Instead he stood and wrapped his arms around her and spoke into her hair that he was proud of her. She felt her body was humming from the impact of the news and realized she had begun crying. She couldn’t believe it. So she said so. “Can’t you?” Baba replied. “I did not doubt it.” Her mother too hugged her, albeit coldly, asking only how far away the program was, and Huda and Amar entered while Hadia’s face was pressed into the coarse fabric of her mother’s shalwar kameez.
