After seeing it was my sister calling I almost turned off my phone. I knew she wanted to talk about our mother who was very sick. We've been trying to get her here from our country for weeks now. My sister was sure that the doctors here could cure her but we haven't been able to secure a visa because our country refused to allow the request. I didn't want to listen to her cry and beg me to help because I didn't know what I could do about it, yet in the end, I did what a big brother should do and answered.
"Dear brother, thank god you answered for I have good news. I talked again to the counselor at the embassy here in town. He told me if we could bring him ten-thousand dollars he would OK mother's visa."
I asked her where she thought we could raise that kind of money, she said that her and her husband had saved over seven-thousand for a house and if I could just come up with, three we would have it. I did still have two-thousand of my student loan of course; it was meant to go to tuition. I also had my ten-year-old car that maybe if I was lucky I could get a thousand for but that would be every dime I had to my name. What could I do, even if the doctors could not help our mother we had to try.
It turned out I could only get seven hundred for my car, so I sold my text books and borrowed some from my roommate and we came up with the ten-thou. I took it in cash to the embassy but the counselor refused to see me, saying I should call and make an appointment. When I went home and called, he said he would come to my house to meet with me and this was when I understood he just didn't want anybody else see me give him his bribe. He came to my house, took the money without counting it, and said we should be getting her visa within two weeks.
Two weeks came and went, then two months came and went and still no word. My sister kept calling but the counselor would not take her call. At her insistence, I tried and got in to him the first time. You cannot believe my shock and dismay when he informed me I needed an additional ten-thousand dollars to secure a visa for my ailing mother.
"But that's impossible; we gave you all of the money we had. I sold my car, I borrowed from my friends, and I mean I have no way to raise any more cash."
He told me that was a shame and rudely hung up the phone. I can't begin to tell you how much despair this brought me and I was at the lowest point of my life. My sister was hysterical when I told her; my life was in ruins with no tuition money and no car and my mother still sick and stranded in our homeland. Little did I know my life would get much lower in the days to come.
A few days later, I woke up to hear a knocking on my door. Thinking it was my roommate without his key I stumbled out to open the door dressed only in my boxers. It was not my roommate but the counselor; I apologized for my attire and then excused myself to go put on my robe. I went to my room and then noticed the man had followed me.
"I came to ask how desperate you are to get your mother's visa."
