To Know You Is to Love You

By Morsheda Amin

Ronita recently moved to the United States from a South Asian country. Her dream is to be an architectural engineer and live a wonderful life in the States. Soon enough the dream hits reality. She learned from her bad experiences. A boy from her college came into the mixture of her life. She fell in love with him. But the angels that roam in life have different plans. They make Ronita choose Ratul who is an edgy, radical human being. Right there and then in the company of Ratul Ronita is growing spiritually faster than ever. They decided to get married. Relatives begin to come from different parts of the country, even from outside of the country. Ronita met Ratul’s dad. Here Ronita’s life story gets twisted. For the first time two people acknowledged the Presence of Ronita’s heart. They are Ratul’s dad and Ronita herself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9781669871521

Morsheda Amin

I love poetry. I have been admiring poetry since I was a child. The admiration put me in front of one question: where does the feeling of love come from? I used to look in the beauty of sky to find my answer. I looked at the beauty of roses to find my answer. It took a long, long time for me to realize that I am magic and I am made of love with so much creative potential inside of me. Now I look back and laugh at my confused mind. It was not actually my fault that I couldn’t see my power like a tree doesn’t think about the fertility of the soil. But we human beings need to think about our power so we can use it righteously better. Now I am a thinker of “magical human inside.” I am fascinated by the magic and write my fascination through my writing.

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Copyright © 2023 by Morsheda Amin.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 03/20/2023

Xlibris

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CONTENTS

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

CHAPTER ONE

Sakib is heading to the airport to receive his baby cousin. His cousin is eighteen years old and she won the diversity lottery recently. After getting done with all paperworks she is now flying to the United States. Ronita is Sakib’s baby cousin. When Ronita was born Sakib was a thirty five years old man. Sakib himself has a daughter Ronita’s age. His daughter and wife live in another country. His wife refused to live with him. Here, in the United States Sakib lives in a two bedroom apartment and works for a limousine company. His job is to drive people places. There is something in her he gets the most clients. He is charming, sweet and has some elegance that only a movie star possesses. God gave him a crazy spell that keeps all women glued to him. And Sakib takes advantage of this God given charisma. He has a Vietnamese girlfriend who often lives in his apartment. Sakib is the king of having a good time at any cost. Sometimes he invites his friends to share his happiness. There is one that compels with his nature very much. This United States is a romance sanctuary for many immigrants. The behavior that was prohibited in their home country is easily expressed here. It is because here there are no liable parties to explain liability since all relatives and friends are left behind in the home country. Here just make dollars and spend it as you like. To tell the truth Sakib is extremely happy to be in a foreign country where money comes by the hour. All his money made him an illegitimate male prostitute. He interprets every woman by his lust. The relatives of his home country don’t know what he has become here. So they easily contact him to be Ronita’s foreign guardian. He is responsible for picking up Ronita from the airport and sending her to an engineering school. It is Ronita’s dream to be an engineer. She has a high school diploma with all good grades. Ronita’s parents contacted Sakib every five hours from the last six months. Sakib responded as the most caring person. Parents are assured that Ronita is going to be in good hands. So now Sakib is driving to the airport to get his baby sister. He remembers his last visit to Ronita’s house. Ronita was a little girl and was shying away from him. Now she is a symbolic rose tight in its petals. Sakib can’t remember the last time when he slept with an eighteen year old. He never had a teenager in his bed. All her women are matured between the age of forty and fifty. Sakib got into the airport picking area. He went inside the passenger waiting lounge. The airplane came five minutes early and Ronita is waiting for her brother to come. Sakib knows what Ronita looks like at the age of eighteen. He quickly recognized Ronita and called her by her name. Ronita turned around and ran to come to her cousin. Sakib didn’t hug her, instead put his friendly hand over her shoulders. He asked about her twenty four hour plane journey. Ronita said that it was nasty. She also said that she is so tired that she feels like she would die in ten seconds. The more she talks the more her talkative energy overspeed Sakib’s lusty spirit. He puts her luggages in the car trunk and asks about her parents. Ronita is her parents’ tenth child. Growing up Ronita saw naked poverty, bickering among brothers and sisters. To tell the truth she is over the moon joyous being able to come to the country of opportunity. Anything she sees, she expresses her exclamation. She likes everything she sees-roads, highways, sunlight, wildflowers, a whole airplane taking off the ground over the big city, traffic rules, people in the street, high raised buildings and the sun in the sky. She told her brother that she came here to be an engineer. Brother assured her that he will take her to an engineering university soon.

