The Other Americans

Jeremy Gorecki goes to the gym early to help deal with his insomnia. He finishes his cardio routine as his friend Fierro enters and will not stop “talking about his ex” (7). Fierro competitively adds extra weights to Jeremy’s barbells and continues to talk while Jeremy lifts. The two men served in the Marines together in Iraq and now both work out in the same gym. Jeremy worries about the time as his boss Vasco is desperate for an opportunity to punish him. He finishes his routine, advises Fierro to finalize his divorce from Mary, and invites Fierro to his sister’s barbecue.

Jeremy drives to work in his Jeep but arrives late. He sits and listens to Vasco read the previous day’s reports, which include Nora’s father’s hit and run incident. Vasco tells his officers to stay focused on their job and not allow themselves to be distracted by social media chatter. Jeremy escapes without any comment from Vasco and then enjoys a quiet shift. Just as he leaves for the night, he notices the name Guerraoui on the active cases list. 

Efraín is an undocumented immigrant who witnesses the hit and run but wishes he had not. The chain falls off his bicycle as he travels home. He stops to reattach the chain and hears a car thump into a person. The car does not stop but the old man rolls into the gutter. Efraín’s wife Marisela tells him to call the police, but he is worried that he will be deported. He explains to her that “there wasn’t anything I could do” (11). His young children are American citizens and they are his priority. The memory of the accident haunts him.

Nora struggles to come to terms with her father’s death. Her sister Salma arrives with her husband Tareq and twin children, Aida and Zaid. Salma and Nora comfort one another while Tareq makes a sign for the family diner to explain why it is closed. Tareq departs and the family discuss what little information they have from the police.

They spend the day in silence, broken only by Tareq’s questions of how the diner will continue to run. Nora is offended by such practical questions, but Salma defends her husband as not everyone can spend life with their “head in the clouds” (14). Nora has developed a reputation for having her head in the clouds throughout her life. She views it as her way to survive. Nora was a quiet child because her Moroccan heritage made her a target for school bullies. Her introverted personality led teachers to think Nora suffered from mental health issues, but her father defended her. She developed into an able musician and found her niche as a piano player. Nora was also diagnosed with synesthesia, a condition in which sensory information is perceived by other senses. Nora hears the color of music. People begin to visit the family house to pay their respects. Nora can only spend so much time repeating the same stories and conversations. 

Jeremy visits the Guerraoui house. He knows Nora from their time together in the high school jazz band. The house is full of mourners and he recognizes the family. Nora is on the deck and he begins to speak to her. She thanks him for coming and asks him to “stay for a bit” (17). Jeremy smokes a cigarette while they talk even though he is trying to smoke less. They talk about high school. Jeremy spent his school years exhausted. He took care of his sister and worked after school. Nora explains to Jeremy that she is now a composer but works as a substitute teacher to pay the bills.

Nora explains her difficulty in facing the gathered mourners. She refuses to cry. Jeremy understands as he could not bring himself to cry after his mother died. He assures Nora that Coleman—the detective working the case—“is really good” (19). Jeremy remembers the devastating impact of his mother’s death on his family. His father became an alcoholic and his sister turned to religion. Jeremy remembers seeing Nora’s father at their band recitals and “the intense envy” (21) he felt. The mourners begin to leave and Nora thanks Jeremy for his presence. 

Maryam listens to the radio and thinks about her early years in America with her husband Driss. The talk shows amazed her as Americans seem to love to confess to anything. She left behind a large family in Casablanca, but in Morocco only has her brother who lives 130 miles away. Being in America is like being orphaned. Maryam struggles with her English pronunciation which makes her feel even lonelier. One encounter with a woman and a bag of flour in a supermarket leaves Maryam in tears. Driss used to comfort her. On the evening of the accident, Maryam searched for Driss but could not find him. The police arrived late at night to convey the news. 

Nora sleeps and becomes lost in “a world [her] father still inhabited” (25). She wakes up and remembers that he is gone. While writing an email to her boss, she hears voices in the house. Detective Coleman has a small scar across her right eyebrow, and she looks at photos of Driss as Maryam explains how she and her husband moved to America from Morocco in 1981. Nora cannot bear to hear the story again.

