Hollow Fires

In the voicemail, the murderer tells Jawad’s father that Jawad is alive and will be returned in exchange for a $30,000 ransom.

Dr. Hardy suspends Safiya for a day and a half. The morning after the graffiti and Safiya’s column, Safiya gets a text message from Asma with a picture of flyers that have been posted all over school. The flier is a print-out of Safiya’s column with the phrase “Swallow your poison, for you need it badly” written across the front (86). Shaken up, Safiya glances at the Amber Alert on her phone and “[feels] a gust of wind inside the store and [...] a single voice. A whisper” (87).

Jawad is a memory, a ghost. He laments that he has no future now, but he believes Safiya can help him find peace. He says, “[...] she’s the only one who can hear me, and she may be the only chance at a now that I have left” (89).