Endless Road

Today marks the day that, 10 years ago, I started my road trip. It started off a simple task for my job; to watch someone as they were in Witness Protection and they were on someone's Kill List. I thought I'd watch them for a couple of weeks and then go back to my normal life on the other side of the world, but then I ended up staying much longer than I expected. And everyone thinks I'm still on my road trip I used as cover.

And as I'm realizing this, I'm also realizing that, if I'm going to tell you this story, you're going to need some background. Let's just go with the background for now.

I was walking down to the airport. The sign above me read in English "Flight to US" I was a little uneasy, having never been out of my own country. I slowly rolled my bag onto the plane and took my seat. I didn't want first class because I didn't want to draw attention to myself or feel conceded.

Not too long after getting on the plane, my nerves put me to sleep. When I woke up, there were clouds circling the plane and a person sitting next to me, earbuds in and phone screen illuminated as they changed what I could only assume was music. The plane was packed with people. Not a single seat was empty from what I could see.

For the rest of the trip there, I sat in awkward silence, relieved when we landed. I looked around for the person I was supposed to be watching, as I had a picture of them I had already memorized and embedded in my memory.

When I saw the person I was supposed to watch, he introduced himself as Adam and he took me to his house, where I would be staying to protect him. And as part of my job, I would only have contact with Adam for what I thought would be only a couple of weeks.

I ended up falling in love with America. I didn't want to leave, despite having a life back in India, where I would have my usual job waiting. I wanted to stay and Adam wanted me to stay, being as he didn't have anyone in America he could talk to without risks aside from me, who he wouldn't have to talk to if I left. I not only wanted to stay for the sites and to allow Adam to have someone to talk to, I wanted to have him be safer, by me staying with him as a job and paying for everything so he seemingly didn't exist and would have someone there with him at all hours of the day.

Two days before I was scheduled to leave, I got a call on my disposable phone I was using for work. My boss was calling me. When I picked up the phone, the first thing I heard was the cough of him clearing his throat "Singh," He began, speaking very fluently in English "I have a proposition for you."

I was confused, but kind of excited when I said "A... A proposition, sir?"

"Yes. I want to ask if you would like to stay in America. We can't find anyone to take your place and it's taking too long to look for someone else much longer. I only ask because I know you might not want to leave India."

"No, sir. I can stay."

"Good. But if you want to stay, the two of you are going to have to move around America a lot so that it's harder to find him."

"I understand, sir. We'll move at least once every four months."

"That's a good idea. When you're able to come back, I'll call you from an unknown private number starting with ***-***."

"Understood. I'll tell him immediately, sir."

"Be careful." He hung up.

As promised, I told Adam the plan. We changed his name again and I changed mine to a very popular American name. The captain still hasn't called me back since that day and we haven't ever stayed in the same place for any more than four months, as I told the captain. We've seen all the sites twice and a few we've seen more than that. Adam has a wife and a child now. I haven't yet found someone to settle down with, but I have a feeling they'll come one day. If my child is to have a mother, I need to find them, but Adam's wife is a good surrogate mother. I can't imagine my life any different than it is now. And I wouldn't want my life any different. My road trip turned out to be a blessing and it gave me my child, my best friend and my beautiful adoptive country.