These Impossible Things

Kees is astonished at Malak’s calm after disclosing her pregnancy and abusive relationship. Kees asks for the full story, feeling ill at the way Malak appears to “crumple” as she lists the ways Ali has hurt, degraded, and controlled her. Malak doesn’t cry until she describes the way Ali shouted at her for ever having loved Jacob. She describes what finally made her decide to leave: One night, she tasted alcohol when she kissed him. She realized that Ali had been lying to her all along about never drinking alcohol while trying to control her behavior and accusing her of being immoral. Malak notes that she’s “done plenty wrong” (348); Kees hates that Malak thinks herself partially responsible for the abuse she has suffered.

After they talk at length about Malak’s life, Malak notes that Kees looks terrible. Kees thanks her for being willing to say so when other people in her life keep insisting that she looks fine. She tells Malak of the fallout from her family learning about Harry and her lingering fear that she and Harry are too different to stay together. Malak insists that Kees cannot break up with Harry, referencing the fight that led to their long silence. She confesses to feeling like a coward because she, unlike Kees, couldn’t admit that marrying for the sake of community approval was not right. They each apologize and embrace, forgiving one another.

The next day, Kees enters “lawyer mode.” She texts Harry to update him on the situation and sends a similar, but more detailed, message to Jenna, requesting money. Jenna books them flights for that evening. Harry sends messages of love and promises to pick them up at the airport on Saturday morning, the day of Malak’s appointment. She cannot miss the appointment and still get the abortion, as her gestation will have proceeded too far.

When they arrive at Ali’s apartment, it is empty. Ali enters while they are packing, treating Malak kindly while Kees looks on with suspicion. When Malak tells him she is leaving him and plans to terminate the pregnancy, however, he grows cold and patronizing. Malak’s cousin Haytham arrives just as Ali insists to Kees that Malak is not leaving; Kees throws a plate that shatters near Ali. As everyone else shouts in alarm, Malak quietly returns to packing, recognizing that she hadn’t admitted to herself the full extent of the violence in her relationship until she saw Kees’s horror when she heard her story. As Malak leaves, she asks Ali whether he drinks. He doesn’t answer, and in retrospect, Malak admits that if he had told her the truth, she might have stayed and tried to work things out between them.

Jenna likens the events of her wedding day to a montage from a romantic comedy, feeling distant from the events themselves. Her father gives her a diamond bracelet to commemorate the event, and her mother gives her a lace nightgown. She tracks Malak and Kees’s flight, wishing she could go with them to the clinic instead of attending her own wedding.

Harry and Lewis meet Malak and Kees at the airport. Kees throws herself at Harry, hugging him, apologizing for being mean and distant in recent months. They are surprised to see Lewis, whom they don’t know well; he insists that Jenna can’t marry Mo. Kees accuses Lewis of wanting to date Jenna but waiting too long. Lewis accuses Kees of being a bad friend to Jenna in the past year. He confides that Jenna was raped and that he thinks she is only marrying Mo because the assault has frightened her. He says that Jenna refused to speak about the incident and later told Lewis they could no longer be friends as Mo objected to their romantic past. He comments that it is “like someone has reached inside her and turned off all the lights’” (367), which Malak considers the perfect simile for Jenna’s mood. Malak insists on going to see Jenna before her appointment, despite their narrow window of time. Lewis refuses to accompany them, afraid that his presence will cause complications.

Though Jenna looks beautiful, she feels she does not recognize her reflection on her wedding day. In the final moments before the ceremony, Jenna’s mother asks her if she’s happy; Jenna insists that she is. Kees and Malak suddenly burst in. Her friends insists that she cannot marry Mo “‘because of what happened’” (371), leading to questions from Jenna’s mother. Jenna, overwhelmed, cries while her friends hold her. Outside, Harry and Lewis also embrace, providing each other with support as they hear Jenna’s weeping. Kees and Malak force the wedding planner and makeup artist to leave the room so Jenna can compose herself.

Jenna confides that she didn’t know how tell her friends about the rape and that she found herself agreeing to the relationship with Mo as it was, on the surface, what she wanted. Malak must leave for her appointment, but she insists that Kees stay with Jenna. Kees, in turn, insists Malak let Harry accompany her. Jenna warns that Malak and Kees’s parents are both present at the wedding.

