A Map of Home

The summer that Nidali turns 11, her family flies to Egypt for her aunt’s wedding.

Geddo, Nidali’s grandfather, drives the family from the airport to Alexandria. They reach Ma’moora, a beachside neighborhood in Alexandria, and arrive at Aunt Sonya’s apartment. Sonya immediately begins discussing the wedding. She tells Nidali that she will let her wear makeup for the wedding, but Mama interjects and tries to protest. That night, Nidali’s mother and aunt drink coffee and gossip for hours as Nidali falls asleep.

The next day, Nidali explores the rest of the apartment and goes into her mother’s old room. She looks at old photographs beneath the glass top of her mother’s dresser. Among the photos, she spies an old invitation to her father’s poetry reading from 1971.

Mama takes Nidali to visit Yia Yia at the Greek Cooperative Cemetery. Nidali stands at Yia Yia’s grave and tells her about her life. She notices a single frozen tear on her mother’s cheek: “Now I saw that Mama’s tear was like glass” (87). Nidali wonders if her grandmother, who was Christian, understands her and her family when they pray for her with Koranic verses. On the car ride home, Nidali looks at Mama as she drives and wonders what it will be like when Nidali visits her own mother’s grave someday.