“Colin,” Charlotte forced through gritted teeth, “a Clayborne doesn’t-” You can watch it and fix the rabab after dinner.” “Colin, thank Maria for finding that video for you. “He’s an expert on Middle Eastern and South Asian instruments,” Maria added loftily, satisfied to see Lyndsay and Colin’s awed expressions.

Tayyeb Imran in years, but she could remember the days when he was a fixture on their couch: sipping tea with her father, drawing her close to pinch her cheeks so that she scowled at him (and then he would laugh and pinch them more, annoying man that he was). “He’s a friend of my dad’s,” Maria said, and immediately regretted it. You must always treat your instruments with care.”Īfter a moment, he reached down and raised a thin string. With a soft Arabic lilt, the man instructed, “Care is the thing here. In it, a solemn-faced, dark-haired, and bearded man was holding a rabab. Colin huffed as Maria brought up a video site and typed in a name. “Your cell phone,” she said, putting all the disgust she could muster in her voice. It was better to let people assume she knew everything.īut Colin looked unmoved, so Maria whipped out her hand toward Lyndsay. Maria chose not to mention the fact that maybe she didn’t know how to fix a rabab. “I don’t have to do anything! You were the one who threw the rabab on the bed because you were so mad I touched it and got my germs on it or whatever!” He looked like a baby, one of those babies Maria really hated the most, that cried all the time and didn’t seem happy unless everyone around them was fussing over their blanket and giving them a bottle and kissing their forehead all at once. Colin tuned her out as though she was background TV noise, spouting off a PSA he didn’t want to listen to.

A Bit of Earth by Karuna Riazi