The Map of Salt and Stars

by Zeyn Joukhadar

If I went back, would I have the big tears I should have had then, or is the sea dried up in me forever?

“Just because you add to something doesn’t mean it was broken. Maybe it just wasn’t finished.”

“If you don’t know the tale of where you come from,” he said, “the words of others can overwhelm and drown out your own. So, you see, you must keep careful track of the borders of your stories, where your voice ends and another’s begins.”

“No one sees the future,” she says. “No one knows what’s planned. But safety is not about never having bad things happen to you. It’s about knowing that the bad things can’t separate us from each other. Okay? No matter what happens. Your family still loves you, and you can get through anything if you know that. You’re safe with me. With Mama. With God. Nothing can take that away.”

“You once said I had courage, heart. That same heart still beats. The body that cradles it is no large matter.”

“Must there be a lesson?” al-Idrisi said. “Perhaps the story simply goes on and on. Time rises and falls like an ever-breathing lung. The road comes and goes and suffering with it. But the generations of men, some kind and some cruel, go on and on beneath the stars.”