Love from a to Z

EPILOGUE
T
HE WORLD IS A MYSTERIOUS
place. On the one hand, its size can be measured and
recorded and verified. Its marvels and oddities captured in complex,
empirical detail.
On the other hand, its size is relative to our mind’s perception of it. Its
marvels and oddities only extending to how far our vision goes.
For some of us, this means the world is small, including only those we
see as belonging to it. People related to us, people who look like us, dress
like us, think like us.
For others, it’s medium-size and includes those we connect to through
some similarity, some trait that pings familiarity within, which then allows
us to overlook the differences between us and them.
And then there are those who see the world as huge, as the actual size it
measurably is.
Huge enough to include vast differences, people with nothing in common
with one another except a beating heart and a feeling soul, these two—
heart, soul—being the strongest connection between us all.
• • •
Adam and Zayneb were on a course to becoming the third type of people.
And they were doing it together. Four years of faraway togetherness, with
brief, exhilarating glimpses in between getting a political science degree at
Northwestern (Zayneb) and working on six art installation projects around
the Middle East (Adam) and through visits to MS support groups (Adam
and Zayneb).
• • •
Then they met for real—heart, soul, and body—the summer of their katb el
kitab, the summer they exchanged their vows, after a short engagement.
They met up in Istanbul, only emerging from their hotel room for bites to
eat and breaths of fresh air and breathtaking views.

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After four days, they traveled seven hours to visit the grave of the girl
killed by her father and grandfather.
Their world had become so large that it was necessary.
To end our story, they will tell you why themselves.