Ta blu

I stood in the cafeteria during Curriculum Night, feeling pretty rough.  I had been up since three in the morning and was still at work after nearly eleven hours.  A strange man approached the building.  Soon, he was in front of the group of parents with the microphone.  He was a politician.  He started giving his speal to the captive parents that awaited Curriculum Night information.  I watched one of his volunteers specifically target the Latino parents, pestering them while they waited.   As soon as the politician was done with his campaign speech, he sidled over to me and another teacher, two of the only white people in the room.

"So, I'm the one who brought the ice cream truck for the kids."  he informed us, waiting for our approval.  We stared back at him blankly.  

Parents started approaching me, asking me questions.  The interpreter I requested was there, but a lot of the Spanish-speaking parents were approaching me anyway.  The interpreter stood next to me while we both answered questions.  I heard a parent of one of my new parents call out  "NO, ELLA, ¡ella habla espanol!.  I turned and saw that she was referring to me.  The campaign volunteer who had been targeting the Latino parents was literally standing in between me and the parent, physically blocking her path.  I started trying to answer her questions and the campaign volunteer repeatedly interrupted both me and the parent.  Abruptly, the volunteer stood directly in front of me, way too close, and again, blocked the parent.

"Look."  he said, leaning in and clasping his hands like he was praying.
"You think you speak Spanish, but you don't."  he had a a strange look on his face, a mixture of aggression and condescension.  I was shocked.  
"She wants to know if she can leave."  he continued.
"That's not what she asked me."
"Can she leave?"  he repeated, his face still twisted in the nasty smirk.
I laughed.
"Of course."  I said and turned and walked away.  

I drove home crying.  Angry, frustrated, sad.  

"Alec, we need to drive to my mom's house.  She isn't answering my calls and I haven't heard from her in days.  I'm afraid she's dead."

When we arrived, my mom answered her door serenely, as if I hadn't called a million times.

"Well, I spent the night in the ER on Tuesday, Eitan took me...."

"Mom, what the fuck?  Eitan?  How much more money are you going to let him steal from you?"  I answered.  

"Well...he's the only one that will answer my calls....."

I got up and left.  

You all are such terrible daughters to your poor elderly mother that I have to keep calling the man that ripped off one of you years ago and who I randomly gave twenty thousand dollars.....and probably more and more and more....

I sat on the floor of an apartment in Clarkston on a Sunday afternoon, eating Kaw Naw.  Ku's older sister had invited me over to help her with college scholarship applications and made me lunch as a thank you.  It wasn't exactly the way I wanted to spend one of my weekend days, but I knew I would be glad once I was there.  

And I was.