House of Sand and Fog

A real estate appraiser informs Behrani that his house is worth four times more than his original investment. Nadi, who celebrates this news by drinking champagne, invites him into their bedroom to make love “for only the third time in the years [they] have lived in America” (69). After Nadi falls asleep, Behrani wanders the house, thinking of his daughter, whose growth and marriage make him melancholy. Outside the house he sees a parked red Bonneville and discovers a woman—Kathy, although he is unaware of her identity—sleeping within. He returns to the house puzzling over “how these American women live” (71).

Kathy awakes from a dream in which she pled with Nick to have children. From her car, she registers two carpenters (who Behrani has hired to install a widow’s walk) working on the bungalow’s roof. She confronts the carpenters, telling them to stop working on her house. The carpenters tell her to talk to the new owners. As she walks back to her car, Kathy pierces her bare foot on a stay piece of roofing. One of workers helps her inside the house, where Nadi rushes to help clean the wound. Kathy is too taken aback by the strangeness of the situation to confront her.