The Missing Pieces Of An All American Girl

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

The drive from the backwoods of Mississippi to my uncle's house in Chicago was a long trip totaling up to eleven hours. I remember having a terrible feeling about moving in with my uncle throughout our journey, but it seemed as if it was the best option considering that I didn't have a choice. I was too "impure" to go back to the home of my "righteous" parents and apologizing to my grandmother just wasn't an option. I was the type of person to apologize only when I felt like I had done someone wrong. Since I rarely saw myself wrong, that rarely ever happened. "Would you like to drive?" my uncle asked without taking his eyes off the road. Just as my instincts were telling me that that he was asking me because he was tired of my scrolling through Facebook to see who said what about me and why, he made it clear that it was the very reason why he had asked me. "You need something to do to keep your mind off all that drama! Looking at the posts on social media and trying to text that boy who isn't going to answer you isn't going to help and give me that phone!" he added as he yanked my phone from my hand and slid it into his pocket. "No, I don't know how," I said quietly. I was so upset over the rising popularity of my "drinking ordeal" across the internet that I didn't even care that my uncle I barely knew confiscated my phone. When I said that I didn't know how to drive, that grabbed his attention for a slight moment and he glanced towards my direction before redirecting his attention to the road. "You don't know how to drive?" he asked in a clearly shocked tone as he redirected his eyes to the road ahead. I explained to him that my parents were going to teach me how to drive, but since I left home and didn't have much to do with them, I never learn. As my uncle babbled about how much I would love his wife and kids and how he would teach me how to drive, I finished the trip in silence as I thought of how different my life would have been now if I would've made different decisions from the ones I've made so far.

Going to Chicago with my Uncle Xavier that day was the first time I had ever been there. Quite naturally, I was amazed at the height of the buildings that were so tall I had to bend over backwards to see the top of them. I saw skyscrapers that were so tall I couldn't see the top of them; so many people bustling about the streets that I became dizzy; and of course so many restaurants that I my mouth began to water.

"What do you think?" he asked with a smile as if he knew what I was going to say.

"It's beautiful here!" I breathed as I looked around. "I live slightly outside of the city limits, but it's not so far away that you can't make it into town. We'll give you a tour of the city once you get settled," he said.

"Do you have kids," I asked. I thought that it would be nice to have cousins around my age to hang out with and I wanted to know.

"As a matter of fact I do! There's Aliyah who's four months, Munirah who is 3, Marie who is 16, and there's Marcus who is 20."

"Oh," I replied disappointedly. I was hoping that there was a girl closer to my age. Marie wasn't but two years younger than me, but I was afraid that she would be too immature to become close friends with.

"Here we are! Let's get you inside and situated" he sang as he typed a code in at the gate and preceded to drive into the circular driveway with a water fountain at its center.

The first thing I noticed upon my arrival at my uncle's home was that it wasn't just a big beautiful house, but a dream mansion everyone dreams of residing in. The house was sturdily built with bricks and contained windows so tall that I didn't see how it was possible to install them in the first place. There was a fish pond in the front of the house that contained goldfish and other tiny critters. There was a garage next to the house that was so large that it could have been a comfortable mini mansion all by itself. "Don't be shy, come on in!" a woman called from the doorway. The lady was very beautiful and was holding a young baby in her arms who I assumed to be baby Aliyah. "Hi!" I said as I walked up the steps to great her.

"How are you darling?!" she chirped as she pulled me into a hug.

"It is so nice to meet you Shakirah! My name is Aminah!" she chirped as she pulled me into a hug as if she has been hearing about me my entire life and was aching to meet me. I was trying to figure out why she and most of her kids had mostly names of Muslim origin and the oldest son didn't. a part of me wanted to ask, but I stopped myself and announced with a yawn that I was tired so that I could get to bed.

"Oh I can imagine after such a long drive. It's late, let us get you to your room," she said with a smile as she released me from her embrace. My uncle then stood to the side of the doorway waiting until my aunt and I had entered first. I couldn't help thinking about Jamie when he did that because Jamie was that type of guy who held doors open for me. And how did that work out for me? I asked myself as I stepped into the house.

"Oh no! No shoes are to be worn inside the house except for house shoes," my uncle's wife said as she shifted the baby in her arms and pushed strings of her black hair behind her ears. "Honey she only just arrived, we can go over these things in the morning!" my uncle said as he hugged his wife. To be honest, I wasn't paying a bit of attention to either one of them the moment I stepped into the house because I was shocked. Even though the lamps which were literally along the walls lit the room, the light was very dim and gave the house a feeling of mysterious beauty. I knew that the house was spacious and beautiful from the outside, but I was not expecting what I saw. When I looked up, I could see the crystals from the chandelier shimmering in the dim lights from the lamp. When I looked down, I saw the shiny marbled floor that looked like silk under my feet. There was a shelf right next to the door that my cousins had later told me were for especially for shoes, so they could be left at the door upon entering the house. "You're right, Taka and Ben can clean my floors tomorrow," she said with the smile. "Come along! Your room is this way darling," she said as she and my uncle ascended the stairs. As we reached the top of the stairs, I could see that there were numbers above what I assumed to be the bedroom doors. You'll be in room nine, she said with a smile as she handed me a key. My room was all the way at the end of a hall that seemed like it would go on forever. "Be careful not to awake my parents," my aunt said with a smile as she opened my room's door and flipped on the light switch. "Do you like your room?" my uncle asked as he and his wife stood in the doorway. "I absolutely love it!" I exclaimed as I looked around my new room. I didn't know what else I could do to thank my uncle and aunt at that moment, so I hugged them tighter than I had ever hugged anyone. Although the hug wasn't yet from love, it was from pure gratitude and I couldn't have been more grateful. My feelings of fear and uncertainty had completely vanished and replaced by feelings that I was off to a beautiful beginning.

The first thing I did that night when my uncle andaunt finally left my room was put my cell phone on charge and check to see if Jamieor my ex-best friends had texted or called me. I was disappointed to see that nobodyhad called me, but my mother. Part of me wanted to call her to tell her that wasokay, but another part of me wasn't ready to face her. Most of all, I just wantedto vent to her and tell her that I never wanted things to happen the way they did. Myrelationship with my parents is already terrible, how could I possibly face themnow after that video is all over the internet and is gaining more shares than myselfies would've ever gotten me. I thought to myself as I climbed into bed andpulled the fluffy soft blanket over my body.