Hollow Fires

Jawad haunts his old playground and his parents laundromat. He wishes his mom could sense him, and sometimes it seems like she might: “she [looks] up for a second, [rubs] her arms like she [is] cold” (38).

In shock after the hack, Safiya researches the name Ghost Skin, discovering “‘ghost skin’: a white supremacist who hides their beliefs to blend into a group or society and be undetectable” (39). Safiya and Asma move through the halls to get to their journalism teacher, Mrs. Cary, but they are intercepted by Dr. Hardy, the principal. Dr. Hardy confronts Safiya about the hack and tells her that all future stories must be approved by him before publication or the paper will be shut down. Safiya offers to address the hack in a column, but Dr. Hardy refuses: “If we don’t talk about it, it will simply die out” (43). Safiya decides she must uncover Ghost Skin’s identity before Dr. Hardy is able to shut down the paper.

Jawad observes his English teacher sometimes, even though it makes him angry. Jawad lists mundane items that people have mistaken for bombs, including backpacks, clocks, cameras, and science projects. None of the items were bombs, but all the people who were accused were Brown or Muslim children.