Chapter Eleven: Rāshid took a deep breath and recalled how Diahanna first caught Suleimān’s attention—when she smiled and said, “You play music beautifully.” That brief admiration blinded him to how Diahanna sweated over Dwayne, Keisha’s brother. By the time he heard Suleimān’s neighborhood serenade, Rāshid realized Suleimān had been hopelessly blind. As the Swan Song pierced Rāshid’s chest, the depths of his and Suleimān’s desperate desires grew even more haunting with Scriabin’s Romance for Voice and Piano, as Suleimān latched “pleading” onto Christoph’s bow. Rāshid heard these words:
Rāshid is infatuated with Suleimān and longs for connection; he was familiar with Suleimān’s melancholy.
