"Now that I'm out of Saudi Arabia, they're letting women drive," Manal Hajjar-Nimrod said to herself, shaking her head as she read the rather controversial article in the Ottawa Sun newspaper. A certain Saudi Arabian crown prince's actions were having repercussions around the world. Even after being exiled from her ancestral home of Dahaban, for over fifteen years, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was never truly far from Manal's thoughts. Today was Saturday, and Manal had the weekend off, a rarity when one is a Walmart assistant manager.
Manal stood in the kitchen, pouring orange juice into a cup. Looking around the two-story, four-bedroom townhouse, where everything was neat and orderly for a change, Manal allowed herself a satisfactory smile. Located in the heart of Barrhaven, the place was quite lovely. Manal had come to Ottawa with nothing but the clothes on her back during the summer of 2004. Much had happened to her since those desperate, miserable days...
Manal lost her former husband Amir Hajjar during the 2004 Khobar Massacre, in which nineteen people working inside the Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation building lost their lives. Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia, a town known for its vitality and commerce/business sector would forever be associated with terror and bloodshed. Manal and her former husband Amir always dreamed of visiting Canada, but he would never set foot there, thanks to the actions of murderous fools...
In the decade and a half that followed the incident, Manal had built a life for herself in the Canadian Capital. She'd gone back to school, taking up business management at the University of Ottawa. After graduating with honors, Manal worked for the private sector for a while. Manal worked at the Bank of America Canada and rose to the level of manager before the company left the country, and TD Bank took over its remaining Canadian assets. Dissatisfied with how the new management team at TD treated her, Manal left the banking industry and began working for Walmart...
I did the best I could, Manal thought, and as she put the orange juice box back in the fridge, she paused to look at pictures of her family. She allowed herself a smile as she touched the picture, taken during last summer's trip to Disneyland in Orlando, Florida. These days, Manal's family consisted solely of her husband Maurice "Moe" Nimrod and their sons Ali and Kader, who were currently visiting their grandmother Matilda Nimrod in the City of Toronto, Ontario.
Manal, Moe and their sons had a great time in Orlando, where their multiracial family seemed to blend in among the throngs of tourists from all over. Black, white and brown, Florida attracted all sorts, and the Sunshine State was truly multicultural, only other places that Manal could think of. In Orlando, Manal and her hubby Moe were presumed to be Latin and African American, respectively, since Arabs and Afro-Caribbean folks weren't that common in the South.
Manal closed her eyes, hard. She was exiled from Saudi Arabia, but not for political reasons. After Manal decided to settle in Canada, she'd been on good terms with her parents and her late husband Amir's family. The only rift came after Manal fell in love with Maurice Nimrod, the tall, dark-skinned and handsome Grenadian national whom she'd met while studying at the University of Ottawa. Sparks flew between Manal and Maurice, even though they came from different worlds, but not everyone was thrilled to see them together...