Suna falls to the floor, her body sagging under the weight of it all. Suna falls to the floor, a book clutched to her chest, and finally cries.
mina
SUNA SAT ON THE steps of the library under the overhang. Her arms were wrapped around her legs, her shoulders hunched forward, her body balled up as though she were trying to make herself disappear. Had she been sitting there all that time? I bit my lip in guilt. I should have come back for her sooner.
I started to open my door, but Ysrael touched my shoulder.
“Let me talk to her,” he said. “I want to say good-bye.”
I nodded.
As he turned to leave, I caught up his hand. “Come back to me afterward. Okay?”
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to disappear.” He slipped his hand from mine and stepped out of the car.
I watched him run across the parking lot, the rain darkening his hair, his shirt. Suna stood up as she watched him approach. He took the steps two at a time and bulldozed her in a hug. Her face lighted with surprise, her mouth opening, her eyes growing wide.
I muttered, “I hope she has her hearing aid in.”
Ysrael took both of her hands in his. He leaned in next to her ear. Suna cast her face to the ground. I could see her taking it all in. Her shoulders slumped forward and a small frown began to crease her forehead. The corner of her lip caught in her teeth. Ysrael pulled back and waited until Suna would meet his eyes. He pushed her bangs off her forehead and kissed the top of her head. He gathered her up in his arms, his embrace lifting her onto her toes. He gently set her back down and then, holding her hand, led her back down the steps to the car. He opened the door for her.
Suna sat down next to me, her clothes soaked, her black hair clinging to her cheeks.
“He’s leaving,” she said.
“I know,” I said.
She nodded, then looked out the window.
Ysrael came to my side of the car. I stepped out into the rain.
“You didn’t have to get out,” he said. The rain streamed down his face, beaded on his skin, plastered his clothes against his body.
I gazed up at his face, trying to memorize every detail, every scar. And though he stood right before me, a shiver passed through my body. I reached for him. Stood on my toes, laced my fingers behind his neck and kissed him. His arms circled my waist and I could taste the cool rain on his lips. He finally broke away, leaning his forehead on mine.
“Listen to the song,” he said.
“I will.”
“I’ll wait for you at the bus station, Mina.”
I closed my eyes. A wild beating like the first flutter of wings before flight took over my heart. I wanted to be with him. To live my own life. To be happy. Could we really do this? Could we really have a life together? Was this what he really wanted? As though reading my thoughts, Ysrael said softly, “Come be with me.”
Ysrael watched us leave. He stood in the rain and waved as I drove out of the parking lot and onto the street. Suna waved and waved even after he had disappeared from our sights.
We stepped inside the apartment to find Uhmma sitting on the couch, watching TV. She stood up as soon as we entered, her fists immediately coming to her waist.
Where have you been? she asked.
The instructor was late, so we didn’t get started on time, I said, taking off my wet shoes.
Suna fled to our room.
Uhmma started her lecture: I have been worried. You could have called. I was about to go and look for you. What if something had happened?
I stared at her, my heart racing with the words, the truth. I was with Ysrael. He would never let anything happen to me.
Uhmma shook her head and pushed me. Go and get dry before you catch a cold.
Silently, I left the room, my hand in my pocket, holding on to Ysrael’s song. I needed time to gather my courage and finally tell her about Ysrael. And the truth about me.
Suna was still in her wet clothes, standing at the window, her hair dripping water onto the carpet. She turned to me as I entered the room with some towels. I closed the door behind me.
“Are we going to see him again?” she whispered. She wrapped her arms around herself as the shivers crept into her body.
I went to the closet to get some dry clothes for her.
“Uhn-nee, what’s going to happen to Ysrael?”
I shrugged.
“Uhn-nee, when Ysrael is in San Francisco and he’s looking at the moon, we could be looking at the moon at exactly the same time. We could still be together that way.”
I smiled at her thought and brought over her large T-shirt that she liked to wear for pajamas. She changed out of her clothes, letting the wet ones fall to the floor, and she slipped into her T-shirt. I picked up her wet clothes and took my pajamas to the bathroom.
After draping our clothes on the tub, I finally looked at myself in the mirror. I wondered if my skin still tasted of him. I touched my neck. Was his smell still a part of me? Or had the rain washed all of that clean? I closed my eyes and pictured the black dust of his lashes. The ragged edges of his scar. I raised my fingertips to my chin and remembered the pressure of his thumb on the edge of my lips. The thought of Ysrael leaving without me filled me with such sadness, it caught my breath. What was I going to do?
Suna was still standing at the window when I returned from the bathroom. Her wet hair was soaking her nightshirt. The memory of her sitting under the overhang
