The Golem and the Jinni

An article in the paper describes Chava’s attack. Schaalman is depressed and frustrated about his dowsing spell. He poses as a retired rabbi interested in helping congregants at various synagogues. He charms them and asks about any Kabbalistic texts that could help him in his quest but soon learns that Michael’s uncle took them long ago. He goes to Michael and asks about the books. Michael admits that after he donated them to charity and tells Schaalman about his engagement.

Schaalman is in shock over the news. He leaves and begins to wander the streets until he finds himself pushed into a bar. He drinks excessively and solicits a sex worker, who offers him her opium pipe. While he is under the influence of the drugs, the dowsing spell activates and leads him to the Bowery, where he meets Conroy, from whom Ahmad often buys silver. He asks Conroy if he knows Chava, Avram, Michael, or anything about Golems. Conroy shakes his head.

After traveling through Europe, Sophia is returning home to the United States on a steam ship. While in Paris, she fell ill and had a miscarriage; Ahmad was the father. As the fetus grew, it spread an intense warmth through her. Now, after her miscarriage, she is constantly cold and shaking. She vows to herself that she will keep her balcony door locked and never let Ahmad back into her room.

Chava looks at her wedding dress. Schaalman knocks on the door to collect her for the ceremony as she finishes preparing. He leads her down the aisle, taking the place of the bride’s father. Before the wedding, Schaalman found a spell that would mask his thoughts, and now, as he walks Chava down the aisle, he deliberately thinks about destroying her, but Chava does not perceive his thoughts.

Arbeely and Maryam are concerned about Matthew and his mother, Nadia. When Arbeely last saw Nadia, she seemed extremely ill, and now Matthew appears to spend all his time at the forge.

Chava is increasingly frustrated by her married life because she must constantly focus on appearing human. Michael worries about her health and wants her to go to a doctor. Chava realizes that she must remember to breathe all night long, even when she believes that he is asleep.

Sophia and her aunt go to Sam Housseini’s shop. Sam commissions Ahmad’s necklaces to sell. Sophia thoughtfully picks out her outfit, styling herself as an authentic Syrian bride. Toward the end of their visit, Sam shows her the necklaces that Ahmad makes, taking out the first beautifully crafted one he ever made. She looks at it and cries. The Jinni glimpses Sophia as she leaves the shop and gets into her carriage with her aunt.

The narrative returns to Ahmad’s history from the distant past. Fadwa doesn’t wake up and is now trapped in a dream. Because she has now been unconscious for many days, her father, Abu Yusuf, turns to his last resort: a strange, outcast wizard named Wahab Ibn Malik. Abu Yusuf knows that any help the wizard gives will come at a price but takes Fadwa to him regardless. Wahab ibn Malik examines her. He finds a spark left behind from a Jinni and claims that he can save Fadwa through the process of exorcism. However, he really just wants to use Fadwa to find the Jinni that possessed her.

The narrative returns to the present. In the bakery, Schaalman examines the Golem but is disappointed to realize that whatever piqued his interest in Chava has faded. As the Golem fills his order for rolls, she realizes that she cannot sense his thoughts.

Matthew runs into the forge and urges Ahmad to follow him back to his apartment. Maryam sees Ahmad chasing after the boy and decides to follow as well. When Matthew and Ahmad arrive, they find Nadia dying. Maryam fetches a doctor, who quickly determines that Matthew’s mother had an advanced case of lupus and is dying of organ failure. Neighbors call a priest and gather around to pray over Nadia while she passes away. Matthew clings to Ahmad for comfort, and the Jinni is deeply uncomfortable. When Matthew falls asleep, Ahmad hands him over to Maryam and goes for a walk to clear his mind. When he returns to the forge, there is a letter from Anna demanding $100 and threatening to tell the police about Chava if she does not receive it.

