Lying on a straw mat next to the man she loved, Ameera Almahdi ran her hand over his hairy chest, caressing his smooth, dark skin. Absentmindedly she looked at the stars. For the thousandth time Ameera tried to see the constellations she grew up watching. Under the Saudi sky, out in the desert, she'd gone stargazing with her older brothers Omar and Yousef many times back in the day. A passion for all things cosmic, it's what led Ameera to leave her hometown of Yanbu, in the Al Madinah province of Saudi Arabia for the strange world of Ontario, Canada. She'd gone to study astrophysics at York University, right outside the City of Toronto. Little did she know how much her time in Canada would change her.
For a young Arab woman born and raised in rural Saudi Arabia, the Confederation of Canada was as different as could be. Almost like another world, actually. At the Toronto International Airport she saw women in police uniforms, and even a female soldier. In this strange society men and women mingled freely and seemed very affectionate with one another in public. In the chaste, pious and strict world of Saudi Arabia, this Haram behavior simply wasn't allowed. The women in Canada went around unveiled, indeed some went around half-naked, and everyone seemed to be fine with that. For in this country they were ruled by secular, humanitarian laws heavily influenced by the women's rights movement, the polar opposite of Sharia Law. Her first days in this strange country where women drove cars and went around unescorted by male chaperones were confusing, to say the least.
Nevertheless, Ameera was determined to make the most of her time in Canada. It hadn't been easy to convince her father, Hassan Almahdi, to allow her to go to Canada to study. The venerable old Sheikh had worried that the Western world would change his only daughter so much that she would never want to come back to her native land. The West is like another planet, her father warned. Ameera had insisted that the benefits of a Western education outweighed the risks and the old man had to agree. He'd looked into the dark eyes of the five-foot-ten, plump young woman whom he'd raised alone since her mother died giving birth to her, and given her his blessing to study abroad, though he hated to see her go.
All birds must leave the nest someday, Sheikh Hassan Almahdi mused. Now it was his eighteen-year-old daughter Ameera's turn to spread her wings and fly away. Her two older brothers Yousef and Omar were already married and had produced grandsons and granddaughters. Soon it would be Ameera's turn. Since she was going to be married soon, why not let her see the world? He didn't see any harm coming out of it. For he raised her well. If only he knew. For her first month in Canada, Ameera was homesick. She watched TV, ate, did her prayers, read paperback romance novels and seldom left the house. When September came she began her courses at York University, and thus the strangest and most wonderful time of her life began.
At York University Ameera Almahdi met the two people destined to change her life forever. The first one was a tall, slender young Jamaican-born Black Canadian woman named Persia Johnson and her boyfriend, a Turkish-born Russian Muslim émigré named Ferit Romanov. Persia Johnson ran track and field for York University and Ferit was on the University of Toronto men's varsity soccer team. The two student-athletes met at a community event and sparks simply flew between them. They'd been dating for a year at the time that Persia and Ameera met.
Persia and Ameera had the same major and were in some of the same classes. The two of them became friends and Persia introduced Ameera to her boyfriend Ferit Romanov. The tall, spiky-haired Turkish guy with the tattoos and Spiderman T-shirt didn't even register as a Muslim to Ameera's eyes but she'd learned that most foreign Muslims were liberal when compared to a Saudi Arabian national. The fact that Ferit, a Muslim guy from Turkey owned a dog and dated a Christian gal like Persia Johnson also surprised Ameera but she took it in stride. The world outside Saudi Arabia was a strange place indeed. Persia and Ferit became her guides and indeed her only friends at school for a while.
Thanks to them Ameera stopped spending so much time at the school library or in her apartment and actually went outside. They showed her the environs of metropolitan York, which, while a fine town, couldn't hold a candle to the City of Toronto itself. Ameera, who grew up in a tiny rural town, found herself intimidated by the size and scope of Toronto at first but with Persia's encouragement she came to see it as a challenge. Go out and explore and don't be a chicken, Persia chided her. Ameera heeded her friend's advice, and went out. She fell in love with the City of Toronto, where so many people of diverse races and ethnicities mingled freely. She ate some delicious rice and beans in Jamaican restaurants, she prayed at a mosque where eighty percent of the attendees were Somali, and even became fascinated by rap music, much to Persia's delight. Her friendship with Ferit and Persia was changing her. Back in Saudi Arabia and much of the Arab world, blacks were considered an inferior group, good only for labor. Yet after knowing Persia and some of the Jamaican students at York University, Ameera realized how wrong she'd been. Black people were friendly, easygoing, good-hearted and God-fearing. The Prophet Mohammed was right when he said the Black man was nobody's inferior in one of his more famous Hadiths.
