~ ~ ~



In front of her laptop, staring at the email astounded, Viv says, “Czechoslovakia or Poland or Germany? Good lord. Sheba might not even be Ethiopian?”

“We are all Ethiopians!” Zan declares grandly and his wife glares at him. “Well, Sheba’s half Ethiopian anyway,” he points out.

“How can she not be Ethiopian?”

“The father is Ethiopian,” Zan persists. “In Muslim cultures, that counts.”

“The father isn’t Muslim,” she says. “Ethiopia isn’t a Muslim culture.”

“There are lots of Muslims in Ethiopia.”

“Twice as many Christians.”

“O.K.”

“Well.”

“Sheba is half Muslim. In the Muslim culture, the father counts and he’s Ethiopian.”

“But he’s not the half that’s Muslim,” she says.

“So he would count only if he were Muslim?” though Zan admits to himself that this discussion, his half in particular, doesn’t make sense to him anymore. “Why don’t you write to Sheba’s grandmother, like he suggests?”


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