.

Jawad follows Safiya, constantly whispering to her. He asks her to help him, he mentions Jackson Park, and begs her to find him.

Safiya reads through the Nietzsche book on her way home from school, noticing that one of the pages is missing. She gets an alert on her phone that Jawad’s parents have received a text from his phone number. Safiya cancels her date with Richard so that she can watch the news coverage.

The Chief of Police tells the press that at around 10:00am that morning, the Alis received the following message from Jawad’s number: “‘Sorry mom and dad. I’m okay. Couldn’t take it anymore. Home soon’” (196). The police plan to change the investigation from a kidnapping to a runaway.

A right-wing article argues that Jawad’s parents may have faked his kidnapping to gain sympathy for “Islamist causes” (198).

Safiya, Usman, and Asma all go over to Asma’s house to talk about the new text evidence. Usman is confident, after meeting Jawad’s parents, that they were not part of a plot. Asma and Safiya decide to bring their concerns to the police, but they are condescended to and dismissed. Safiya is still hearing the whispers, and she worries that because it’s been nine days since Jawad’s disappearance, he might be dead.

The news reports that Jawad’s parents believe the text message is fake because Jawad did not call them “mom” and “dad.”

Jawad always called his parents Mama and Baba. Even when other kids made fun of him for those names, he still wouldn’t use Mom and Dad. He just simply stopped talking about his parents at school.

Safiya asks Rachel, who is a student worker in the front office, to get Nate’s locker combination. Rachel agrees. Safiya sneaks out of an all-school assembly and breaks into Nate’s locker. She finds the missing page from the Nietzsche book with the phrase, “swallow your poison, for you need it badly” circled several times (213). As everyone is returning from the assembly, Safiya panics and pockets the page. Richard comes to talk to her and Safiya notices Nate glaring at her from down the hall.

Instead of going to the principal with her suspicions, Safiya continues with the rest of her day. She and Usman investigate crowd shots from the day of the fire alarm and notice that Nate and Joel aren’t in any of the shots. They were somewhere else while everyone was waiting outside. Safiya sees this as more proof that Nate is behind the attacks. That afternoon, Mrs. Cary tells Safiya to take the staff camera outside for photos of trash as part of the recycling spread that Dr. Hardy wants the paper to run. While outside, Safiya is cornered by Joel and Nate. Joel leaves, and Nate accuses Safiya of stealing from him. Nate gets closer and closer to Safiya and verbally threatens her. Safiya tries to push Nate out of the way, and Nate prepares to punch Safiya. Richard appears and stops Nate. Safiya walks back into the school and watches Richard yell at Nate. Richard meets Safiya back inside and asks her why Nate thought she’d stolen something. Safiya doesn’t tell Richard about the page from the Nietzsche book. Richard offers to walk Safiya home.

Jawad “[doesn’t] want [his] last memory to be the smell of car air freshener layered over cigarette smoke,” so he tries to hold onto the memory of his mom’s incense (231). Jawad thinks he is fading.

Safiya wakes up in the middle of the night hearing Jawad’s whispers asking for her help and telling her to find him and “to go to Jackson Park” (233). Safiya decides to follow the voice to the park.

In a transcript is of his YouTube video, Nate shows his followers a secret hiding place in Jackson Park for birdwatching. From this spot, he points out a culvert: “They say that spot is haunted [...] But I’m not afraid of ghosts. As my dad always says, fortune favors the brave” (235).

Safiya wakes up, dresses for a run, and plans to go to Jackson Park alone to look for clues about Jawad. Safiya is certain the voice she’s been hearing is Jawad’s ghost: “My heart wanted to have hope. But it had been thirteen days since Jawad was reported missing” (237). When Safiya gets downstairs, she sees red painted letters over the storefront windows that say: “GO HOME FUCKING TERRORISTS 14/88” (238). Safiya goes into shock and “dry-heave[s] into the gutter” (238).