Chava asks Michael about Joseph Schaal. He tells her what she wants to know but brushes her off when she warns him to be careful. That night, Michael wakes up and finds Chava beside him, unbreathing. A moment later, Chava realizes her mistake and starts breathing slowly. Michael falls back asleep. Later, Michael rifles through the satchel of Avram’s papers and begins to read carefully. At first, he despairs; the papers prove that his uncle was too wrapped up in mysticism to distinguish reality. But he can’t help but read on.

The narrative returns to the distant past. Malik tells Abu Yusuf to wait outside overnight while he prepares to hunt the Jinni and save Fadwa. Yusuf realizes that Malik wants to keep the Jinni busy so that he will not be able to figure out how to escape his imprisonment.

Maryam speaks with Saleh about Nadia’s death. She shares a story about her mother taking her to St. George’s Shrine to save her from a fever when she was a baby; the Shrine is reputed to have healing waters. Maryam worries about Ahmad, and Saleh tells her not to let Matthew spend time with him. Meanwhile, Ahmad drops off the money that Anna demanded. She is heavily pregnant when she picks up the money. When she returns to the apartment, Ahmad is there waiting for her. She panics, and he warns her that if she ever makes a threat against himself or Chava, he’ll get revenge.

Michael’s head swirls with what his uncle wrote. He goes to a bar and begins drinking. The more he drinks, the more he realizes that the writing makes sense.

Matthew demands that the Jinni resurrect his mother, but Ahmad scares him, warning the boy that he would be haunted for the rest of his life. Matthew runs away. Later, Maryam storms into the tinsmith shop, demanding to know what Ahmad said to scare Matthew. Ahmad refuses to apologize. Arbeely ends their partnership, and the Jinni leaves.

Michael has left a note for Chava saying he will be at work all night and for her not to wait up for him. Chava decides to be a good wife and to bring him dinner.

Ahmad decides that he is done with Little Syria and goes to the Bowery instead. On his way there, he runs into Saleh, who shies away from him. Ahmad gives Saleh the key to his room, saying the rent is paid through the month.

Schaalman follows his dowsing rod spell, which takes him to Anna. He tells her that he’s looking for Chava. She yells at him, telling him to stop harassing her. Suddenly, Schaalman gets a flash of fire searing through his mind. He runs from Anna, wondering who or what Ahmad is.

By this point, Michael is very drunk. He decides to see if Joseph Schaal might know anything about his uncle’s writings. He returns to the shelter house and goes through Schaalman’s things, finding pages of mystical texts. He learns about the Golem that Schaalman made for Rotfeld.

The dowsing spell takes Schaalman to the tin ceiling that Ahmad made. As he looks in awe at the ornate work, he passes out. When he comes to, he gets up and continues his journey. He realizes as he’s walking that the key to eternal life must be a person. Meanwhile, Chava goes to the sheltering house and finds Michael in his office. He is terrified of her, and his fear quickly morphs into anger at her, his uncle, and himself. Chava feels herself starting to disassociate as she does when she is about to lose control. She warns Michael to run. Once he is gone, Chava regains control. She looks at the pages on Michael’s desk and realizes that the man posing as Joseph Schaal is the one who made her. She reads through his notes and begins to question her sense of self.

Meanwhile, Schaalman finds the Jinni’s old home, which Saleh has moved into. Saleh opens the door at Schaalman’s knock. Schaalman asks for Ahmad, and before Saleh can turn him away, he enters the apartment. Schaalman senses that a demon possessed Saleh and exorcises it, a painful extraction for Saleh. As Saleh returns to himself, Schaalman forces his way into the man’s memories to track down the person he needs to find. He sees Saleh’s memory of Ahmad telling him he’ll be in the Bowery. Schaalman releases Saleh and lets the man fall to the ground.

Ahmad decides to do something daring to mitigate the mundanity of his recent life masquerading as a human. He plans to rob Conroy’s store. Meanwhile, Saleh decides to look for Ahmad and warn him of the interaction that he just had with Schaalman, and Schaalman himself returns to Conroy’s shop just in time to witness the Jinni enter it. He follows Ahmad, but an explosion rips through the store when he touches the Jinni.