Places in the heart : Part IV

If you are not bored by now and still following please read on. If you are new these are the earlier parts : one, two, three, Olla .

Twosret just informed me that the person I’ve been calling Lina is actually Amy (short for Iman)– thanks Twosret yes her name in the series was Amy Adams and as I said in part one , I forgot the names and asked for help…so I’m asking the readers do you wish me to change them or is it ok for you guys to know that her name was Amy Adams and not Lina Adams ? Let me know…

Meanwhile ( back to the story ) …. Lina’s best friend Margaret gets temporary custody of Ahmad.

Bakr and his team still have a few tricks up their sleeves. In all his interviews and public appearances he insists on being called American (which he would be right ? ) and of calling Lina the ‘American’ wife of John Adams, because the people, press and court continue in calling her lawyer and her as ‘Ayrabs’. So he wants to appeal, or even do a retrial on grounds that there has been mistrial, and ( I’m not well versed in law) inadequate investigative procedures etc… in short stuff not according to the book -which might prove her innocence.

9/11 happens and it is a shock to America! If things had been previously bad for Arabs and Muslims now they are worse. Even his favourite Hindu restaurant is attacked by youth gangs.
In prison Lina meets a woman fellow Egyptian convict called Magda who was busted for drug dealing. Magda is the chief of prison’s girlfriend and he grants her protection from the prison gangs. There is a particular female gang in prison who have been a source of constant trouble and they pick on Lina. Lina seeks to befriend Magda who always rebuffs her because she wants no attachment as she is soon leaving prison. During break –time in the courtyard the gang corner Magda and try to stab her with a smuggled knife, Lina jumps in to help and takes the hit instead of Magda. She survives and they become friends. We learn that Magda married a rich Egyptian business man back home whom she used to work for, and that the guy was murdered and that she inherited his business but was arrested for drug dealing on a business trip to the US. She has one brother and a friend who is taking care of her business back home. While in prison her brother ironically dies of a heroin overdose. Lina who is sentenced to death and has no hope of respite decides to appoint Magda as Ahmad’s guardian to take him back to Egypt to his grandmother, since presumably John is dead and she will die soon so the kid will have no family. In an emotional scene they seal the pact and Bakr is supposed to take care of this side. When he tells Margaret to give him Ahmad. Margaret refuses saying Ahmad is hers now and runs away into hiding.

After 9/11 the situation towards prisoners of Arab origin (and Arabs in general) becomes even harder, and the public opinion does not help either. So the chief of prison cannot extend his protection to his girlfriend Magda or her protégée Lina anymore. Lina supposedly has kept a gold locket with John’s and Ahmad’s photo with her, so Magda keeps it safely with her because no one dares to touch her (I’m not really sure if in US prison people can keep their jewelry). Because the prison chief loves her, Magda and her buddy get the ‘clean’ chores such as washing the clothes in those big industrial size washrooms, not a tiring dirty job. The other non –Arab girls get the rest of the chores.

Bakr is hunting for evidence that Lina was framed, and that there was no due process. For example , blood test for drugging ? especially that she seemed dazed when apprehended. Also why did her husband pay with her credit cards for items bought just before reaching the chalet, one of them a large butcher knife ( what does he need a butcher knife from on a weekend), a bottle of wine which Lina does not recall, ropes….and why did the LAPD not arrive on the scene immediately after the crime was reported- yes the policeman actually went to hospital to check on his kid first then ½ an hour later later went to the house. Bakr now genuinely believes that Lina is not guilty. He sends a detective searching for Margaret and finds out she and Ahmad are living with a man in a large villa in another city. While surreptitiously trying to photograph her and Ahmad for proof that it is Margaret , he gets her boyfriend on film…who disturbingly look like John Adams……

oh Magda is being played by Taysir Fahmi and Bakr by Hesham Selim ( you can see Magda as a blond girl at the back too)