Other Words for Home

Sarah calls Jude into her big, beautiful bedroom and demands to know if Jude knows how long it’s been since Uncle Mazin took Sarah out to dinner. Jude says nothing, as she does not know. Sarah sadly says, “Yeah […] Me either” (128). Sarah says she has homework to finish and Jude goes, thinking of an Arabic proverb, “She cannot give what she does not have” (129).

Mama is shocked that Uncle Mazin does not attend service at the mosque. She finds a mosque that is a 10-minute walk from the house and proudly goes alone. Mama also begins to take an English class there, and she and Jude practice after school. She tells Jude in English that she misses home, and Jude says she does as well.

One fall day, Jude walks through the neighborhood alone. She waves to people and smiles, and they smile back. She gets to Ludlow Avenue, which is full of shops, restaurants, and a wide variety of people. In letters to Fatima, she shares that Ludlow “is a tiny street, / but it feels like the whole world / is living there” (134).

One restaurant on Ludlow Avenue called Ali Baba is Middle Eastern. Jude walks by seven times before working up the courage to go in. The smells are comforting. A girl in a headscarf whom Jude recognizes from school steps out, seats her, and tells her to wait in Arabic. Jude can tell despite the Arabic words that the girl is a native English speaker. After a while, the girl returns with a tray of familiar food like pickles, olives, shawarma, falafel, and bread. Jude tears up when she sees a teapot like her Aunt Amal’s on the tray. The girl says her name is Layla, and Jude introduces herself as well. Layla’s Lebanese parents run the restaurant. Layla is in eighth grade. She tells Jude that she (Jude) is lucky to have been in the Middle East and is now lucky to be in America.

As the weather gets colder, Jude walks in her new winter coat near the university, daydreaming that Issa is among the students. She often goes to Ali Baba, where she gets to eat falafel and baklava in return for helping out. She and Layla discuss school. Jude tells Layla about Grace from ESL class and Lauren from science; she considers telling Layla about the boy in space t-shirts in Pre-Algebra but does not.

Jude becomes feverish after walking home from Layla’s restaurant in a cold rain. She is half-asleep as Mama tends to her, singing in Arabic. Jude initially thinks she is home but then recognizes the house’s creaking and the sight of leaves and rain falling out the window. Jude feels, though, that she is “rising” (148).

Jude enjoys all the recipes Aunt Michelle finds online and even picks some out to try. Even when Jude does not know all the words, the photograph of the food helps “her eyes translate for [her] stomach” (150). Mama does not enjoy the “strange” food as much as Jude, usually only eating much when Uncle Mazin is there. One night Mama cooks; she makes lamb and fried cauliflower, and she toasts the pita bread on the stove’s open flame like she always did in Syria. Sarah looks uncertain at first but enjoys the meal. Uncle Mazin tells Mama, “This tastes like home” (151).

Layla convinces Jude to come with her to a meeting about the school musical. Layla plans to work on sets and wants Jude to join in. Sarah is there too. Jude watches the director, Mrs. Bloom, speak from under the lights onstage and takes an audition packet at the last minute.

The leaves are falling, and Jude wonders if trees tire of trusting that they will “someday grow back” (157). Winter arrives with snow and cold. One day everyone at school must keep their coats on because the heat stops working. In ESL class, Jude and Grace practice talking about the weather. They also discuss whether they might forget their “mother tongues” someday, but Jude does not think she could.

Jude has a good day at school because she correctly answers a math question aloud; at Aunt Michelle’s house, however, Mama is waiting to tell her that Issa has moved closer to Aleppo. Jude and Mama are both upset:

Even a girl like me

a girl who like movies more than news,

a girl who didn’t pay

much attention to what was happening,

knows Aleppo is synonymous with war. And death (163).

Jude needs the warm security of sleeping in bed with Mama, but in the morning she slips downstairs where Aunt Michelle is sipping coffee. Jude reads the newspaper Uncle Mazin leaves behind and learns that many families trying to flee Syria are not as lucky as Jude and Mama; their towns are taken over violently, or they are “trapped in refugee camps” (167). She comes to understand that America and Europe are now hesitant to take in Syrian refugees. Just before Thanksgiving break, Mrs. Ravenswood has the ESL class members say something for which they are grateful. When it is Jude’s turn, she talks at length about Issa, and how grateful she is for him.