Free The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf by Mohja Kahf

song
    When Teta visited, she opened her suitcases and out poured Ali Babas treasure, gifts from Syria without measure. Red roasted Iranian watermelon seeds in striped paper sacks, "birdnests" and sesame cookies in oval wooden boxes. Little mechanical eggs that whirled open to reveal a baby chick if you kept pushing the lever. Aleppan woolens for Jihad, Chinese pajamas for Eyad, and cotton nightgowns for Khadra. Embroidered with little cherry clusters, they made her dream of reaching upup-up to pick plump fruit from a tree spread against a turquoise sky.
    TEta also passed on to them the gifts sent by others. Aunt Razanne, Ebtehaj's elder sister, always sent updated photos of her children, while they, in turn, sent little tokens to their American counterparts, a cartoon Roddy cut out of Tintin or Osama comics for Eyad, a red red rose on adhesive paper from Reem for Khadra's dresser mirror. And letters to Ebtehaj on crinkly sky-blue airmail paper, fat ones from Aunt Razanne, skinny ones from her father.

    Jiddo Candyman, Ebtehaj's father, sent candy-coated chickpeas and rock candy, smelling of rose water. They were from his candy factory. "So you won't forget in America what sweetness there is in Syria!" he scribbled on the brown paper bag. But when he sent a picture of himself with a skinny, elegantly coiffed and made-up woman, the two of them sitting in faded Louis XIV armchairs with gilded edges, Ebtehaj snatched the photo from her daughter. Later, Khadra found the skinny lady's side of the photo snipped to pieces in the wastebasket.
    "That's Sibelle," Teta whispered to Khadra. "Your mother's Turkish stepmother."
    Wajdy took Teta downtown to see the sights.
    "I have seen the capitals of Europe, the palaces of Topkapi and Versailles," she said, "and you want to show me this-?" she pointed to the Merchant's Bank Clock at the corner of Meridian and Washington, with its nifty digital display of time and temperature. She sniffed.
    "Fine," Wajdy said. He took her to Monument Circle to see the great suspended pendulum at the State Museum. The pendulum she found mesmerizing. They stood in the circle for over half an hour watching it swing, almost reach, swing, almost reach. Wajdy had to pry her hands off the circular railing and gently pull her out of the pendulum's sway. Her scarf, which she wore old Damascene style, pulled back so the crown of her head showed, had slipped even farther back on her glossy black hair.

    Testa was tenaciously raven-haired. When silver roots started to come in, it was time for a trip to Kmart and a box of Miss Clairol. She emerged, fierce and sleek and black-haired again, and singing. "I'll be buried with my hair as black as coal, When Igo down, I will go down beautiful"

    Inanna opened the door for him Inside the house she shone before him Like the light of the moon Dumuzi looked at her joyously
    -Diane Wolkstein & Samuel Kramer, Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth
    Zuhura was getting engaged to Aunt Fatma's brother Luqman. They had first met at Uncle Abdulla's dinner. Luqman had then sent his sister Fatma to inquire with Zuhura's family. A meeting had been arranged that had begun with each looking shyly at the other and had ended with them talking animatedly, ignoring the other family members in the room, who, in any case, slipped out quietly during the interview.
    First there would be an engagement party, to be held in the Fallen Timbers community room. There would be a wedding after the academic year finished. Luqman attended the city branch of IU. He was trying to persuade Zuhura to transfer to the city campus; she was trying to get him to transfer to Bloomington, but nothing was decided yet.

    Zuhura was featured in the college paper for being the first Muslim woman to head the African Students Organization at IU. Her mother proudly showed Luqman the article. "The first Muslim woman in hijab," Ayesha said, tapping the photo.
    "You're going to drop that African student group when we're married,