“Can I be excused?”
Padar pursed his lips before nodding. I rose and dragged myself upstairs. I showered, then dressed for bed. I stood by the window, gazing out at the quiet street. This was my home now. Why should I leave?
Beside my bed, I knelt down and prayed. “Please, God. I don’t want to go to America. I want to stay here with my friends and keep going to my school. I don’t want to travel again. Ever again.”
That night, visions of living through days of mud and starvation, wearing the same stinky clothes for weeks at a time, slogging through mud-caked villages of bearded men with anger in their eyes sifted through me in phantasmagoric scenes. Then there were the faces of family and friends that flashed on the wall of my mind—people I would most likely never see again, like Izmarai and Aunt Gul. The others were a swift-moving collage of smiles, laughs, and words swallowed in a chaotic mist, as if they knew they were leaving me forever, and it was okay.
I awoke tangled in my sheets, startled by the memories that fled from me. A soft light streamed through the open window. I was still safe at home, alone in my room. A new conviction welled up in me that I could never return to a country torn apart, and as much fun as India had become to me, it was not home. America seemed so far off, but Padar was right. America was a place of grand dreams where we could start fresh and build a future.
I understood how hard it would be to start a new life, how we would have to make sacrifices for one another to prosper in a new land with a new language, and I envisioned the things we could achieve if we worked hard, trusted and looked out for one another, and kept moving forward. That was all in my future, and my past had prepared me.
Acknowledgments
In the writing of this book, Enjeela Ahmadi-Miller worked with John DeSimone, who is the author of Leonardo’s Chair and The Road to Delano and the coauthor with Raana Mahmood of Courage to Say No.
I would like to acknowledge a few other parties for their support and assistance in the creation of this book. They include my son, Alexander Miller, to whom this story is dedicated; my sister Vida Ahmadi; my best friend, Vivian Lombardi; Henry S. Miller; Brandon Rutledge; and my literary agent, Leticia Gomez. I would also like to acknowledge my editor, Erin Calligan Mooney, who showed interest in my story.
About the Author
Enjeela Ahmadi-Miller was born in 1975 in Kabul, Afghanistan, and is now a citizen of the United States. She also lived in Pakistan and India and speaks several languages, including Farsi, English, Hindi, and Urdu.
An entrepreneur since the age of eighteen, she has owned several businesses: a restaurant (Angelo’s Pizza in Los Angeles); a cosmetics line (Ahmadi, sold in spas and salons in LA); retail stores (Bella Bella, Friction, and Milan, all in Dallas); and a clothing line (Henry III Generation, sold in Neiman Marcus and boutiques throughout the US). In 2004 she married prominent Dallas real estate guru Henry S. Miller III, and in 2005 their son, Alexander, was born. A dynamic mother who strives to be as open and giving as possible, she maintains a creative, passionate, artistic, and spiritual outlook on life.
Copyright
Text copyright © 2019 by Enjeela Ahmadi-Miller
All rights reserved.
The events expressed in this book, while true, were composed from the author’s memory. Some of the names and identities of people in this book have been altered or composited for the sake of simplicity and to protect privacy.
Poems by Hafiz translated into English by the author
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by Little A, New York
Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Little A are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.
ISBN-13: 9781503903784 (hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1503903788 (hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9781503903760 (paperback)
ISBN-10: 1503903761 (paperback)
Cover design by Faceout Studio, Jeff Miller
Cover illustration by Christina Chung
Interior map by Mapping Specialists, Ltd.
First edition