Author/Uploaded by Aneesa Marufu
Contents Title Page Dedication Contents Chapter 1: Khadija Chapter 2: Jacob Chapter 3: Khadija Chapter 4: Jacob Chapter 5: Khadija Chapter 6: Jacob Chapter 7: Khadija Chapter 8: Jacob Chapter 9: Khadija Chapter 10: Jacob Chapter 11: Khadija Chapter 12: Jacob Chapter 13: Khadija Chapter 14: Jacob C...
Contents Title Page Dedication Contents Chapter 1: Khadija Chapter 2: Jacob Chapter 3: Khadija Chapter 4: Jacob Chapter 5: Khadija Chapter 6: Jacob Chapter 7: Khadija Chapter 8: Jacob Chapter 9: Khadija Chapter 10: Jacob Chapter 11: Khadija Chapter 12: Jacob Chapter 13: Khadija Chapter 14: Jacob Chapter 15: Khadija Chapter 16: Jacob Chapter 17: Khadija Chapter 18: Jacob Chapter 19: Khadija Chapter 20: Jacob Chapter 21: Khadija Chapter 22: Jacob Chapter 23: Khadija Chapter 24: Jacob Chapter 25: Khadija Chapter 26: Jacob Chapter 27: Khadija Chapter 28: Jacob Chapter 29: Khadija Chapter 30: Jacob Chapter 31: Khadija Chapter 32: Jacob Chapter 33: Khadija Epilogue Acknowledgments Author’s Note About the Author Copyright Guide Cover Title Page Dedication Contents Start of content Epilogue Acknowledgments Copyright Pagebreaks of the print version Cover Page iii v 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 Title Page Dedication Chapter 1: Khadija Chapter 2: Jacob Chapter 3: Khadija Chapter 4: Jacob Chapter 5: Khadija Chapter 6: Jacob Chapter 7: Khadija Chapter 8: Jacob Chapter 9: Khadija Chapter 10: Jacob Chapter 11: Khadija Chapter 12: Jacob Chapter 13: Khadija Chapter 14: Jacob Chapter 15: Khadija Chapter 16: Jacob Chapter 17: Khadija Chapter 18: Jacob Chapter 19: Khadija Chapter 20: Jacob Chapter 21: Khadija Chapter 22: Jacob Chapter 23: Khadija Chapter 24: Jacob Chapter 25: Khadija Chapter 26: Jacob Chapter 27: Khadija Chapter 28: Jacob Chapter 29: Khadija Chapter 30: Jacob Chapter 31: Khadija Chapter 32: Jacob Chapter 33: Khadija Epilogue Acknowledgments Author’s Note About the Author Copyright The white men looked like birds. Or at least, Khadija thought they did. From her bedroom window they were tiny figures, no bigger than the length of her finger. She studied their bent knees, arms a blur like wings caught mid-flight as their desperate motions brought the deflated silk in their hands to life. Any faster, and she’d think they were the ones about to leave the ground instead of the hot-air balloon. She was too far away to hear the racist slurs leaving the merchants’ lips as they instructed the men to do their bidding, but she could certainly imagine what was being said as their fair skin reddened beneath the hot sun while the silk balloon swelled. And yet Khadija couldn’t bring herself to pity them. She envied them. For all their suffering and mistreatment, they still had a better view of the hot-air balloon than she did. The tip of her reed pen bled black ink across the paper as she sketched the bright globe of the balloon and crisscrossed it with sharp lines, marking each individual panel. She’d seen women in the bazaar sewing the squares of material by hand and stitching the more lavish ones together with freshwater pearls along the seams so that, once airborne, the balloon became a living, flying piece of art. She decided against including the white men in her drawing, or the wealthy merchants hovering close by, ready to leap forward at any moment should their balloons chance an escape with their livelihoods still aboard. Balloons were unpredictable creatures, after all, whisking men away on the next breeze with almost perfect obedience before becoming greedy and engorged, stuffing themselves with hot air until they burst spectacularly without warning. There were the lazy ones that slumped across the ground like empty carcasses refusing to come alive, and the furious ones with flames so hungry they licked the fabric and set the whole balloon ablaze. No matter how hard men tried, balloons were creatures they could never truly tame. That’s why she loved them.