Abraham’s life had come crashing into theirs. They were now linked. They could not leave him behind.

“He is part of our story,” said Hisham, who owns A&H Auto Sales, a used-car dealership in town.

I returned to Fort Smith to write the next chapter of their story. I also gave a talk at the University of Arkansas there. Abraham didn’t come. His lawyer, Ernie Woodard, didn’t think it was a good idea (his plea agreement forbade any contact with people from the mosque). But Abraham’s mother, Kristin Collins, and the mosque’s president, Dr. Louay Nassri, sat next to me onstage.

It was a happy occasion. The town was now decked out in Christmas finery. My article had run so there was no longer a question of what I was up to. Hisham admitted that, for a while, he thought I was an F.B.I. agent. The New York Times business card didn’t fool him.

“I can print you a thousand business cards that say, ‘I’m the pope,’ ” he said.

The article appeared shortly after Abraham’s family had received an eviction notice. Donations from readers helped them pay the security deposit and first month’s rent on a new place, and get some used furniture and a bed for their 5-year-old. Someone from Texas paid off their electric bill. Abraham was able to buy a bicycle. That meant he could get to work on his own.

Hisham said the article had put Fort Smith on the map. One of the photographs we ran featured a sign for his car lot. He got calls from Atlanta, Cincinnati and Riverside, Calif. At first he thought they were telemarketers, but then he realized they were well-wishers. Dr. Nassri got calls from London and Switzerland.

The article seemed to satisfy a deep craving for something healthy after months of gorging on outrage. At a time when each side of the political divide seemed sure the other side was crazy and maybe even evil, it was an antidote. It helped people see that Americans are much more moderate than Twitter and Facebook would have us believe, that we actually have a lot in common, and that our mutual capacity for tolerance and kindness is quite large.

“You wove the lives of 2 men and their community in a way that for the first time I don’t feel like everyday I have to fight or be militant & absolute about good & evil, right & wrong,” one woman wrote on Twitter. “Thank you for that peace.”