BooksBarbecue
Back Behind the Mountains Save as PDF
Chapters (10)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Introduction
  4. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2000
  5. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2111:30 P.M.
  6. My Personal Journey
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. About the Book
  9. Discussion Questions
  10. About the Author

It seems like the biggest part of traveling is waiting in line. The line to check our bags was very long. It took us two hours to reach the counter where we were assigned our seats. And then it was time to say good-bye to Tante Rose.

As with Granmè Melina and Granpè Nozial, this was a short good-bye.

“Give Victor a kiss for me,” Tante Rose said. Then she vanished into the crowd.

I can’t help but wonder if I will ever see Tante Rose again.

LATER

I am writing this on the airplane. Manman seems uneasy. She has been trembling ever since she got on. Moy is looking out the window. To keep my mind off everything but the present, I have decided to make a list of the things I would have missed had I never been on an airplane.

  1. I would have missed the rise—going up, up, up from the ground and floating up in the air, as though inside a bird.
  2. I would have missed seeing the clouds in the sky so close.
  3. I would have missed watching the plane glide down from the sky and then watching a city appear below, a city filled with ice crystals and light.
image

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21
11:30 P.M.

I must write this before I sleep because I never want to forget it as long as I live, our first moment with Papa. It worked. The pact I made with myself worked. As soon as I saw Papa I knew that everything would be all right, that things would fall in place, that we would be okay.

We heard him before we saw him, a deep voice calling our names. We looked around everywhere trying to find him; then all of a sudden he was right there, a few feet away. He hadn’t changed much except for some gray hairs and a beard he hadn’t had before.

I rushed to him and grabbed him, almost coming up to his chest, which was a little strange since the last time I saw him, I was only as tall as his belly. I couldn’t believe he was close enough for me to smell the scent of fresh soap on him, to touch him, to hold him, to see his smile.

When Manman embraced him, she ended up embracing us both. Squeezed between the two of them, I could hear her sobbing.

I removed myself from between them to give Moy a chance to say hello. Moy and Papa shook hands over Manman’s shoulder.