Mama cried for days. Dad called the police and had them look everywhere, but no one remembered seeing Leon or Kalil or knew where they had gone. The first Sunday after they both left, Dad confronted Kalil’s father at church.
“It’s your boy’s fault!” he shouted. “He put ideas in Leon’s head and they ran off together!”
“If anything, your son corrupted ours!” Kalil’s father responded just as loudly. “He made Kalil a sinner! Then they both ran away rather than face the consequences!”
The argument went back and forth for a few minutes before Dad tried to punch Kalil’s father. Both of them were restrained and told violence and hatred didn’t belong in the house of God. Dad shouted more things about how the El-Sayeds weren’t true Christians because they were Middle Eastern and some other insult