Kees encounters her brother Hakim at Jenna’s wedding and feels underdressed in her travel clothes. He looks older, which makes her even more annoyed that he has ignored her messages. He confides that their mother is miserable and that their father is also sad. Saba is pregnant. Kees’s mother, Abida, enters the room, shocked to see her daughter. Kees lashes out, which is something she’s never done before toward her parents. She demands to know if Abida even read her messages and insists that ignoring her daughter “isn’t Islam.” She demands to know why her family has rejected her. Harry enters, insisting Kees not speak to her mother rudely, especially on his behalf. He gives Abida a nod of respect, even though they’ve never met before, and leads Kees from the room.

Jenna embraces her mother, Evie, whom Kees went to fetch. Evie asks if Jenna wants to marry Mo and is relieved when Jenna says she doesn’t. Evie says she wants Jenna to marry someone whom she loves and who makes her happy, and she has noticed Jenna’s recent unhappiness. She apologizes for not speaking up sooner. Jenna tells her mother about the rape, explaining her fear that if she told anyone, she would be considered unfit to marry in her community for having had penetrative sex. Evie confides that neither of Jenna’s parents were virgins on their wedding night and that most people in their community are just pretending. Evie summons Lewis and thanks him for looking out for Jenna. Jenna and Lewis embrace. Evie tells Jenna to spend the night with Kees as Jenna will have no peace at her own house, which is full of wedding guests. Evie will handle informing everyone that the wedding is off.

Malak frets about being late for her appointment, even as Harry reassures her. Though Malak is five minutes late to the appointment, they still accept her. She looks at the other waiting patients, including a couple who are both crying. She waits for several hours, apologizing to Harry for the delay as he frets over Kees. He refuses to leave her alone but has called a “replacement:” Jacob. Before Malak and Jacob can talk to one another, however, the nurse calls Malak back for her appointment.

When Malak is offered an ultrasound, she accepts, and she sees what the nurse calls a “heart tube.” She asks about how fetal remains are disposed, fretting that “cremation is haram in Islam” (394). During the procedure, Malak screams, causing Jacob, who is in the waiting room, to throw up into a trash can.

Harry arrives home just as Lewis pulls up with Kees and Jenna. Kees embraces her fiancé, noting that their apartment finally feels like a home. Harry and Lewis leave for the store to get an airbed for Jenna to sleep on as they are not yet equipped for guests. Kees helps Jenna out of her wedding finery. Jacob texts to report that he is bringing Malak to Kees’s apartment. When Kees thanks Harry for helping with the chaos of the day, he tells her that her friends are her family and therefore his, too.

At Kees’s apartment, Malak feels distant from her actions. Jacob helps her take a bath; then, he helps her dress and holds her in bed. Jacob has a new girlfriend who knows he has come to help Malak. Jacob reports that he loves her, though it took him a long time to get over Malak. Downstairs, Jenna cries as Lewis holds her; in the kitchen, Kees cries in Harry’s arms. Elsewhere, Abida thinks of the possibility that Harry “might be a good man” (400), and Hakim and Saba plan to visit Kees. Evie talks to her husband about what led to Jenna’s canceled wedding.

The next morning, Jenna reminisces about their teen years, leading Kees to grumble about Jenna’s high energy in the mornings. Malak feels sorry that Jacob has to leave, wishing she could proclaim that she will always love him. Jenna, Malak, and Kees embrace.

Kees jokingly accuses Jenna of pretending to get married just so they could all get together again. They sprawl together in Kees’s bed all day, catching one another up on the past year. Jenna puts off talking to Mo; Kees admits that it is heart-breaking to have her family reject her but admits that she feels like part of her family is restored now that the three women have made up. Malak confesses she wanted the baby that her pregnancy would have produced but feared staying in the abusive relationship, which would have also affected the child. She feels that terminating the pregnancy protected the child. She thinks privately that she might have also done it partially out of revenge against Ali.

Harry attends church with his family, sending prayers of thanks that his relationship with Kees has improved, with the help of her friends. Abida notices that Kees’s wedding bracelet is gone, realizes her husband took it, and feels grateful for him. Jenna’s parents pray, thankful that their daughter is happy and safe. Mo cries over losing Jenna.

At 4:15 am, Kees wakes for morning prayers. Jenna joins her while Malak listens. Across the world, Muslims face Mecca and pray as dawn breaks, exclaiming, “God is great!” (409).