She remembers a time shortly after the September 11th, 2001 attacks in New York. Someone tried to burn down the family business, which at the time was a donut shop. Nora showered but could not remove the smell of soot from her hair. Her parents argued about whether they should return to Morocco. Maryam wanted to return and she found solace in her Quran. Driss wanted to stay in America. Maryam and Driss entered into a “Cold War” (27). He bought beer and each morning she poured it down the sink. Driss spent more time out of the house and Maryam began to learn karate. The family bought an old diner with the insurance money from their donut store and the animosity fades.

Maryam tells Coleman about Salma’s career as a dentist. Coleman has a son named Miles. She walks the family through the police report and the limited information. The autopsy report shows that Driss likely died instantly. The new information causes Nora fresh pain. Coleman has limited leads but promises to call if she has any news. 

Driss visits his friend Brahim in Morocco in the 1980s. He wants to finish graduate school to get a teaching job to support his wife and young daughter. Inflation in Morocco is continuing to get worse and war rages in the south. People constantly protest against the government. Driss walks home and sees tanks on the streets. The tanks intimidate a group of protestors while a police vehicle runs down two teenage boys. Driss worries how he will get home. One of the policemen turns a gun on Driss and fires. The bullet misses. Driss ducks to the floor and waits for the police to drag him away. They never come. He spends hours on the rooftop and then returns home to a worried Maryam.

The next day Driss learns that Brahim was arrested. Maryam announces that she wants to emigrate to the United States. They land in Los Angeles a few months later but find California in the midst of a recession. They struggle to find jobs but buy a donut shop and run it as a family business. They work hard and save every penny. Eventually, the business becomes a success. 

Efraín watches Marisela read the local English-language newspaper after a tough day at work. Marisela finds an article about the hit and run. Her English is better than her husband’s so she reads to him from the newspaper. The police have appealed for witnesses. A picture of Driss makes Efraín wonder about the dead man’s life but he insists that he cannot go to the police. Marisela points out that he can leave an anonymous tip. 

Jeremy visits the Joshua Tree jail for “another meth arrest” (35). He is about to leave when he sees Fierro being booked into the jail. Fierro smashed up his ex-wife’s car and got himself arrested. Jeremy thinks about how Fierro had seemed fine at his sister’s barbecue. Fierro is processed and insists that he is innocent. The two men had bonded on the first day of boot camp. Fierro’s initial quietness and restraint vanished by the time they returned from Iraq. Jeremy does not know how to help his friend. 

Nora reluctantly stands in front of her father’s coffin. She asks his body about their final, seemingly innocuous phone call. Her heart aches until it is time to leave. Nora and her mother drive home and her mother breaks the silence by claiming that “it’s not supposed to be like this” (38). Nora recognizes her mother’s perpetual homesickness and Maryam has been notably irritated by the American funerary traditions compared to those in Morocco. Nora realizes that she has never known anyone who has died and that she has no experience with death.

The hearse follows Nora’s car and Nora follows Salma’s SUV. Maryam reminisces about her husband’s love of the desert which dictated why they lived in certain parts of California rather than in Los Angeles. Nora thinks about her ex-boyfriend Max, a married man who stopped seeing her a month before her father’s accident. They arrive at the graveyard. Maryam is dressed in “widow’s white […] the color of absence” (40). Nora has forgotten her scarf, but Salma has a spare. A small group of relatives and friends wait beside the grave. The imam leads the ceremony and Nora sees the notes of his voice as colors. The coffin is lowered into the ground. 

Eid is in mid-December. Maryam wants the family to visit the mosque in Riverside together. Driss does not want to go. He insists that he is “an atheist” (42) even though this annoys Maryam. He agrees to go to the mosque anyway because Salma is home from college. The family arrive early for morning services, but the parking lot is already full. A boy on the door tells Nora to cover her legs as she is “indecent” (42). Driss is proud to see his daughter riled by the boy’s comment.

Driss stays outside to finish his cigarette and watches the boy taking donations at the door. The boy’s name is Qasim and he is 11 years old. Driss is reminded of his own youth spent in Islamic school. He is about to grill Qasim about religion when the imam appears, and the two men argue about the veil’s place in Islam. The imam offers to continue their conversation after the service and Driss stays outside to smoke. Afterward, he tells his wife what happened and expects her to take his side. She does not. They argue in the car on the way home. The view of the Californian desert from the highway quells Driss’ anger. 

Detective Erica Coleman is originally from New York, grew up in Washington D.C., and then moved to California in 2014. The Driss case is her first homicide after the transfer out West. The move was prompted by her husband Ray receiving a lucrative job offer. Their son Miles was not pleased to leave his home behind. Ray focused on his job, Miles sulked, and Coleman found work to be a relief. The hit and run offers very few clues, however, and she struggles to make progress.

