Home Fire

The chapter opens with Parvaiz and Farooq in an electronics shop in Istanbul, where they stopped on their way to the airport to pick up new recruits. The story then moves back in time to the day when Isma announced to the family that she was moving to the USA. Both Aneeka and Parvaiz knew that she had applied for a student visa, but because of their father, the siblings had little hope that Isma’s application would be approved. The turn of events shatters the usual family dynamic: Aneeka and Parvaiz will have to move in with Aunty Naseem because they won't be able to afford the house without Isma’s income. Aneeka’s scholarship allowed her to go to the university, while Parvaiz didn’t get funding and couldn’t afford tuition, so he is working as a greengrocer’s assistant and pursues his hobby of recording ambient sound.

Angry at his sisters, Parvaiz goes for a walk in the neighborhood. He is cornered by the boys who live nearby who call themselves “Us Thugz, a shortened form of the Arabic astaghfirullah” (146). They forcefully take away Parvaiz’s phone and one of his most treasured possessions, his mic.