Judging by the Cover

People hustled down the stairs. Everyone was in a hurry. The clock struck 2 pm as I made my way down the plane carrying my handbag. Finally, I had made it to my destination. I let out a sigh of relief as I boarded the van taking passengers from the runway back to the building. 8 hours! It had surely been a long flight!

Ever since I applied for the internship abroad, it had been hectic. The interviews, the language exams and the visa application. Oh the visa application! It is so hard to make it through all the bias. I wondered if I was now finally free of all the unfair judgments in this unknown land.

No one in the van looked like me. Everyone was light-toned and beautiful. I was not. There was nothing beautiful in being a brown girl. My face was all covered in acne. I decided to look away. I don’t want people to think I am looking at them or judging them.

Wind blew in my face as I turned the window down. With a strong gush, my head scarf blew off my head. I quickly grabbed it and pulled it back up. Slowly, I turned around in embarrassment to see an old lady smiling at me. She seemed quite sweet. It just moved my heart. Oh how a smile can make someone’s day! I felt this huge weight lift off my shoulders as I realized I can finally be who I am now, and I will never be judged by those unfair stereotypes for as long as I stay here.

The baggage claim area was full of people but surprisingly quiet. I had imagined people to be screaming out “Hey pass that bag?” “No way! This is mine!” kind of phrases. However, it was peaceful. Everyone was minding their own business. I realized just how nice this part of the world was.

All I had to do was to wait for Professor Stuart to come pick me up so he could show me the flat that had been reserved for me. I had never been in a flat before. Professor told me my flat was on the 11^th floor! How do these people make buildings that high? How can people live that high up in a building? The maximum I had ever seen was the visa office. It was a whopping 5 floor building! This surely was going to be an adventure for me.

I couldn’t thank Professor enough. Had he not seen my potential and my passion; I would have never been able to see such a civilized world. I would have never known that there is a world out there where people were truly nice; where you were judged by who you are and not how you looked.

I sat on the bench outside the airport trying to get a bit of fresh air. The air travel was really exhausting. I had never spent so much time in a closed “thing” before. It was weird. I was someone who spent her life taking ride on the rickshaws and donkey carts and here I was in a foreign land after flying through the air. It was so crazy!

“Come with us,” two burly men in gray suits said, grabbing me by the arm and handcuffing me. “You know what you did.”

“Waitt…..WHAT? Excuse me! Wait?” I kept saying as they forcefully led me into the building again. I was being treated like a criminal and I had no idea why. They looked like they were some officials who worked at the airport. Of course they were. But why were they taking me? Thoughts just kept flowing in my mind as I begged then to let me go. Every person around me looked at me suspiciously as I was being dragged into this side room. This cannot be happening to me. I had not done anything at all!

They threw me in this chair that was waiting for me. Another official, who judging by his looks and manners was the senior one of the three, sat across the table to me. He had this look in his eye as if he would shoot me in the head if he had an option.

“What have I done?”

“Oh do I need to tell you now?”, he roared at me with a face full of hatred.

“Please, I don’t understand…. I have done absolutely nothing. Why am I being treated as a criminal?”

“It’s because you are one! 25 packs of heroin huh! You think you can get away with it? You smuggler bit**”

My world was turned upside down as I heard him blame me for something I could never imagine. I sat there hopeless, an innocent 19-year-old, in front of a guy who had the most authority around me, accusing me of this heinous deed.

“I have not done any smuggling! Prove it!!”, I screamed which in hindsight, was the worst thing to do. But then, I was at my breaking point. There was absolutely no reason I was being dragged into this mess, whatever it was.

“Right… right….. you need proof now. YOU need ME to prove why YOU are such a lowlife. Look at your face. Its written right there. What are you doing here? Tell ME! Do you have any reason to be here?” he growled again with an intensity that sent shivers down my spine.

I had thought this was the end to all the negativity in my life. This was the place where I would find my freedom from the monstrous world; somewhere I would not be the suspect of every bad thing that happens around me, just because I was different. But here I was, yet again, in the same position.

However, this was worse than ever. I had no one here, no uncle Sam who would come to my aid, no sister Sara who would take me home and console me and of course, my mother wasn’t here in this foreign land too who would rebuild my faith in humanity after the ordeal was over. Maybe this time, I was all alone and it would never be over. This time was perhaps the last time. I had heard stories of people being throws in the shadows of the prison never to be heard of again. Every time I heard anything, I prayed to God that may those people find justice and may this never happen to me. I think my prayers weren’t answered. That was what was disappointing me the most.

I gathered up the courage to speak out for myself again. It was hard, but I wasn’t going to let go so soon. “I am here because I have been invited to work here. My professor is one of the finest researchers in the state and he has been with me throughout the whole process. Being different than most people here does not make me a culprit! I have every right to know why I am being targeted!”

While I was delivering my last call for justice, a lady entered the room with a huge suitcase. She seemed to be one of the officials to, judging by her dressing. She walked over to the table and opened the bag in front of the growling maniac. They exchanged a few words in a very low voice so I couldn’t hear what they were talking. I tried to make out what they were saying by their expressions and gestures. The lady didn’t seem to be pleased by the official at all. She stood there with folded arms and a look on her face that clearly translated to “you messed up pretty bad”.

I felt at ease for the first time, maybe for just a while but it was comforting to see a slight ray of hope. She gestured the two men who stood to my left to let me go but before I walked out, I glanced over to get a peek at what lay inside the case. There were packets of white powder, a gun and what seemed like an ID.

The lady caught me looking so she turned to me and started to apologize. However, it was obvious she was taunting the man who sat there with bloodshot eyes full of anger.

” I am really sorry for the inconvenience, but somebody here doesn’t know how cases are solved. You don’t drag just about anyone into the scene who you THINK is the criminal and blame them. Instead you search for the criminal through …well you know, SEARCH!”

I thanked her and started to leave when she came to me and told me that a gentleman was searching for a girl who matched my appearance and that is how she realized where I could have been since she knew her “partner” really well.

“Before you go honey, remember, there is absolutely nothing wrong about you. You are different and beautiful. There are all sorts of people, everywhere! Never let yourself lose faith in yourself just because of some cheap-minded jerk.”, she added her last comments as I noticed just how beautiful her eyes were, just like my mom’s.