Zeitoun: Part 1: Saturday August 27 Summary & Analysis

The next morning, Zeitoun and Kathy turn on the TV to see Michael Brown, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), telling all citizens of New Orleans to evacuate and head inland. Katrina is set to become a Category 5 hurricane, a level that had never struck New Orleans before. Zeitoun tells Kathy that she should leave, and he’ll stay to look after all their properties (they’d also be liable for damage if their equipment caused harm to clients’ properties).

By early afternoon, the mayor and governor call for a voluntary evacuation of the city. Mayor Nagin says that the Superdome (the huge enclosed arena in New Orleans) will be open as a “shelter of last resort.” Kathy remembers how ill-supplied and overcrowded the Superdome had been during hurricanes before, and she wonders if the authorities have learned from their mistakes. Kathy decides to go to her brother Andy’s ranch near Baton Rouge. Andy is in Hong Kong for work, but Kathy’s sisters Patty and Mary Ann are there with Patty’s four kids. It will be cramped, but Kathy looks forward to spending time with her sisters.

Kathy continues to try to convince Zeitoun to leave, but he’s never evacuated before and doesn’t see a reason to now. He knows he can always head to the second floor even if there’s flooding. They don’t live near the levees, so flash flooding won’t be an issue—it’s East New Orleans or the one-story houses of the Lower Ninth Ward that are in the worst danger. Plus, Zeitoun has to secure all the job sites, as he’s already told his workers and foremen to leave town.

After securing some work sites, Zeitoun returns to say goodbye to his family. Kathy has packed enough for two days, figuring they’ll return on Monday night. There’s still no mandatory evacuation, but on the radio she hears that those who stay behind should be prepared for heavy flooding. As she says goodbye to Zeitoun, her eyes tear up, but he tells her not to worry, and that she’ll see him on Monday. The family waves at Zeitoun, who waves back from the driveway.

As Zeitoun continues securing sites, he notices hundreds of people carrying coolers and blankets to the Superdome. He’s surprised, recalling how badly this system had worked in the past. Still, he feels somewhat cheerful having the city all to himself. Kathy has no such luck: at 6:30 she is stuck in traffic a few minutes outside the city—besides, she had taken a wrong turn and now is heading the wrong way, which will add hours to the trip. Zeitoun is home watching TV, and can’t help but gloat a little. Kathy stops at a Burger King drive-through for dinner. Without her knowledge, the kids start feeding their dog Mekay pieces of cheeseburger. Back in the car, Mekay starts farting for miles, making the trip even more unpleasant.

Kathy guesses that there are ten thousand cars on the road with her, and is overwhelmed wondering how all these people will find places to sleep. She thinks back to her husband, alone in a wooden house with an approaching storm. They talk again that evening, and Zeitoun tells her she should have stayed.

Still, Kathy is looking forward to a few days in Baton Rouge, though she is a little wary of her family, who still struggles to understand her decision to convert to Islam and wear the hijab, even after fifteen years. Last time she had visited, her mother had told her to take “that thing” off her head and enjoy herself, as if the hijab was a disguise to be worn under duress because of her husband. Yet one time when Kathy was getting her driver’s license at the DMV, an employee had told Kathy contemptuously to take off her hijab for the picture, and Kathy’s mother yelled that it was her constitutional right, making a scene until the employee got permission from her superior and agreed.

Kathy had grown up in a chaotic home but a tidy, working-class family neighborhood. Kathy was picked on in school, and often ran away from home, usually to her friend Yuko’s house. The two were among the only non-African Americans in the neighborhood. Yuko’s mother Kameko’s husband had been killed by a drunk driver years before, so it was just Kameko and Yuko. They were warm and welcoming to Kathy, who came to call Kameko “Mom.”

After high school Kathy and Yuko worked together at Dunkin’ Donuts. Kathy rented her own apartment and felt a quiet order and independence for the first time in her life. A pair of Malaysian sisters would come in often, and Yuko was always asking them curiously about their scarves, and about Islam in general. Yuko was captivated and began to read the Qur’an. Kathy was disconcerted at first—they’d both been brought up Christian, and Kameko was especially devout, but Yuko asked Kathy to keep an open mind.

A few years later, Kathy was divorced and living alone with Zachary. She was working two jobs, one as a checkout clerk at a drugstore, and one at Webster Clothes. Working 50 hours a week, she could cover health insurance for her and her son, but life was still hard. Yuko, meanwhile, seemed peaceful and happy. Kathy began borrowing books about Islam, curious to know what Yuko saw in it. She realized how little she had understood about the religion. Much of the Qur’an is consistent with the Bible, and filled with the same people. Muslims, she learned, consider the Old Testament, Psalms, and New Testament holy books too.

Kathy was touched by passages in the Qur’an that reached out to other faiths. Kathy had also assumed that Muslims were a single, homogeneous group, but she learned that there were various interpretations, such as Sunni and Shiite, and variations in faith and commitment, just like for Christians.

At the time, Kathy was attending a large evangelical church, but she was increasingly disconcerted by some things, like how the pastor had harangued the congregation for twenty minutes one Sunday for not donating enough during collection. Kathy knew that this was a working-class group that gave what it could. That night, she turned to the materials that Yuko had given her, recalling how Yuko was the most sensible and grounded person she knew, and wondering if Islam could be right for her—Kathy—too.

As Kathy was struggling that week, one of the preachers at church stopped by at Webster one day. He didn’t recognize Kathy, but she told him she went to his church every Sunday. She confided that it must be a sign from God to see him there, since she had been struggling with Christianity and with the church, and had actually considered converting to Islam. The preacher didn’t seem concerned about losing a member of his congregation, and told her it was just the devil trying to tempt her.

Kathy felt a renewed commitment to Christianity after this. She sat near the front at church on Sunday so her new friend would know he made a difference. He looked down at her specifically from the pulpit and, in the middle of the service, called her name and told her to come up to the pulpit. She was terrified, as the preacher commanded her to tell the congregation what she’d told him. She did so, wanting to trust him, but then the preacher cut her off, sneering that she actually wanted to convert to Islam. She was considering the “worship of Allah” he said with a snort, as Kathy, horrified, realized he didn’t know that God and Allah were one and the same. When the preacher was done, Kathy sat down in a daze, and decided never to come back.

Talking to Yuko, Kathy realized that this preacher didn’t understand how Christianity, Judaism, and Islam were all branches of one monotheistic faith, and she could not be part of something that dismissed Islam so contemptuously. She started reading the Qur’an, and was struck by how beautiful it was. The imam (Muslim worship leader) she went to visit spoke not about the horrors of hell but about how only God knew a person’s fate, and that they should look to the Qur’an for answers. Kathy admired the dignity, purity, wholesomeness, and control that she saw in Muslim women.

Finally Kathy converted, pronouncing the shahadah, the pledge of faith, in front of Yuko and other women from the mosque. “I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is his messenger,” she said, becoming a Muslim.

Kathy found a sense of calm in Islam. She grew less aggressive towards her family, and learned to be more patient and forgiving. Her mother and siblings, however, felt as if she’d renounced her family and former life. A few of her relationships mended, but she wasn’t in touch with a few other siblings at all. Still, she continued to hold out hope that she could have a thriving extended family for her children.

Back on the road, Kathy finally arrives in Baton Rouge at 11:30 at night. She calls Zeitoun once she puts the kids to bed, and he says there’s no wind or rain yet.