Saints and Misfits

This chapter describes an incident that occurred in Eastspring prior to Janna’s vacation with her dad. In this incident, Janna is at the house of her friend, Fidda “Fizz” Noor. They are watching television in the basement, but when Fizz runs upstairs to say goodbye to her grandparents, Fizz’s cousin, Farooq, comes downstairs and sexually assaults Janna. When Fizz’s mom tries to open the door, Farooq runs away, and Janna is left alone. She feels vulnerable and afraid because she is the daughter of a divorced woman and Farooq is highly esteemed in their community for having memorized the entire Qur’an. Fearing how she might be judged, she says nothing about the assault and locks herself in the bathroom immediately afterward.

Back from Florida, Janna eats breakfast at her family’s folding table. Her brother, Muhammad, asks their mom if she has called “them” and hugs her when she affirms that she is planning another meeting. As Muhammad takes Janna to school, she learns that he is meeting with the parents of Sarah Mahmoud, her study circle leader at the mosque. Janna thinks of Sarah as a “Saint” because she is a near-perfect Muslim girl. Janna is unhappy that her brother has chosen to court Sarah.

Every Thursday, Janna takes her elderly neighbor, Mr. Ram, to the community center for Seniors Games Club. Shortly after moving to Eastspring, Mr. Ram befriended Janna by buying her books and reciting poetry for her. She recalls an early conversation she had with him in which he told her that the intention behind an action matters more than the action itself, “[b]ecause when we just do things without a why, we become husks. Easily crumpled, no fruit inside” (14). Remembering this, Janna involuntarily thinks again of her attacker, Farooq.

Now, as Janna pushes Mr. Ram’s wheelchair, they stop and talk to Ms. Kolbinsky, whom Mr. Ram has repeatedly invited to join him at Seniors Games Club. Continuing on, he and Janna talk about Caliban, the villain from Shakespeare’s Tempest. Mr. Ram once wrote a paper on Caliban, but Janna thinks the character is evil for attacking Miranda. When they see two of Janna’s acquaintances, Tats and Jeremy, their conversation comes to a halt.

Janna thinks back to when she first saw Jeremy, a non-Muslim boy, at school while taking pictures of the track meet for their yearbook. Admiring his looks, she snapped photos of his forehead as he put away some audio equipment. Though they have only had a few interactions, she now has a crush on Jeremy and is acutely aware of his movements around school. However, because he is close friends with Farooq, this deters her from growing closer to him. She thinks of other reasons that pursuing a romantic relationship with Jeremy would not make sense, particularly their different cultural and religious backgrounds. Tats, Janna’s friend, also knows Jeremy because he serves as the tech crew for her drama club. Seeing Tats and Jeremy together in the middle school yard makes Janna suspicious.

At the community center, Janna notices an employee whom she thinks of as “Shazam!”, who has a talent for making the elderly individuals smile with his jokes and attention. Shazam! tells Janna that she is a nice person for looking after Mr. Ram, but she admits that she is getting paid to do it. While the seniors begin their activities, Janna pulls out her laptop and checks her email, seeing two messages: weekly advice from her father’s mailing list and an invitation to Fizz’s birthday party. Next, she edits her Uncle Amu’s website and responses to questions he receives from the Muslim community, a service for which she is also paid. Amu is the prayer leader of the local mosque. She thinks of how the monster, Farooq, will be at the mosque that Sunday, but she quickly banishes the thought, not wanting to give him any space in her brain.

When Janna gets home, her mom is home early and offers her a box of her favorite donuts, making her suspicious. Her mom tells her that her brother is moving back home because he has changed his major and will be taking a year off to save money to continue his education. When her mom and brother ask Janna to give him her room and share a room with her mom instead, Janna says no. When they continue pushing her, she runs to her room, thinking of how similar this moment seems to her parents’ divorce, an event in which she also had no choice.

