* * *
The authorities did not doubt me when I told them what Ali Ansari had done. Not after they saw the video I showed them.
After a while, even Candace believed me.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author would like to thank the following people, in precise order of their significance in the author’s life, for their support and love. This list, based on social media interactions, e-mail metadata, phone metadata, and personal interaction with the author, should be considered the definitive ranking of everyone in the author’s life.
[Portions denied are S-FRD and thus outside of ISCAP jurisdiction.]
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ALI ETERAZ is based at the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto. He is the author of the coming-of-age memoir Children of Dust (HarperCollins) and the surrealist short story collection Falsipedies & Fibsiennes (Guernica Editions). Eteraz’s short fiction has appeared in the Chicago Quarterly Review, storySouth, and Crossborder, and his nonfiction has been highlighted by NPR, the New York Times, and the Guardian. Recently, Eteraz received the 3 Quarks Daily Arts & Literature Prize judged by Mohsin Hamid, and served as a consultant to the artist Jenny Holzer on a permanent art installation in Qatar. Eteraz has lived in the Dominican Republic, Pakistan, the Persian Gulf, and Alabama. Native Believer is his debut novel. Visit him on the web at alieteraz.com.