Sakib asked while he was driving with his sister next to him, what kind of engineer do you want to be?

architectural.--Ronita replied.

Are you eligible for that?--asked Sakib.

Yes, I am. I have done an internationally accepted English course and my high school GPA is excellent.--said Ronita.

They are speaking in their native language. Sakib doesn’t know how excellent Ronita is at speaking English. He said, what is written on your document will not be enough. You have to have real good speaking skills.

Okay, I will do anything you ask me to do.--said Ronita.

I like that you are ambitious. Let me tell you something: in this country a house cleaner makes more money than a teacher. If you know how to clean houses, you could make a decent amount of money soon. You really don’t have to do the hard work of schooling to make money. The point of going to school is to make good money. If you can do it otherwise why would you go to school? Besides, school costs so much money.--said Sakib.

I will think about all that later. I need straight one week of sleep. Then I am going to think about my life. I am really tired and hungry. Did you cook anything for me?--asked Ronita.

Yes, I cooked rice, chicken curry and vegetables. I learned how to cook here.--said Sakib.

Did you have a room for me?--asked Ronita.

Yes I have two bedrooms in my apartment. You are going to use one.--said Sakib.

The bedroom has a bed too, right? First I will take a shower. Then I will eat and sleep.--said Ronita.

Your room has a big attached bathroom with a nice big bathtub. All your long eighteen years of life you huddled with making a living. Now that time is over. Now that with me I will be introduced to all the luxuries of life. You are going to love living with me.--said Sakib.

Ronita said, Everybody says that you are very generous. You help your poor relative. Ammi (mother) and Baba (father) trust you so much. They think I am all safe with you. I actually started liking you so much. You are not old like my big brother.

It is because I take care of myself to stay young. I really spend money for myself. I will spend money for yourself too.--said Sakib.

Seriously, no one loved me by spending some money for me. I grew up wearing my elder sister’s clothes. I think my luck will be changing from now on.--said Ronita.

Your luck changed as soon as you put your foot in this country. Besides, you came here with a permanent residency card. You could do anything you want to here. Welcome to the United States.--said Sakib.

