"So, Kassim, you mean to tell me that you're an illegal immigrant?" Zara Desmarais said softly, and the young tomboy looked anxiously at the young man who sat opposite her. Inside the crowded Eaton Shopping Center food court in downtown Toronto, thousands of people milled about, embarking on lengthy shopping sprees. Once upon a time, Zara Desmarais, a small-town gal originally from Calling Lake, Alberta, ancestral home of the Bigstone Cree First Nation, would have felt fascinated, or even intimidated by such a crowd. Not anymore...
"Um, I prefer the term undocumented immigrant," Kassim replied, and the young Djiboutian Muslim sighed deeply, and closed his eyes, hard. Zara licked her lips and looked at Kassim, unsure how to react. She had known Kassim Osman since first year at Ryerson University, and thought of him as a brilliant, hard-working and friendly guy with a wicked sense of humor. To see him crestfallen like this irked Zara, more than she cared to admit...
"So, unless the Canadian immigration authorities grant you refugee status at this hearing with the judge, you're going to get sent back to Djibouti?" Zara asked, and Kassim nodded somberly. A faraway look crept into his handsome face. Looking out at the vast food court, Kassim admired the men and women going about their day, oblivious to his very own private hell. They looked so damn happy and carefree. It just wasn't fair...
"Yeah, Zara, my whole damn life hinges on what some old white dude in a judge's robes has to say," Kassim said, somewhat angrily, and as he rose abruptly, several people seated at nearby tables gawked at them. Zara flashed them a smile, and took a deep breath. Although she pleaded with Kassim to sit back down, the tall, burly young man shook his head and walked out abruptly...
"I'm out, see you later, Zara," Kassim hollered as he made his way to the nearby escalators. All of a sudden, he felt sick of the Eaton Center, sick of these happy, smiley-faced people, and of the whole damn world, come to think of it. Kassim left the Eaton Center, and headed for the streets. Yonge Street was busy as usual, and for once, he was happy to lose himself in the crowd.
As Kassim walked the streets, he thought of all the twists and turns his life had taken lately. Born in the City of Tadjoura, the oldest metropolis in the nation of Djibouti, Kassim moved to the suburb of Mississauga, Ontario, with his parents Ahmed and Fatouma Osman. They were sent back to Somalia a few years later by the Canadian immigration authorities, and died during the conflict pitting the various rebel groups against the remnants of the Somali government.
Distraught after the tragic loss of his parents, Kassim was raised by his paternal aunt Khadija Osman. The young Djiboutian led a sheltered life in Mississauga, and at first he thought it was because his aunt was overprotective. After graduating from Martin Luther King Academy, Kassim Osman applied to the prestigious Ryerson University, and got in. Thrilled by the prospect of university life, the young man yearned to assert his independence, until his aunt told him the awful truth...
"Your parents came to Canada with falsified documents, that's why the Canadian immigration authorities sent them back, and that's why I was never able to legally adopt you, you've got no legal papers beyond your academic record at MLK Academy and your Ontario health card," Aunt Khadija confessed to Kassim. Upon hearing these words, Kassim stared at his aunt as though she had two heads. The young man could not believe his ears...
The old Djiboutian-Canadian nurse sat her nephew down, the night before he was to begin his freshman year at Ryerson University, and made the revelations that shattered his world forever. Kassim remembered staring at his aunt, astonished. He kept waiting for her to tell him that she was joking, but one look into her somber brown eyes and he knew that the old lady who raised him was dead serious...
"What's going to become of me?" Kassim asked Aunt Khadija, who gently touched his shoulder and shook her head. Having raised her nephew since his parents tragic death, Khadija Osman considered Kassim the son that she never had. The son she would have had if her husband Ali hadn't gotten himself killed during a bar fight in Ajax more than two decades ago. Khadija never remarried, and after becoming Kassim's caretaker, although she had a few relationships, raising her nephew became her priority...
"You're going to go to Ryerson and shine, my son, we'll get a lawyer or something and find a way around this immigration mess," Aunt Khadija said reassuringly to her distraught nephew, and Kassim Osman nodded. Thus the young man began his higher education journey at Ryerson University, where he majored in civil engineering. Along the way, Kassim met Zara Desmarais, a newcomer to the Greater Toronto Area by way of Alberta. Although they hailed from different worlds and completely different environments, Zara and Kassim became fast friends...