She recalls a time before the divorce, when her dad stopped attending mosque with the family so he could work on the weekends. With her mother’s encouragement, Janna drew pictures of everything she was learning in mosque to share with him, using notebooks to create a graphic novel based on the Seerah, the study of the life of the Prophet Muhammad. Now, she looks at one of those notebooks, thinking of the conflict it created when she began to be more like her mother and wear the hijab full time, while her dad grew further away from the faith of Islam.

Before school the next day, Muhammad gives Janna a new cell phone, which she previously had not been allowed to own. Janna recognizes this gesture for the bribery it is and insists that she will not give up her room. At school, Janna once more sees Jeremy and Tats standing close together. She feels betrayed, thinking that her close friend has gone after the boy she likes. After gym class, Tats tells Janna that she has something to share about Jeremy and asks Janna not to get angry, but Janna runs off to math class before Tats can share anything.

After school, Janna goes to Fizz’s house to celebrate her friend’s birthday. Down in the basement, she watches Pride and Prejudice with Fizz and her sisters. Fizz’s mother, Auntie Fatima, brings them all upstairs to make goodie bags for Fizz’s birthday party. When Fizz asks who she invited, she replies that only family and friends are invited, but Janna knows this means that Fizz’s cousin, Farooq, will be there. When Janna tells Fizz about Tats’s betrayal, Fizz tells her it’s a good thing, since Jeremy isn’t Muslim and a romance between him and Janna would never have worked anyway. They finish making the bags, and girls from the mosque begin arriving for the party. Janna busies herself in the kitchen, helping with preparations to avoid Farooq. When she sees him, she begins to feel sick, so she leaves the party early, telling Aliya, Fizz’s sister, that she is unwell.

On Saturday morning, Janna is in bed studying for exams when Muhammad comes in and reveals that he wants to pursue his doctorate in philosophy. This decision is the reason their dad has stopped funding his education, and it is also why Sarah’s parents are resistant to him pursuing their daughter. However, later he tells Janna in a celebratory tone that Sarah’s parents have agreed to allow him to continue his relationship with their daughter.

Janna checks out the newly installed dividers in her mom’s room and considers letting her brother have her room, but she changes her mind when he steals her camera and goes through the photos of Jeremy’s forehead. She gets the camera back, but he continues to negotiate with her, threatening to reveal her romantic interest in Jeremy to their mom and requesting that she supervise some of his meetings with Sarah. Janna resolves never to give up her room after this blackmail.

That evening, Janna’s mother is wearing a new scarf and beautiful earrings. When she takes them off, Auntie Maysa makes her put them back on and reminds her that life doesn’t end with divorce. Then she winks at Janna. On the drive over to the mosque for an Islamic Quiz Bowl, Muhammad continues to tease Janna about the pictures of Jeremy’s forehead, taking guesses at whose forehead it might be, but Janna stays silent.

At the mosque, Janna is on her phone in the back as everyone else prepares. When she sees Farooq enter her line of vision, she moves to the first row to avoid him, and then Sarah chooses her for her team. She notices that Shazam! from the community center is also on her team, although she never before realized that he attends her mosque. While their team meets in the kitchen to strategize, she once more sees Farooq watching her through the door. She learns that Shazam’s real name is Nuah. Their team wins and will go on to a regional game of Islamic Quiz Bowl in Chicago next weekend. That night, as Janna eats celebratory candy, she gets a call from Tats, who tells her that she is at a restaurant with her crush, Matt. Tats reveals the information that she wanted to tell Janna earlier: that Jeremy is now aware of Janna’s crush. Janna is in shock, but Tats must go back to the restaurant before she can finish explaining.

The next morning, Janna’s mom gives her the earrings and tells her that Tats tried calling several times on their landline before she went to bed. After making breakfast, Janna tries calling Tats back repeatedly, to no avail. Finally, Muhammad tells her that he spoke to Tats that morning, and she said she would be gone the rest of the weekend at her grandparents’ house. Feeling irritated, Janna tells Muhammad that his next job can be as a sheep shearer.