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to do the dishes.
    â€˜Since when do men wash dishes?’ Jonida jokes.
    Lila says, ‘No way, Hana.’
    â€˜Look, all these years I’ve been doing everything around the house,’ Hana says, trying to convince them. ‘I know how to do women’s work.’ But Lila is adamant.
    Shtjefën lights a cigarette.
    â€˜Tomorrow after school, let’s go out just you and me, Uncle Mark,’ Jonida says, before going to bed. ‘I want you to meet my two best friends who live a block away.’
    Hana wants to know why they would want to meet her.
    â€˜What? Are you shy or something?’ Jonida exclaims. ‘If it’s a language problem, don’t worry – ok? You make yourself perfectly clear.’
    â€˜It’s not a language problem.’
    â€˜So what is it?’
    Hana looks at Lila, who shakes her head.
    â€˜You three are weird,’ the girl comments. ‘God only knows what’s going on with you.’
    â€˜Listen, Jonida,’ says Hana, gathering her courage. ‘Before meeting your friends, you and I have to talk.’
    â€˜Whenever you want. Do you like ice cream?’
    Hana nods.
    The parents, sitting facing one another, each look at the opposite wall. The young girl looks downcast.
    â€˜It’s nothing serious, right, Mom?’
    â€˜Not serious, no.’
    â€˜Nobody’s ill or anything?’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜Well, nothing else is important,’ Jonida continues, relieved. ‘So, Uncle Mark, now that you’ve put this idea in my head, how am I supposed to hold on until tomorrow?’
    â€˜There are some things you can’t say just like that. Be a little patient.’
    â€˜Ok. I’ll just go get my school bag ready, then I won’t think about it anymore.’
    She goes out of the room. Shtjefën is worried and stares at Hana.
    â€˜Are you sure you know what you’re doing, brother?’
    Hana smiles, with a hint of dismay.
    â€˜Shtjefën, you’re going to have to get used to it sooner or later; you’re going to have to call me by my girl’s name.’
    â€˜It’s too soon,’ he says. ‘Look, sorry, but all my life I’ve seen you as a man.’
    â€˜I know. Let’s drink on it, then I’m going to take a walk.’
    Shtjefën offers to go with her and Hana doesn’t say no. Jonida comes in and out of the kitchen, silently watching them from the corner of her eye. Whining fire sirens and rumbling traffic noises come through the window.
    Finally, Jonida wishes them all goodnight and goes to bed. Lila goes with her to her room.
    There’s nothing we can talk about, nothing that can be put into words easily, Hana thinks later on as she and Shtjefën walk, their cigarettes flashing like fireflies. The night is warm, with a light breeze. There are still joggers out in the park. Cars pass slowly. Shtjefën explains that on small roads like these the speed limit is twenty-five miles per hour, and that the Americans are really strict about these things because this area is a middle-class residential district where people are trying to improve themselves, and so … Shtjefën leaves the sentence hanging in the air. Hana lights herself another cigarette, unsure what to do with the stub of the first. In the afternoon, when they had gone on the same walk with Jonida, her niece had told her never to throw them on the ground, because if you do you’ll get a fine.
    â€˜Here, give it to me,’ Shtjefën says. He wraps both stubs up in a paper hankie, which he then stuffs in his pocket.
    He rests his arm on her shoulder and then hastily withdraws.
    â€˜I’m sorry.’
    â€˜What about?’
    â€˜It’s hard.’
    Hana waits. Shtjefën takes his time before saying it’s weird, this knot of words that he doesn’t know how to get out. He says that in the last nine years the mountains seemed so far away that they didn’t