Oh, moon-like one, oh fairy-like face, where are you? You had once said that this fight would be hard, Now, we would face such a battle together. Look — Nargis is standing by me, She seems victorious, as if the one who was lost has returned. Your mother, she leaves…

He was an infidel. His gestures were lethally charming. I was Sunni and he was Shia. The difference between us was less about belief and more about words — words we had heard all our lives but scarcely understood. Our friendship did not begin with sect or creed. We became…