I was halfway through my homework the next night, alone at the dinner table when I learned of my parents’ plans.
My stomach was full of spicy grilled eggplant, a crispy green bean stir fry and the yellow fried rice with peas my mother liked to make on Friday nights. These Friday night dinners weren’t great for an alert mind. I was barely keeping awake.
My parents were in the kitchen, cleaning up as usual. In between their conversation, I could hear the chink of china and the squeak of the faucet as it opened and closed.
My school books covered the dining table. I liked to spread myself when I did my homework because it made me look and feel busy, even if I wasn’t progressing very far. And that night, I was desperately sloughing through an algebra exercise, dozing over my books, wishing I was elsewhere.
“Did you hear from the embassy?” my mother asked.
What embassy?
“They didn’t reject us yet,” came my father’s voice in between a cupboard being opened and shut. “If all goes well, they’ll ask us to come in for a security check soon.”
Their words wafted toward me through the kitchen door, my mind half on the math puzzle in front of me and half listening in to what was going on in the kitchen.
“Security check?” asked my mother.
“Fingerprints, photographs and all that. We’ll also have to sign a paper to agree on them doing criminal checks in every country we lived in.”
“How long will that take?” My mother sounded worried.
“A few months if we’re lucky. We’ll have to be patient. They have a process in place to make sure everyone’s checked out before they emigrate.”
Emigrate?
I’d heard that word before. That sounded serious. I wondered what my parents were up to now.
“So, you think it’s promising then?”
“Hard to say. I’m doing everything I can.”
I wondered vaguely where we’d go to next.
Back to Kenya where I was born? To Botswana where I’d heard they have amazing safaris. To Namibia? Zimbabwe? Or maybe to South Africa? I felt a jolt of excitement go through me. I’d heard Johannesburg had shopping malls the size of a city and I’d never been to a real shopping mall before. Then, maybe Shanti would stop thinking I’m a girl from the slums. Maybe I could invite Chanda to visit me or maybe even stay with us so she could get to see the big city too.
My father let out a sigh. “There’s so much paperwork to do and we’ll have to wait a long time, but I know it’s worth it if we get in.”
“That’s true,” said my mother, “At least, Asha will get to go to a high school in America.”
I sat up.
America?
“It will be safer there for her too,” said my father, “and for us.”
America, like the America Tanya comes from?
I was on full alert now. I put my pencil down and turned to look at the open kitchen doorway.
I couldn’t see my parents bustling inside the kitchen but I could hear them. I badly wanted to walk over and ask them what they were talking about, but I knew that was the fastest way for them to clam up about the whole thing for good.
“I want to see her in a good university,” my father was saying, “maybe in medicine or law.”
“Or technology,” replied my mother, “there are good jobs in the tech sector these days. Well-paying ones too.”
I shook my head and pinched my wrist, just to make sure I hadn’t fallen asleep on my math book and was dreaming all this.
Are they seriously thinking of moving to America? Like the United States of America?
My heart ticked faster.
“I’d be happy if she got into accounting in a small college even,” said my father, “something stable. Something professional, you know.”
Study hard, get all A’s, and become a doctor or a lawyer or an accountant. If I’d heard it once, I’d heard it a million times. What was new, what made my heart race and my imagination soar was the thought of doing this in America.
This was a country I’d read about, I’d dreamed about, I’d watched on television riveted, thinking how lucky Tanya was to come from such a glamorous nation where everyone was happy and rich. It was the best place on earth, or at least it seemed to me because whenever anyone wanted to leave a country, they all wished to go to America. Every one of them.
I considered my options.
Disneyland was what came to mind first. Shanti and Sophie had already been four times and bragged about it every time. Then, there was the Grand Canyon, a picture of which hung on my classroom wall. I wondered what kind of animals they had up there. I knew they didn’t have lions, cheetahs, zebras or elephants. I made a mental note to look up a book on American geography the very next day in the library.
I debated whether to gulp down my glass of water so I could make an excuse to walk into the kitchen and fill it up. Then, I thought, I could ask an innocent question or two and wiggle out more information from my parents.
“I’d love to see New York,” my mother was saying. “Though it may be too expensive for us.”
New York!
I almost choked on my glass of water.
“We’ll probably have to look for jobs in a smaller town first,” said my father. “Maybe somewhere in the mid-West and then work our way to Boston or somewhere where they have good schools.”
“I read in the news the other day that Nashville is booming,” said my mother. “They’re looking for professionals. Not many immigrants in Tennessee but with our science degrees, we should be fine, no?” I could hear the anticipation in her voice mixed with a slight tinge of nervousness.
My very particular mother rarely got excited, so this must mean a lot to her too.
“Once we get the green light, someone from the embassy is supposed to help us find the best places to settle,” said my father. “They want immigrants to go to places where they don’t have many workers. Stimulate the economy and all that, you know.” His voice turned somber. “But don’t forget we’ll have to take a demotion at the beginning. We have to be prepared for that.”
“I know it’s not going to be easy. When Kamala went to Canada with her family, she had to redo her bar exam. I think she was a legal secretary for years till she got back into law. It’s a sacrifice. That’s for sure.”
“But it’s all for a good cause,” replied my father. “It’s good for Asha and we won’t have to worry about her so much.”
I felt a thrill go through me. I have the best parents in the world. Another thought struck me. Maybe, just maybe, if Tanya, Zuwena, Sophie, Shanti, and Ana knew I was going to America, they’d invite me to their parties, invite me to join their exclusive club.
“The best thing about this is we get away from these criminal thugs,” said my mother, her voice sounding cold and angry now. “This really shouldn’t be happening, you know. I feel like they’re chasing us away. They want us to go away, don’t they?”
“We’re the lucky ones,” said my father in a sober tone. “We’ll find a way out.”
He lowered his voice.
I leaned in further.
“It’s the kids in the mines, I don’t know what to do about. Think of it. They’ve got nowhere to go. No family. No home. No country.”
To be continued...
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