Long-time lurker, first-time poster...
My take on AB: he reminds me a bit of Wallace, as in Wallace and Gromit? a simple man with simple needs, but having been a parent at a relatively young age, perhaps always craved to have his freedom back as a single man. And then there is the dark side of dad, just below the surface, that is revealed by the reported domestic violence, not to mention his "vengence" t-shirt which just screams...i don't know, something a tad dysfunctional? twisted? immature? which to me really juxtaposes his bumbling simpleton-like appearance and mannerisms. Veeery easily manipulated, and immature enough to put his own needs first, in that he could be led around so easily by the ring at the end of his...*ahem* nose.
To me, he seems to have been grieving and thus emotionally-detached for a very long time. Maybe since he arrived in the States? Just guessing... but the lack of emotion, imo, hints at someone who has been grieving for a long period of time. Dark days indeed, with no emotion whatsoever...Not that Zahra has been gone that long, but that he perhaps knows in his tangled dark heart that she was the price he had to pay in order to put his needs first. Pure speculation on my part but there it is. Complicit? Indeed. Not sure he was bright enough to *grok* where this train was inevitably gonna stop.
Im not even gonna get started on EB, except to say her MO for life appears to have been getting over on people and getting by under the radar. A manipulator through and through. Gah!
WHERE IS ZAHRA?
May today be Zahra's day!