HEJ, MY LOVE

WOKE

"I feel so humiliated. I'm frustrated and so angry at myself."

Her emotions seeped through and drenched the room.

Jonas shuddered; his throat dried up. He needed to clear it to say, "Sierra, it wasn't your fault. I would have had the same reaction. The law here is stringent concerning children."

"What, I can't scold my child when needed?" Her stare was cold. Jonas knew he trod on broken eggs.

It was a dead-end, but what Jonas retained was this injustice he was blind to see. The man never experienced one prejudice in his entire existence. Always welcomed where ever he was, Jonas felt like a king when he traveled.

Yet, he never saw it as a privilege. Idealistic, he naively believed or convinced himself all could benefit from the same treatment of equality until this very instant where his wife was the victim.

Jonas couldn't pretend conservatives and nationalists held the country. This fact gave assurance to those with xenophobic or racist tendencies who felt free to make noise.

The man felt hopeless, "I'm sorry, Sierra, I'm sorry. You're right; I don't know. I don't have a clue, and I'm ashamed of what happened today."

Sierra didn't go to work the next day; the incident isolated her. Her image of Sweden darkened. It was no longer this beautiful, safe green haven.

"Hi, is Sierra in?" Saanvi smiled.

Jonas let her inside despite his suspicions concerning the people who approached them. Saanvi helped Sierra, after all.

The woman didn't have a hard time finding Sierra as she heard her address several times when the police asked her questions.

"Saanvi, what are you doing here?"

"How are you?" The woman tried to abstract the impressive apartment. No wonder Sierra dusted her off. The couple lived well.

"I'm okay," Sierra replied.

It was evident she wasn't.

"I thought perhaps you could join us tonight?" Saanvi said.

Why did the woman insist?

 Her clingy attitude annoyed Sierra, who wanted everyone to leave her alone.

"Saanvi, I told you, I don't need some free POC therapy group."

The tone wasn't Sierra's, the words harsh. Even Jonas gave his wife a dark eye.

Saanvi smiled; she knew the song. She, too, had been through a similar situation before. She let the remark slide. "It will do you some good. Staying at home won't help. You need to work, socialize, take your son to the park. You can't stay locked up. I'm sure your husband will agree with me. You don't need to talk; just listen."

Sierra turned to Jonas; his earnest stare pushed her. She knew she worried him and remembered how she promised to make him happy, "alright."

Thirty minutes later, Sierra was in a coffee shop. Audi and his boyfriend owned the place, Klaus. Audi was from Cameroon. He met Klaus on Tinder, and Klaus was your everyday Swedish guy.

Saanvi was Indian. She moved with her husband, who was an engineer. Their situation differed as they were both Indian and subject to prejudice.

There were three other couples, interracial like Jonas and Sierra, at their table.

Odile and Nils were married and had two children. The language barrier was the most challenging part for Odile. She spoke Yoruba and English. She met her husband in Abuja while he was on a mission for Medecin Sans Frontiers.