Part of her problem is Murphy from the Crime Scene Unit who is old and set in his habits. He makes sexually suggestive remarks to women. Coleman visits Murphy and learns that the paint particles recovered from Driss’ body were from a silver Ford built between 1992 and 1998. There are a broad range of possible models. Coleman feels like her limited resources are her new department’s way to test her skills. Coleman finds out that Miles is the same age as Murphy’s son. The boys attend the same school. Murphy invites Coleman to bring Miles to a baseball game in the park. 

Jeremy visits the house of Fierro’s ex-wife Mary. A smashed, dented silver Ford Mustang is in the driveway. Mary answers the door and complains that Fierro’s destructive behavior scared her. Jeremy struggles to find a way to ask Mary to drop the charges against Fierro and instead advises her to change the locks and get a dog. Mary angrily tells Jeremy to take the matter up with Fierro. Jeremy realizes that he has miscalculated the situation. Mary is amazed that Jeremy has a steady job and is attending college. Five years ago, she would have expected that from Fierro, not Jeremy. He reflects on his drunken, listless life and the time he lost to his degenerate lifestyle. Jeremy assures Mary that Fierro’s life can get better, just as his own life improved. Mary says that she is done trying to help her ex-husband.

Nora returns to her high school and is surprised to find that it seems so much smaller. She follows Maryam to find Salma in the cafeteria. Tareq is performing an emergency tooth repair so will miss the play. Aida and Zaid are in the play but do not have any lines. The mood between Salma and Nora has been tense since the reading of their father’s will. The only unexpected item was a life insurance policy worth $250,000. The entire amount is left to Nora alone.

The play is late to begin and Salma questions Nora about her plans for the money. Maryam seems to take Salma’s side. She did not know that Driss had changed his will. They continue to bicker until a fellow audience member asks them to be quiet. The play begins. Nora finds it difficult to concentrate but the play is over quickly. Afterward, Salma ignores Nora. Sharing the money will not change much, Nora believes, as “it would not undo the choice our father had made, nor what it said about us” (52). Nora follows Salma to the playground outside the school.

Nora remembers her sister’s envy at other times in their life. Salma had graduated from a state school and seemed content enough until Nora received an offer from Stanford to study pre-med. Maryam gushed about her daughter’s achievement constantly. Maryam was less proud when, three years later, Nora announced that she was joining a graduate music program rather than continuing to study medicine. Maryam accused Nora of having her “head in the clouds” (52). Meanwhile, Salma was engaged to a fellow dentistry student named Tareq and had plans to open a joint practice. Driss was the only member of the family to offer Nora “something besides derision” (52). Nora begins to think about returning to Oakland and her regular life when the twins arrive and quiz her about the play.

Maryam and Nora drive home together and Nora asks her mother who she blames for the life insurance issue. Maryam says that she does not blame Nora, but she does worry about her. Her disappointment is nothing new to Nora. She has her own loaded questions to ask in return to her mother’s usual barrage but the matter of the will has opened up “a whole new front” (53). Nora feels too weak to fight and decides to return to Oakland. Morning comes and she cannot leave. Instead she travels to the family’s small cabin in Joshua Tree. Driss used the shack-like cabin as a place to escape. Nora arrives at the cabin, clears up the dust and the mess, sleeps for a while, and then calls Detective Coleman. There is no update on the case. 

Driss’ death makes Maryam feel as though she is “caught in a heavy fog, unable to see my way forward” (56) for a long time. She forces herself to watch her grandchildren’s play and hopes that the family can enjoy a normal evening. Her daughters’ spat regarding the will embarrasses her. She remembers a university friend who was arrested and thrown in jail in the 1970s. Maryam did not want her family to live under the threat of an oppressive government. Driss disagreed with her at the time because he was “still in thrall to his Marxist ideas” (56). She lied about the police visiting the house to convince Driss to move the family to America.

The move to America brought the family close together. When Maryam was pregnant with Nora she was diagnosed with preeclampsia due to high blood pressure. She was confined to bed by the condition and felt lonely. Driss, working long hours in the donut shop, rarely had the time or energy to talk. Nora cried often as a baby so Maryam remained at home. She was surprised at the difference in her daughters’ personalities. Maryam is pleased to have Nora return after Driss’ death but notes that her daughter seems lost. She thinks Driss left money to Nora because Nora “always had her head in the clouds” (58). The money was intended to help Nora make a fresh start or choose a better career, Maryam believes. She sinks back into the heavy fog. 

