Jamie:thank you
It makes my heart expand to three times its size, and those feelings I’ve been firmly ignoring escape from their confines before I push them back.
I open my messages with Amal.
Me:hey what did you eat today?
She answers when I’m nearly at the school.
Amal:biryani
Me:recipe?
Amal:you cooking?
Me:I will be attempting
She sends me the link to the recipe followed bycall me if you run into any issues.
When I get to English class, Jamie is already there, and he perks up when he sees me. I walk past Alexis, and we make eye contact, but she looks away. A dull weight drops in my stomach, and I think that’s that.
The world moves slower in December, frost overtaking banisters and branches. It feels as if I’m standing in the eye of the storm, knowing if I step toward the whirling winds, it’ll take me away. I’ve drawn one other mural of Mama trying to find her blessing in New York, with faded jellyfish surrounding her and her colors disappearing from parts of her arms and legs.
“This feels like a modernMona Lisa,” one video Jamie sends me says. “There’s a sad determination on her expression, but it’s still determined. I think she’s somewhere the ocean can’t hear her. Or the jellyfish, but she’s doing everything she can to find them.”
Jamie:do you have anything this afternoon?
It’s a Saturday morning, and I’m going over the notes I wrote for chemistry and comparing them with Jamie’s. Baba is at the gasstation, and Amal called me this morning to tell me about the room she’s preparing for me.
Me:no. why?
Jamie:wait let me call you
My phone rings a second later, and I stare at it, the noise strange in this quiet, lonely apartment.
“So you’re going to find this very funny,” Jamie begins when I answer. His voice is so near, it makes goose bumps run all over my arms.
“What happened?”
“Bà Ngo?i is here,” he says brightly. “And I planned to have dinner with her and tell her I converted. But guess what?”
“What?”
“I told her as soon as I saw her.”
I press my lips together.
“I couldn’t keep it in!” he exclaims, and I hear feet shuffling like he’s pacing back and forth. “Mom and Dad were still at work. I got her from the airport. We were home alone, and I didn’t know if I would have a chance like this, and I didn’t know if I’d chicken out later, so I just told her.”
I draw a daisy in the corner of my notebook. “Well, what did she say?”
He sighs deeply. “She was surprised. Shocked, maybe. I don’t know. I was seeing everything and nothing at the same time. She went to put her stuff in her room, and then I made us tea, and she asked me questions. I think it went well. But she wants to meet you.”
I straighten up so fast, I nearly get whiplash. “What?”
“I told her all about you. And she wants to meet you. So would you care to have a late lunch with us?”
I stare at my notebook, the letters jumbling.
