Snippet #2006048

"Yeah, he never had much interaction with girls," Rebecca felt she owed her mistress an explanation. "He's too afraid to talk to people on a regular basis. Maybe it's because Dad scares them away or..." her eyes filled with fear in an instant when starting to mention the latter reason. "Or maybe it's because our ethnicity often got in the way of making lasting friends." She began to lose her appetite with every sentence. "I mean... what has 9-11 done to change your view on people who have even a drop of Middle Eastern blood in them?"

The entire conversation made Rebecca feel uneasy, even when sitting down at a table eating bits of her fruit. This was not a topic either she or her brother enjoy discussing. It meant taking a risk, that being the risk of the loss of friends. Such a burden is often painful. Eliab was hit hard with it the most, however. Death threats, insults, and a vast array of other forms of hostility weighed him down everyday. Peers often asked him why his sister did not die in a suicide bombing, yet. She would be asked that, too, which irritated her to no end. Her response would simply be that she and her family are not like that.