Rasoul, My Friend and Brother

Abstract

In the summer of 2008, I received an unexpected phone call from my wife, Mariam, asking me to leave my office at the university as soon as possible and come meet her at her store in downtown South Bend. I was surprised at this, since she did not normally work on Thursdays, but on this particular day, and for reasons that are no longer remembered, she had decided to pay a brief visit to one of her employees. On the phone, she had simply asked me, “Can you come soon? I’ll explain when you get here.”