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Posted
on January 24, 2004
by
Vinod V
MD
The two young children,
one boy and his sister were
painstakingly plucking grass from their perfectly manicured lawn,
which was studiously tended to by local laborers.
From where they stood, to every corner of the property
the grass boasted of one perfect shade of green.
The green shade was made possible from the green of their dad’s wallet. He
did well for himself, he had enough.
The entire property screamed wealth, as it was
a ½ an
acre of land located in an upscale neighborhood in
Hyattsville, Maryland. They
had enough room to roam free; in fact the size of the property
went against their parent’s argument to getting a dog
because of limitations in space.
They had all the space they needed for the
Ogo to roam
free and enough room for him to dig monstrous holes in the
grass, especially near where the parents seem to plant flowers
they bought from Home Depot.
Benny decides to chase
Smitha until he reaches the
desired effect, vomiting.
He laughs while she vomits.
On the wrap around porch of the Victorian
house that was once rumored to be inhabited by a relative of
George Washington, sat Benny and Smitha’s parents.
Their dad sat reclined in a chair napping as mom keenly
watches
Smitha vomiting her lunch.
She wasn’t alarmed, she was used to this behavior.
Mom decided to give them about 20 minutes before she
orders
Papa John’s pizza, this is Friday, cooking was out of
the question. The
dog decides he would add to the mess left by Smitha by doing
his business on top of it.
Their mom just decided that 10 minutes more of this
nonsense would end up involving the paramedics and the police.
The neighborhood was upscale; there was no toleration
for rowdy or inconsiderate neighbors.
Benny and Julie’s parents were accepted. The kids,
the dog, their mom run inside, as their dad is slow to wake
up. Everyone
knows the routine, send the dog to his room, go wash their
hands and wait for the pizza delivery man.
Around the dining table purchased from Bombay company, the 4
family members were seated around 2 warm Papa John’s Pizza
boxes, 1 Sprite Remix and 1 Diet coke.
Dad opens the box tops and the steam rises to
condensate on the
chandelier above the dining table.
Everyone grips their hands and Dad offers thanks. As
soon as the prayer is completed, the phone begins to ring.
He looks at the caller id feature on the cordless phone
and puts the phone down.
He wasn’t in the mood to answer it, nor was anyone in
the mood to ask him why. The kids began to pick the cheese off the slices and their
mom poured them soda as the phone continued to ring close to
10 times. He
disables the ringer button…
NY
…The phone continued to ring with no option for even leaving
a message. She
gave up and placed the phone back on the receiver. She
wanted to see how her brother and sister-in-law were doing
because she hasn’t heard from them after they left New York
and settled in Maryland.
They just finished having dinner and she wanted to
watch the news with her husband while the boys, Steven, Jerry
and Michael were acting like
WWE wrestlers in the backyard.
The boys became bored of lifting each other’s boxers out of
their pants and decided to run into the house, past the
kitchen, past the living room into and stomping into the
family room where they targeted their dad’s stomach.
They approached their dad with a proposition he could
never refuse. In
the next 10 minutes, they would practice various wrestling
moves from the
Rock and Stone Cold, as their mom tried to hush
all 4 of them as she was trying to listen to what Dan Rather
was saying. The
news was finally over and jumped to some commercial about
Bayer aspirin and Serena Williams right calf.
The kids are in round two of wrestling with their
father. Their mom
gets up and tries to call Maryland again.
Same result, no one is picking the phone up.
Their mom comes back into the family room and sits back down.
The kids stop fighting and they surround their mom
because they want to know how Smitha and Benny are doing.
Their mom openly tells them no one is picking up,
hopefully everything is ok, she says before telling everyone
to
go and take their showers. In size order, Steven, Jerry and Michael slowly walk to their
rooms to get ready for their showers.
Their parents have seen that walk before, they are sad
because they were supposed to go to Maryland for a few weeks
this summer.
MD
Benny and
Smitha were up after kissing their parents goodnight.
They both had separate rooms, as there were 5 more
bedrooms, which were unoccupied.
They also were upset that their dad didn’t pick the
phone up. The
Caller ID saved the number and she recognized the area code
from New York.
New York – 5 Years ago
When the
Air India flight number was announced, Steven, Jerry
and Michael couldn’t contain themselves.
The plane held their cousins Benny and
Smitha, who were
both around their ages, give or take a year.
They all couldn’t wait to meet each other.
Everyone has been in a situation where they needed help from
another person or family member. In
most cases, family members help their own family, in this case
a sister helps her brother and their kids, to come and become
acclimated to the United States, the egg has been laid, the
new family members get a job, now you begin to see tiny hairs
on their naked skins,
get a cramped apartment in a bad
neighborhood and save money for a down payment for a house,
which can also mean borrowing from their family again, then
after their feathers are in full bloom, they stand at the edge
and hesitate to move, but are pushed by a slight wind and
realize they can fly with out any one’s help.
With out even turning back, they move on…
To those families that waited at Kennedy International Airport
in the 70’s and 80’s for their family members from India,
helped these new families to get on their feet, to have them
ignored and act as if they never needed your help in the first
place, I will always remember…
Disclaimer:
This particular story is
fiction, but in today's world, it's anything but.
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