My Friends

Mustafa updated Khaled on his new friend group, many of whom were Libyan exiles. He eventually invited Khaled to one of their dinners. Khaled was shocked to see the mysterious Libyan man from the hospital in attendance.

Afterwards, Mustafa began crying when he and Khaled were alone together on the street. Uneasy, Khaled began talking at length while they walked to the train. Before parting ways, they expressed their love for one another.

In 1990, Khaled learned that his and Mustafa’s mysterious benefactor had been kidnapped, tortured, and killed by Qaddafi’s agents. This was the start “of the end of the Libyan opposition” (204), although Khaled didn’t know it yet. Meanwhile, Mustafa began working for an estate agency. He and Khaled no longer connected over literature. However, they did attend a reading together one night. They were disappointed when the writer condemned Muslims, feeling let down by the writers they’d admired.

Khaled and Mustafa’s friendship changed over the following years. Sometimes they talked about moving abroad. Khaled noticed them becoming “less Arab and a little more Anglo” (208).