The Orange Houses Chapter 22

TAMIKA

• In the Bronx, nine days before the hanging, Fatima and Mik walk arm in arm, laughing.
• Someone comes up and calls Fatima a terrorist but she shrugs it off; Mik suggests she loses the scarf, but Fatima says it was her mom's.
• Just don't call the police, Fatima instructs her.
• The girls duck into a store to get away from the guys taunting Fatima and, while in there, they notice a sign saying the store is hiring.
• Mik asks for an application, but Fatima knows she can't take one unless she gets a green card first.
• A guy walks past with a German shepherd and Mik goes to pet it, but the dog snaps at her.
• The owner explains the dog is working, so the girls figure out the man is police, and the dog is sniffing for drugs.
• It turns out the cops are narcs (i.e., drug police), but it still worries Fatima.
• Mik doesn't want Fatima to leave, so she tells her to call NaNa and explain that Mik will stay at Fatima's place tonight.
• They sneak into an abandoned NYPD warehouse and look around the graffiti on the wall. There, they decide to paint the Statue of Liberty.
• Fatima and Mik study the brochure to make sure they get her features right. Then they paint her on the wall, along with the poem that is at her feet.
• As they use their flashlights to look along the wall, they notice another mural that says, "love kills time." It's Jimmi's painting of hearts and clocks.
• They give a stray cat some food and watch it eat in front of Lady Liberty. (Not to be confused with this cat.)