Yes, her time in Canada had been strange, at times confusing but ultimately wonderful, Ameera Almahdi had to admit. She aced her classes at York University, but when summer came, she felt a pang of regret at leaving the campus and town which felt like home. Come back to us, Persia said, giving her a fierce hug at the airport. I will miss you sister, Ferit said with a smile and nod. The tall Turkish sportsman was quite surprised when Ameera simply went up to him and hugged him. Observant Muslim women didn't touch men they were unrelated to, even if they were of the same faith. For a Saudi gal like Ameera, who never left the house without her hijab, long-sleeved shirt and long skirt, to hug Ferit, now that was really something. I will miss you both every day, Ameera said tearfully as the final call for her flight rang out throughout the airport lane. Smiling sadly, she waved her friends goodbye and boarded the plane.
Once inside, Ameera went to her assigned seat, sat down and tucked herself in. Slowly she drifted into a deep sleep, and dreamed of Toronto and her friends. When she opened her eyes, everyone around her was screaming in a blind panic. The airplane was going down, that's all she could remember anyone saying. She'd been heading home, back to Saudi Arabia, on a long flight that would take her from metropolitan Toronto, Ontario, to the City of London, England, and only once in Europe would she make her way to the Kingdom. As the plane dropped out of the sky, Ameera Almahdi silently prayed to God that she might one day see her friends again. Her goodbyes had been slow and painful, and there was much she'd left unsaid.
The odd thing is that even as the plane fell out of the sky like a rock, all she could think of were her friends, her university and her old life in Toronto. She hadn't had the heart to tell her friends the truth, that her father, the esteemed Sheikh Hassan Almahdi had summoned her back to Saudi Arabia because a young man from a good family had requested her hand in marriage. If everything went according to plan, she would never set foot in Ontario, Canada, again. She'd become the wife of some wealthy young Saudi businessman and henceforth her only preoccupations would be wifedom and motherhood. Such was the fate of all Saudi women, from the Princesses of the royal House of Saud to the lowly beggars.
Ameera woke up slowly and painfully. When she opened her eyes, a dark face loomed over her. Eyes widened with shock, she blurted out several phrases in Arabic before realizing that the dark-skinned young man couldn't understand her. Do you speak English? he asked in an accent she vaguely recognized. Ameera nodded, and the young man introduced himself. I'm Achilles Jackson, he said. You're Jamaican, Ameera said, recognizing in his inflections something similar to the way her old friend Persia Johnson spoke. Born and bred in Montego Bay, he said proudly. Thus she met the man who pulled out of the airplane wreck and dragged her to this beach, on a tiny island in the middle of nowhere. Where are we? she asked him. Sister I don't have a clue, Achilles said wistfully.
It didn't take long for Ameera or Achilles to realize the precarious nature of their situation. They were stuck on a desert island in the middle of nowhere. Somewhere between North America and Europe, Achilles said when Ameera repeatedly queried him on the subject. The island, which seemed only about five kilometers long and two kilometers wide, had an abundance of fruitful trees and a couple of streams so they wouldn't starve or die of thirst. Still, life on the island would be a struggle for survival at best for the two stranded castaways.
At first glance, Ameera Almadhi, first daughter of Sheikh Hassan Almahdi of Al Madinah, Saudi Arabia, had very little in common with Jamaican-born Toronto college student/aspiring rapper Achilles Jackson. They were both air breathers and came from Toronto, that's it. As they foraged the remains of the plane for anything they might use, the burly Jamaican's habit of whistling and singing got on Ameera's last nerve. She lasted all of one hour before telling him to shut the fuck up. When she said that, Achilles burst out laughing, and when she cocked an angry eyebrow at him, he told her she was the first Hijabi he'd heard cussing like a sailor. Ameera smiled, and told Achilles that the rumors of Hijabis being soft and sweet were greatly exaggerated.