Mama Rice Pudding purses her lips and pouts as if she can read my thoughts. "You never let me speak, not once! You stored me away in the depot of your personality, and then forgot all about me. All these years, I've been waiting for you to accept and love me as I am."
That is when a bigger wave of guilt begins tugging at the edges of my mind. I feel like an old-fashioned conservative parent who has renounced his son for being gay and pretends he doesn't even exist. Is that what I have done to the maternal side of me?
"How about the other finger-women?" I ask. "Do they know about you?"
"Of course they do," replies Mama Rice Pudding. "But they prefer not to tell you about me and the other chick."
"What do you mean by 'the other chick'?"
But she ignores my question. "Like many young women I, too, want to get married, wear a wedding dress, have a diamond ring, raise children and cruise the sales aisles of supermarkets. But you pushed away all my desires and looked down on them with such force that I couldn't even mention them. I was silenced, suppressed and denied."
I think of Anai's Nin again — a vigorous woman who once said, "Ordinary life does not interest me"; who believed that a critical writer such as herself could never make a housewife. She had an unruly side, a mostly disordered lifestyle and more than one lover by her side. "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage," she would say.
"What are you thinking about?" Mama Rice Pudding asks.
"Anai's Nin. ." I murmur, not expecting her to recognize the name.
But she does. "Those edgy avant-garde writers!" she says, spitting the words out. "You know what your problem is? You read too much, that's your problem."
"Wait a minute, what kind of criticism is that?"
But she raves on about the terrible effects of books on my soul, getting more and more carried away. "You convinced yourself that you couldn't be a normal woman. Why do you frown upon the ordinary?"
Seeing that this conversation is taking on political overtones, I try to navigate my way through it as delicately as I can. "Hmm. . Miss Highbrowed Cynic always says whatever calamity has befallen humanity is because of ordinary people. She quotes the bright Jewish woman philosopher Hannah Arendt, who has shown us that fascism has thrived and grown due not to the bad people with wicked aims but, in fact, to the ordinary people with good intentions."
"Oh my God," she says, rolling her eyes. "Do you see what you are doing to yourself? Here I am talking about marriage and motherhood and muffins, and you respond by alluding to Hitler and the Nazis."
Baffled, I gape at her without so much as a blink.
"Forget about all the other finger-women," she continues. "They've been eating away at you for years. Don't belittle the beauty of the ordinary, of seeking simple pleasures. You and I can have so much fun together."
"Really? Like what?"
She beams. "We can go to the farmers' market every weekend, buy organic zucchini. We can wait in front of stores at dawn with thermoses in our hands, and dash inside the second the doors open and start grabbing sale items before anyone else. We can decorate our home from top to bottom with scented candles and flowers of matching colors. Trust me, you'll love it. Have you ever set a beautiful dinner table? Do you know how gratifying it is when your family and friends commend your culinary skills?"
Before I find the chance to give her an obvious answer, we hear a sudden noise at the door. I open it slightly and peek out.
To my surprise, there is a line in front of the restroom. And at the very front stands Milady Ambitious Chekhovian in her dark green general's uniform. Tapping her military boots and fidgeting nervously, she appears to be in mighty need of going to the toilet.
A shadow of panic crosses Mama Rice Pudding's face. "Oh, no! Not that monster!"
"What do you want me to do?" I ask.
"Please don't tell them I am here. They'll tear me to shreds, those witches!"
She is right. Milady Ambitious Chekhovian with her doggedness, Miss Highbrowed Cynic with her pessimism, Little Miss Practical with her intolerance of anything that takes longer than ten minutes to prepare, would tear Mama Rice Pudding apart. I need to protect her from her sisters.
"Don't worry, you are safe with me. I won't whisper a word."
Smiling warmly she reaches for my hand and gives it a gentle squeeze. Her fingers are not manicured and well groomed like Little Miss Practical's; they aren't decked with rings like Milady Ambitious
Chekhovian's or chewed up like Miss Highbrowed Cynic's. They are rough from hard work, pink and plump. I am bewildered by the affection I feel for her. If she is my motherly side, isn't it weird that I feel the need to mother her?
"Wait a minute, how are you going to get into America?" I ask. "Do you have a visa?"
"I don't need a visa," she says. "They don't even search finger- women like me at airports."
I can see why. It'd be hard to find a terrorist streak in her.
"I'm not worried about the external world," she says. "You just keep that coven of finger-women away from me and I'll be just fine."
"Okay."
"Please promise me that you will not let them ever crush me again."
As I ponder how to skirt this demand and how to get her out of this restroom without the other Thumbelinas seeing her, the plane experiences turbulence. The pilot announces that everyone must return to their seats and fasten their seat belts.
A few seconds later, I open the door. The line has dispersed and I can see that Milady Ambitious Chekhovian is already in her seat.
"The coast is clear now," I say to Mama Rice Pudding. "You can go out."
"I will," she says with a new edge to her voice. "But you haven't given me your promise yet."
It is one of those moments when I know I should be totally honest and tell the truth, but for the sake of courtesy or out of pure cowardice, I simply can't. Instead, I tell her what she wants to hear, even though I know deep down inside that I can't keep that promise.
"I swear I will not let the other finger-women silence you."
A huge smile lights up her face. "Thanks. I know I can trust you."
"By the way, who is this other chick you were talking about?" I hear myself asking.
"You will meet her when the time is ripe."
"But why is she hiding?"
"She is not hiding. None of us is. It's you who doesn't acknowledge our presence. For years, you've given all your attention to Little Miss Practical, Miss Highbrowed Cynic, Milady Ambitious Chekhovian and Dame Dervish."
"I understand," I say, although I am not sure I do.
"Okay, we need to go now."
"Well, it was really nice to meet you."
"Likewise," she says, blushing. "I guess I will see you around."
Still smiling, she slips out the door. I stay in the restroom a few more seconds, slightly shaking — not knowing whether it's due to the turbulence or to the confusion in my mind.
It dawns upon me that I don't know myself very well. Throughout my adult life, I've favored certain voices inside me at the expense of others. How many inner voices are there that I have yet to meet?