So the day has finally come for
Onika and Jelani's parents to leave.
Jelani didn't want to go to the
airport so it was just Onika and her grandmother. All through the ride to the
Piarco International Airport, Onika was quiet. She just stared out the window,
taking in all the sceneries that she saw. Her grandmother sat upfront, humming
to whatever it was playing on the radio. Her parents were quietly holding
hands. When they all arrived at the airport's departure gates, everyone except
Onika were moving about quickly.
"Likkle gurl, yuh bettuh
stop drag yuh feet suh and come help meh.” her grandmother said sternly.
"Yes ma'am.", she said
with a small voice.
Her mother sighed. She hated to
see her only daughter so disappointed. She really wanted to take her and
brother along, but that decision was also up their father and she couldn’t
stand up to him.
“Onika, baby come here.”
Onika walked up to her with this
adorable frowning pout that she couldn’t resist.
“Everytime you go away, you take
a piece of me with you..”, she sang to her mother with tears slowly rolling
down her cheeks,”Mom please don’t leave me.”
“Honey, you know I can’t do that.
I want you give you a better life then here. America has so much to offer.”
“But mommy, you told me this
already. When will you say that I can come with you?”
“I don’t know baby, I really don’t
know”, her mom said with tears brimming her eyes. Let’s just go with a couple
months for now.” She paused for a second to take a breath. “Now come give your
mama a hug and kiss before I go.”
Onika hugged her mom and kissed
her cheek.
“All passengers on flight AA 2282 to MIA Miami please proceed
boarding at Gate 5.” The flight attendant said over the intercom.
“Carol, let’s go. It’s time.” Her
husband says. He walks up to daughter and pulls her into a tight hug. “I love you
Onika, make daddy proud okay?” Onika shook her head signaling ‘yes’.
“Okay bye for now honey.” Mama
Carol says to her daughter. She kissed her daughter’s forehead and tear-
stained cheeks one more time before swiftly turning away and walking away with
her husband.
“Come on honey, we have to go to
dah mahket to get some fresh spice to cook tuday.” Onika’s grandmother states.
They walk out of the airport hand
in hand. Onika’s silently crying while her grandmother stares into space
thinking about how this time would affect them. She looked upon the little girl’s
face and sighed.
“Want me to buy you some pop or
sweety?” She asks her.
“No, I just want to go home.” she
said softly.
“Okay, but I still need dem
spices. So let’s go.”
They go to the market and after a
half hour, they took the public bus back home. Jelani was still in his room.
Some reggae song could be heard blaring out from his room. Their grandmother
shook her head angrily.
“What in the world is this boy
think he doing? Let me go set him straight.” She thought to herself while
giving the grocery bag to Onika and taking off her shoes. She walkes up to his
room and bangs on the door.
“Likkle bwoi, yuh bettah tun dung
deh music before I have tah come in dere eh!” she yells. She hears him scurrying
about to turn down the volume.
“Thank yuh, next time don’t make
me haft ah tell yuh again eh!”
“Yes ma’am”
Onika and her brother waited and
waited. What was supposed to be a couple months turned into a year. Onika didn’t
speak to her parents often, but when she did, she kept it very short. She was
angry. She didn’t want to speak to them. They made her stay. They made it look
as if they were never coming back. She wasn’t going to let them off easy.
No comments:
Post a Comment