All We Have Left

Jesse reminisces about her brief relationship with Hank, recalling that he left for college when she was 4 years old. She has fond recollections of his running through their apartment with her on his shoulders, and feeding her pickles while telling her that they were cookies. She plays the tape on the answering machine, and hears a garbled, broken message that was left by her brother, Travis. A girl’s voice, breaking with emotion, is heard in the background. She mentions the word “Ayah” in her message before the tape stops. 

Travis and Alia walk through an empty office in the Tower. They try to use a phone to contact their families and Emergency Services; however, they hear only an odd busy signal. Travis suggests that they “[…] get out first, and then […] worry later about what’s going on” (195). As they continues through the office, Travis is horrified to realize that he has lost something from his pocket, and runs back into the elevator car from which they had just escaped. He emerges having found something on the elevator floor, and is coughing badly when he re-enters the hallway.

Although Alia imagines that she and Travis are the last two left in the building, this idea is dispelled upon meeting hundreds of people trying to make their way down the smoky hallway, where the “[…] stench is rotten, thick with chemicals” (197). A door in the middle of the stairway is wedged shut, causing the entire group to walk back up in search of an alternate route. The floor that they enter has “[…] small fires flickering in the ceiling” (199) and wires hanging from overhead. Travis and Alia see a man with a fire extinguisher dousing flames in order to allow the group access to the stairway; he stays behind and continues to fight the fire rather than join the group attempting to escape. Alia realizes that “[h]is fire extinguisher is the only thing that is keeping this path to freedom passable” (200), and she prays for him as she descends the stairs.

Having located the answering machine to which Hank has directed her, Jesse listens to the fragmented message on the tape again and again. She texts Hank in an effort to find the identity of the female who speaks in the background, but receives no response. Jesse realizes that the only person who can help with this technological issue is her friend, Emi, whom she finds at Starbucks on the following morning. Jesse nervously explains that she needs help; while she realizes that they are no longer friends, she apologizes for her behavior. Emi responds that Jesse had made the choice to end the friendship, and stares at Jesse before mentioning that her Japanese grandparents had been interred in California during World War Two. Emi wonders, since Jesse doesn’t like Muslims, whether she harbors anti-Japanese sentiments, as well. Jesse responds that she hates no one, and waits for Emi to leave; however, her friend merely asks, “What do you need?” (204).

Emi works on the answering machine tape in an effort to extract more information from Travis’s message while Teeny and Myra accept Jesse’s apology for her behavior. Jesse is filled with gratitude at their forgiveness, realizing that “[…] true friendship is big enough to leave room for mistakes” (206). Through diligent effort, Emi is able to clarify the recording enough to make the words spoken by Travis, “That’s Alia with me” (207), clear and audible. Jesse explains that her parents are separating and that she hopes additional information about Travis will help to heal the family. The chapter ends with the friends reconciling and hugging one another.