Reema: That's one of my favorite scenes. When you're a memoirist, you're bound to the truth, meaning you can't fabricate any scene. Strangely enough, my life has that experience of being, not directly ordered, but certainly given the cue that I need to hold my breath. To say that I spent many years holding my breath around my father wouldn't be hyperbole or metaphor. My mother and I, we recall that story quite often. It’s one of those scenes that unzips so much. From the time I was a child, I knew that my father’s love was constant. His love was nonnegotiable. However, I did feel that his affection, his attention, and certainly his approval was based on conditions. I felt that even the slightly imperfection was a failure on my part as his daughter, as a person.