Efraín’s daughter Elena plays a fairy in the same high school play and she is delighted to wear a blond wig. The sight of Efraín surname Mendez in the program gives him “a small thrill” (59). His son Daniel struggles to sit still while they wait for the play to begin. Efraín sees the name Guerraoui listed in the program and is struck by shame. He sees two women arguing during the performance. Elena sneezes during her only line while Efraín watches under the heavy burden of shame. The guilt makes him leave the program behind after the performance, but he insists that in not going to the police he is “doing the right thing” (60) for his family. 

Jeremy arrives at the detention center. An hour later he emerges from central holding with Fierro. They sit in the car and Fierro thanks Jeremy for posting his bail. Jeremy insists that the favor is conditional, and that Fierro must attend therapy. Fierro refuses and they argue as they drive away. After a brief silence they discuss Mary. Fierro does not plan to see her again. He signed the divorce papers right after he smashed her car.

Jeremy remembers a time in Iraq when he and Fierro made an escort run that went wrong. Their vehicle exploded and a piece of shrapnel lodged itself in Jeremy’s back. Fierro carried Jeremy from the scene of the attack. Fierro proposes they visit a bar and Jeremy declines. He drops Fierro off and then drives out to the national park to hike and tire himself out after a long day. He stops at a red light and sees Nora enter a bar. 

The cabin is very quiet so Nora leaves in search of a drink. She finds a bar named McLean’s and enters. The venue is busy even at 6pm. Jeremy calls to her and they sit together at a table. Nora orders an alcoholic drink and Jeremy orders food and a glass of water. They discuss Nora’s loss, Jeremy’s abstention from alcohol, and the business which used to be in the surrounding neighborhood. They chat and Nora realizes that she has begun to flirt with Jeremy. She orders another drink.

Nora has a tattoo on her wrist. The phrase “a voice crying out” (66) is written in Latin to remind her of the first protest she attended. She was arrested and she tells Jeremy the story. A policeman allowed her to leave without pressing charges. Jeremy discusses his own work as a policeman and the college he attends on his days off. The conversation turns to his time in Iraq. Nora imagines him as a soldier. An awkward silence descends on the conversation. The check arrives and they both try to pay at the same time.

Jeremy suggests that Nora should not drive after consuming alcohol. He offers to drive her home. Nora insists that she will be fine, but he states that he cannot let her drive. She relents and Jeremy drives her to the cabin. They arrive and Maryam is seated on the porch. Nora tells Maryam that the battery in the car key failed and that Jeremy offered her a ride. Maryam has brought Tupperware containers filled with food. 

Jeremy notes that the silence between himself and Nora is “different” (70) after their conversation about Iraq. He drives away from the cabin and remembers a field trip undertaken by the high school jazz band. The trip was scheduled near an anniversary of his mother’s death and his father drank so much that Jeremy forgot to ask him for the $15 needed to pay for the trip. The other children mocked Jeremy, but Nora told him to ignore them. On the trip itself, Jeremy had no money for lunch. Nora appeared with two lunches and they ate together. Their conversation convinced Jeremy that he was in love, but he never found any other opportunity to spend time with Nora. They graduated and faded from one another’s lives. Their conversation in the bar ended awkwardly but Jeremy is pleased to have gotten an emotional reaction from anyone in his life. 

Detective Coleman visits a bowling alley at noon. The owner is a man named Anderson Baker who vacuums the carpets inside. He quickly realizes that the detective wants to ask about the hit and run on the street outside. Anderson thinks about the history of traffic accidents outside the bowling alley. His wife Helen was once heavily involved in the running of the business but lost interest once their child A.J. was born. He remembers when Driss bought the diner next door to the bowling alley in 2002. Driss’ death was a “terrible accident” (74) in Anderson’s opinion but the lack of proper lights at the crosswalk made it somewhat inevitable.

Coleman asks about the accident and Anderson provides the small amount of information he has about which customers visited the bowling alley on the night in question. Anderson explains that he employs a girl named Betty to work the cash register but Betty’s shift has not yet started. He walks Coleman to the door while thinking to himself that he has “only ever seen lady detectives on TV shows before” (75).