The Bone Sparrow

It’s Subhi’s birthday, and Harvey wakes him up with a gift of new colored pencils and paper. Subhi immediately begins drawing Jimmie’s feather. Queeny sings to him and gifts him a new pair of pants from her and Maá. Maá isn’t feeling well, so Queeny and Subhi go to breakfast and discover the Jackets are serving real scrambled eggs and toast. Subhi pretends it is a special meal for his birthday, but, in reality, the meal is a show for the humanitarian workers touring the camp. Subhi races to the fence to see Eli but only finds a piece of string tied in a bow. He feels sad that he can’t see his friend and just paces back and forth along the fence, a practice he calls “Fence Walking” (107).

Nasir is an older man who has lived in the camp the longest of all the residents, and he and Subhi have a special bond. He teaches the children games and tells stories. Since Nasir is old, he sometimes has cognition issues, and the Jackets deem him “an adverse risk assessment” (107). Nasir has only one leg, and he at one time had a prosthetic, but the Jackets took it away.