Closing with the Knights

“See Mike,” Sadaf said. “You do like to dance! You get into moshpits at punk shows and you do matam.” Sadaf was referring to how at the punk show not only was Mike thrashing in the pit, and hitting his chest for The Kominas’ song ‘I Want a Hand Job.”’

“That’s not dancing,” he responded. “And really that’s only because one, it’s what you do at punk shows and two, I’m a big fan of Shia Islam.”

It was early, at least early for the punk house. I was sitting with the Mike and Sadaf Knight on the stairs as they waited for the shuttle to take them to the airport. They would be leaving within a few minutes and I was getting in some last minute building on bonding time with my favorite couple.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Mike responded. “I need time to really process all of this. But when we first arrived and went to those parties, I wasn’t really sure what to think. But now, I feel good. I think this experience worked out really well.”

“It’s kind of like when you go away to camp,” Sadaf continued. “Here we all were under the same roof experiencing this really heightened bonding moment.”

She was totally right. I was super sad to see them go and I felt like I had connected with them on this super deep level this weekend, as well as most of the people in the house. It felt like that was the case for most of the people that had stayed in the punk house for Sundance – it just wasn’t a place to crash, but a camp-like bonding experience.

“Oh wait!” I exclaimed. “I totally forgot!” I ran to my bag and grabbed my ripped and torn copy of The Taqwacores. How could I have forgotten? “Mike, would you sign my book for me?”

He signed it, with a little alien character speaking in Arabic. And then he and Sadaf left. I sat there on the stairs alone, my book clutched in my hand, wondering when I’d see them again.