Kassim sat at a bench inside Trinity Square Park, and looked at his surroundings. He looked at the Anglican Church of the Holy Trinity, an old edifice he once visited with Zara. Like a lot of First Nations people, Zara was raised a Roman Catholic. Although he was brought up in Islam, Kassim grew to respect Catholicism due to his friendship with Zara. The young Cree woman's devotion to her faith reminded Kassim of the pious Hijabis he often saw at the mosque or at Islamic community events...
"I knew I'd find you here," came a feminine voice, jarring Kassim out of his little trip down memory lane. Kassim looked up and gasped, surprised to see a certain tall, curvy, dark-haired and bronze-skinned young Cree woman standing only a meter from him, hands on her hips. With a wry grin on her lovely face, Zara looked at Kassim, decidedly bemused.
Decked out in a long-sleeved black T-shirt featuring Hollywood actress and singer Rihanna, blue jeans and black leather boots, plus her signature black fedora, Zara Desmarais looked like an urban reincarnation of a Western frontierswoman. You can take the gal out of Alberta but you can't take Alberta out of the gal, Kassim thought. Dammit, how could he have been so lost in thought as to fail to notice Zara sneaking up on him?
"Um, hey, Zara, sorry about what happened earlier," Kassim blurted out, and Zara smiled and shook her head. They were a few months away from graduating in their respective programs at Ryerson University, and had been friends for four years, but Kassim could still fool himself into thinking he could surprise her. After knowing him for a few months, Zara knew her favorite Djiboutian like the back of her hand...
"It's alright, Mr. K, I've grown used to your mood swings," Zara said, rolling her eyes, and Kassim smiled sheepishly, then motioned for her to sit next to him. Zara sat down, and gently laid her hand on his thigh. Kassim looked at her, and worry shone in his normally jovial but now sad brown eyes. Zara winced inwardly, wishing there was something she could do. She hadn't seen Kassim in such a state since he split from that Somali gal, Amina something or other, during sophomore year. Then, like now, it fell to Zara to comfort the big lug...
"I'm that bad, eh?" Kassim chided her, laughing merrily, and Zara pretended to be in pain when he elbowed her gently. Zara looked at Kassim and sighed, then bit her lip. Kassim looked at her, and upon noticing the frown on her otherwise pristine features, he paused. Kassim had known Zara for four years and they'd been close, real close, from early on. He could tell something was bothering her...
"What's the matter?" Kassim asked Zara, and the young woman looked at him and flashed him that fearless smile of hers, only this time it was tinged with sadness. Zara sucked in her teeth, and was about to say something until a certain lady walking by caught Kassim's attention. The gal in question was tall, easily six feet, with an athletic physique and a big round bum that threatened to pop out of her black yoga pants which contrasted with her red tank top. Just as Zara thought he would, Kassim gawked at the gal's booty...
"Nothing's the matter, Kassim, maybe you should go chase Miss Big Booty here, don't let me stop you," Zara said flatly, and then, as a stunned Kassim looked on, she got up and left without another word. Kassim sat there, watching as Zara walked away, and he scratched his head. What the fuck was going on here? By the time he'd gotten over his shock and risen to his feet, Zara had already disappeared in the crowd...
"Shit," Kassim said to himself. What was it with the women in his life? First his aunt Khadija kept secrets from him, and now, years later, the Canadian government wrote him a letter summoning him to an immigration hearing before a judge, to determine whether or not he should stay in Canada. Secondly, his best friend Zara, the level-headed gal whom he trusted more than any other was now acting funny. Was there something in the water or something?
"Gosh I've been so stupid," Zara said to herself as she walked away resolutely. For years and years she'd been Kassim Osman's best friend, and supported him through thick and thin. When his Somali girlfriend Amina left him, Kassim was shattered, until Zara put him back together. When he was close to flunking his Ethics of Civil Engineering class last summer, Zara basically carried him through it. And the fool never stopped to ask himself why...
Zara thought of her ex-boyfriend Travis Quinn, a young Irish guy whom she met while visiting the University of Toronto. Six feet tall, lean and athletic, with reddish brown hair, frosty green eyes and alabaster skin, Travis was ruggedly and charming. A newcomer to Toronto by way of Galway, Ireland, Travis was curious about Toronto life and Canadian culture, and asked Zara to become his guide. As time went by, she became much more than that...
"You're the most unique woman I've ever met," Travis said to Zara, after they made love for the first time at his apartment on Spencer Avenue, near the University of Toronto campus. Zara lay in Travis arms and looked at the handsome, charming young man who looked at her lovingly. Travis made Zara feel like no other man before, and she couldn't get enough of him...