Lin takes me and Sebastian to the theatre for the Saturday matinee. Sebastian brings along his magic kit. I bring along my mehndi cone and Ipod so I don't have to suffer through another ten hours of Alexander Hamilton screwing himself over. This guy was nuts. He cheated on his wife and his political career was flushed down the toilet. There are loads of other dead guys in powdered wigs who deserved to have musicals written about them, but Alexander Hamilton got famous for being a category-five screw up. I don't blame Aaron Burr for hating his guts.
When we get to Lin's dressing room, Sebastian unpacks the contents of his magic kit to practice for the next family gathering. I slip in my earbuds. Lin asks what I'm listening to as he gets dressed in his civil war getup. I hand him one of my earbuds and he listens for a moment, then grins. I don't know why. The lyrics are in Urdu, but he must be into the beat, because he bounces his knees while he smooths his hair into a ponytail.
During the show, Sebastian shows me some new magic tricks he learned. He can now do a slight of hand and pull a penny out from behind my ear. In turn, he lets me mehndi his arm. I've never drawn mehndi on anyone but myself, so it feels bizarre at first, like I have a fifth limb I never knew about. But Sebastian holds still while I drew the paste, and when I finish the designs on his fingers, he insists I draw mehndi all the way up his forearm. Swirl, swirl, petal, petal. Wing, wing, feather, feather. The cone moves all on its own.
While I draw the paste, I think about Pakistan. Sebastian is too young to understand why I'm going back. I'm glad. I think he sees me as some maternal non-dimensional entity, something like a sister, but better. A friend. If there's anyone I'd tell about Operation Pakistan, it would be him.
I won't pack anything the Mirandas gave me. Toothpaste, toilet paper, food-- I can get all that in Lahore and smuggle it in my bag for the ride to Rohiwol. I won't take any clothes. If I showed up to my family's village wearing ripped jeans and oversized sweatshirts, they'd slam the door in my face. Radhika would be horrified by my wardrobe. Should I bring my basketball? How about my mehndi? I'm sure My Mother will have some paste at the house--
"Viddie! Viddie!"
Sebastian tugs at my sleeve. I snap out of my haze and look at his arm. A single line of mehndi has trailed off from the pattern and onto his shirt. I was so distracted by my plan, I ruined the forearm portion of the design. I'll think about Operation Pakistan when I'm not faced with the threat of staining his Thomas the Tank Engine t-shirt.
At intermission, the cast comes into Lin's dressing room to say hi. Jazzy and Renee let Sebastian perform magic tricks for them. Anthony sits beside me on the couch and asks me to mehndi a flower on his arm. Leslie tells me he's surprised I'm still wearing his friendship bracelet. I tell him it's my most prized possession. We both know I'm lying, but he grins anyway.
Lin waltzes in with ten minutes left of intermission. He hands me and Sebastian peanut butter banana sandwiches in plastic baggies and posts something asinine on twitter. Jonathan braids a piece of my hair. Pippa asks me to mehndi her foot. As I draw a line of petals across her big toe, a simultaneous beep blares from everyone's phones and make us all jump. My hand jerks and draws a streak of mehndi across her foot. Second time today. Lin squints at his screen, then chuckles. "There's a blizzard coming. The weather report says we're not supposed to go outside. Looks like we're stuck here for awhile."
Once the second act begins and Sebastian and I are alone in the dressing room, I pull back the curtains and look out the window. It's 3:00 in the afternoon, but the sky looks like evening. Snow plummets in fat fluffy clumps so fast, the flakes are blurry as they fall. The pedestrians trample through doors for shelter. Crossing guards in neon orange vests wave errant cars into parking garages. Sebastian and I eat our sandwiches. When we finish, I mehndi his other arm with no mistakes. At one point Sebastian grabs the eyeliner from Lin's table and draws a mustache beneath his nose. I re-mehndi my hands and draw a jasmine flower on my middle finger.
YOU ARE READING
SHOUT - Adopted by Lin Manuel Miranda
Fanfiction"Sometimes I think the universe sets certain people out into the world like gifts meant for others, people whose purpose is to save someone else. That's how I think of families. And if the universe couldn't do me that favor, couldn't put someone on...
