All We Have Left

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016

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Chapters 43-46Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 43 Summary: “Alia”

Alia leads the way up the stairs toward Ayah’s office, as the smoke grows thicker and the smell of jet fuel grows stronger. They meet two firefighters, and Alia explains that they are trying to find her father. The older man tells her to turn back down, saying, “If I were your father, I would want you to get to safety. We’ll find him, I promise” (295). She begs them to call someone to advise them that Ayah may be in his office, but the men explain that their radio signals are not going through. Alia, defying instructions, tries to run up the stairs; however, the firefighters block her way. Travis pulls her back down the stairs as Alia wonders why she hadn’t told her father that she loved him that morning.

Chapter 44 Summary: “Jesse”

Jesse’s father awaits her in the dark when she enters his shop in order to return home. He asks who she had been with on the street. Jesse thinks that “[h]e knows who he is. I can tell by his voice” (296), and responds that she had been with Adam Ayoub. Torturing her by prolonging the conversation, her father asks Jesse why she felt it wise to spend time with one of the people who had killed Travis. He tells her that Muslims want to destroy Americans, and that they “[…] live on hate for America!” (297).

Jesse defends Adam and his family, reminding her father that Adam had been only three years old when 9/11 had occurred. She also says that her father has forbidden the family to talk about Travis, and wonders if he knows how that has made her feel. In a cold voice, Jesse’s says, “You’re not my daughter anymore” (298).

Chapter 45 Summary: “Alia”

Travis tries to calm Alia as he guides her down the stairs, but she continues to sob and cough. At one point, she starts to lose consciousness; however, she revives, gets to her feet and finds an alternate stairwell leading to an office. The two are able to breathe some fresh air through the broken windows. They also witness the south tower burning, and see people waving white material out the windows at helicopters circling overhead. Travis tells her that “[t]he firefighters will get to them” (301); Alia does not believe this.

Chapter 46 Summary: “Jesse”

Jesse flees in her father’s truck, heading for the Gunk Mountains, where she has climbed so often. She climbs a trail in the darkness and is comforted when she reaches the top, with “[…] the night sky stretching…above, in a cathedral” (303). When she is startled by a rustling sound, Jesse anticipates an encounter with a wild animal, but finds that Adam has climbed the rock face to find her. He had tried to catch up with her to return earbuds that she had left in his car. Realizing that she must have been upset to drive so recklessly, Adam had followed her up the mountain.

She describes the encounter with her father and is interrupted when lightning starts flashing around them. They shelter under an overhang and Adam covers her when thunder cracks close to them. After a summer of avoiding physical contact, they kiss; Jesse is glad that Adam’s first kiss is with her.

Chapters 43-46 Analysis

Parallels exist in the evolution of the relationships between the couples portrayed in 2001 and 2016, respectively. Adam and Jesse spend the summer trying to learn every detail possible about one another, while Travis and Alia share confidences while trying to survive the inferno at the World Trade Center. Although Adam and Jesse are emotional intimates, his Muslim faith prevents them from actually “dating” in the traditional sense; they share no affectionate contact until they kiss while sheltering from a mountain thunderstorm at the end of the summer.

Jesse’s father confronts her angrily when he realizes that she has been seeing a Muslim boy, reminding her that he is “[…] one of the people who killed your brother[…]” (297). She defends the relationship, arguing that an entire group of people should not be vilified for the actions of a few. Finally, she accuses her father of shutting down all conversation about Travis, which has prevented the family from healing from his death. In return, her father advises that she is not her daughter anymore. Truthfully, it does not appear that Jesse has ever felt that she was her father’s daughter. Bitter, withdrawn and angry, he is emotionally frozen, to a point that has precluded a relationship with his wife, his surviving son, and Jesse.

Alia, desperate to find her father, climbs the stairs to his office. She is followed by Travis; despite his misgivings, he does not wish to deal with the regret of having failed to take action when necessary. In another parallel to Jesse and Adam, Alia leads the climb up the staircase much as Jesse leads Adam on the traverse of the frozen mountain waterfall. Prevented from proceeding upwards by firefighters who block their way, Alia finds an alternate staircase and continues to climb. In doing so, she defies the instructions of a paternal firefighter who advises her that if she were his daughter, he would want her to flee to safety.

Emerging from the staircase to a deserted office, the couple is able to breathe fresh air through the broken windows. Years later, Jesse escapes to the mountaintop to watch the stars and breathe the cold night air after a painful confrontation with her father regarding her relationship with Adam. As Travis convinces Alia to walk back down the stairs, they witness the South Tower as it burns.