Finding Samuel Lowe by Paula Williams Madison

Author:Paula Williams Madison
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-02-25T00:00:00+00:00

THE POINT

OF NO RETURN

IT’S AUGUST 2012 AND I AM IN MY ROOM AT THE SHENZHEN MARRIOTT HOTEL. I am trembling. Inside the temperature is seventy-three degrees and outside it’s in the eighties, so obviously my shivering has nothing to do with the climate. My cousin Yiu Hung Law has just called my room: “Paula, where are you? I am here with my aunt and uncle waiting to meet you.”

My dear friend Marcia Haynes and I had planned several trips to China, and they usually involved the glories of food, shopping, and music. This one was supposed to follow the same general plan, until I received the e-mail from my cousin saying that my uncle would be happy to meet with me. Then everything changed. Marcia and I knew that after we visited Beijing, we were going to Shenzhen.

Throughout the visit to Beijing, the thought that I would be seeing my family in three days, in two days, in one day, nudged me at odd moments: during breakfast, or when Marcia and I were looking at shoes, or just before I went to sleep. Or it might be the first thought I had upon waking. By the time we arrived at the gleaming Beijing airport, I was already nervous and excited.

After we checked in, I looked at the status board and discovered that our flight was going to be an hour late. I am compulsively punctual, and even though delayed flights are obviously beyond my control, this one had particular implications. Not only would my own wait for this meeting be extended by yet another hour—after all these years, another hour?—but, more important, that my elderly uncle and aunt would have to wait for me, and this was unacceptable. I e-mailed Uncle Chow Woo’s grandson Henry and told him that my aunt and uncle should come to the hotel later, because I didn’t want them to have to wait in the lobby for me.

As I wrote those words, I was thinking: I am in China and, aside from Marcia, who—like me—is Black, I am surrounded by people who are Chinese. All around me were Chinese folks—businesspeople in a hurry; young mothers steering baby strollers; college kids in the universal uniform of T-shirt and backpack; older couples carrying small satchels; sleek, beautifully groomed, modern young women talking on cell phones—all of them making their way from Beijing to other cities. They were oblivious of my physical presence—what did they care about two Black female tourists? What struck me was my heightened awareness of my connection with each one of them. Of course, they had no idea that I was there to visit my family. Still, I felt a surge of pride that I was communicating with people who were my family and who looked like my fellow airline passengers. I was one of them. I was transformed from a tourist to a local.

Henry, who was at work, responded immediately and agreed to try to delay the entourage of family members who were bringing Aunt Adassa and Uncle Chow Woo to the hotel.

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