Ronita giggled in reply. She didn’t say thankyou. After an hour of driving they came to the apartment. The apartment is on the second floor of a private house. It is clean and carpeted nicely. Ronita is speechless. She followed Sakib everywhere in the apartment building. It is too good to be true for Ronita. As she wished she took a shower, ate and went to bed to take a nap. It is hard to sleep on a sunny bright day. Moreover it is springtime. The outside pulls the inside like a magnet. The bed Ronita is lying down is too comfortable for her. She used to sleep in a bed that had only a thin mattress. Here beddings on the bed is endless. After all, she is in love with this unexpected abundance. Ronita doesn’t know when she fell asleep, she actually woke up the next day in the morning. Though she used the bathroom a few times. She literally slept for thirty hours. Long sleep made her hungry. She came to the kitchen to look for food. There is a note on the dining table saying Sakib left early in the morning and he will be back at night. He suggests Ronita stay home with the main entrance door closed. He asked her not to open the door even if someone knocked at the door. Ronita read the note and got a little scared. How is she going to spend long hours? However, first she has to take care of her hungry stomach. She found bread and eggs in the refrigerator. It is impossible for her to cook something since she doesn’t know how to operate an electric stove. Fortunately she found a jar of orange marmalade. She also found a container of milk. It appears that her breakfast is nothing bad–bread marmalade and cold milk. When she was no longer hungry she came to his brother’s bedroom. Yesterday it was shown to her but she couldn’t pay attention to it because of her deadly tiredness. As soon as she got into the room, she felt very affectionate for her elder brother. Her brother lives all by himself in this country and his wife refused to live with him. Anything she sees in this room grows her respect for him. She can tell his bedroom set is the most expensive one in the market. Ronita opened the drawers of a heavy dresser. It is full of his clothes. She found a lady’s hair band underneath the clothes. Ronita assumed that his daughter may have visited him. He has a university going daughter in Canada. Ronita concludes that people here are very rich and they can travel all over the world. She came to the living room. A remote is placed right on the coffee table. She picked up the remote and was able to turn on the television. She flipt a few channels and stayed on a news channel. She doesn’t understand a word of what they are talking about. It makes her feel like she is with many people. Suddenly she realized that if she doesn’t understand a sentence of English, she is going to study here. She studies English in her country and has an internationally accepted certificate. But here speaking English is hard to understand. All of a sudden she started to feel disheartened. Only God knows what is going to happen to her. She came to the living room window. From the window she can see a two way street. Cars are coming and going on the road nicely. Ronita remembers her parents and siblings. They probably already forgot her. She was always an extra child in their family. She sat on a chair by the window and shed tears. No one loves her. She was sent here so she can help her family with money. Here every hour makes money. Ronita doesn’t want to be a escapegoat. But there is no easy way out either. First of all she doesn’t understand what these television people speak of. Ronita begins to weep. She is crying not because no one loves her but because of the horror she feels thinking about her future. When her tears got dried and didn’t feel like crying anymore, she came to the television. He changed the television channel until she found a cartoon show. The show is about a baby and mom bears. Ronita understands eighty percent of the story here. English here is more understandable. Ronita keeps watching cartoons one after another. Hope begins to bubble in her heart. It is not all bad. There is hope. All of a sudden Ronita’s mood changed from tears to singing. She sang her favorite song. All she is doing now is touring the apartment and watching cartoon shows. When she was hungry again she ate the same food she ate in the morning. Sakib came at seven o’clock with a box of KFC. The first thing he asked was about how Ronita’s day was. As Ronita was finishing the KFC box, she replied, I was scared the first half of the day. Why didn’t you teach me how to operate the stove? I ate the same food five times.

I forgot that part.--said Sakib. He asked Ronita to come to him so he can show her how to use the stove. There is at least a hundred feet distance between the dining table and the stove. Ronita stood up and came to her brother. Ronita wrote all the instractions down on a piece of paper. Then she came back to her seat where she was sitting to eat KFC. Sakib came to Ronita and pulled out a chair to sit next to her. He said, you have to know this country. Here everybody works. There is no human being here who sits idly at home. I talked about you to one of my clients. He got a job for you. Let me be clear. Here nobody keeps anybody in their house free. You have to pay me rent for your room. I will take five hundred dollars from you every month.

Ronita said, okay. What kind of job have you got for me? I don’t understand what people say here. How am I going to get a job?

I understand all that. This is why I got you a job where you don’t have to speak. You will do laundry for a rich family.--said Sakib.

What does that mean?-asked Ronita.

You will wash clothes for a family using a big washing machine. After washing you will iron them and fold them nicely. You will do it twice a week and they will pay you four hundred dollars for a week. It is a very easy job. You will pay me five hundred dollars out of your monthly income. You could save eleven hundred dollars.--Sakib described the job.

When am I going to meet the family?--asked Ronita.

Tomorrow. And tomorrow will be the first day of your work. No interview required. They want to know nothing as long as you know how to get your job done. They know me and that is enough.--said Sakib.

When am I going to school if I keep working?--said Ronita.

Stop thinking about school for a while. You need to save money to go to school. Here school is terribly expensive.--said Sakib.

Ronita feels what Sakib is saying is very reasonable. She really needs to know people outside of this house. People mean foreigner white people. Ronita is not really ready to meet them. But this is her fate. She has to get on the clock. She said, whatever you say. You have the best interests for me.

Tomorrow I will show you how to use the washing machine at your job. You may write all instructions down on a piece of paper. The people who you are going to work for are very nice. I take the man of the family to the city every week. I have known him for ten years.--said Sakib.

The whole job thing makes Ronita fearful. What if she messed up with the job? What if her brother refuses to keep her in his house? Ronita started crying and said, I am so scared. How am I going to come back to this house after work?

First few weeks I will pick you up from your work. You have to learn bus routes. Bus will bring you home after you know how to take a bus ride. And don’t cry. I am not going to leave you no matter what. --said Sakib.

Ronita, life is not fear. When I was your age, I went to war to liberate my home country. After liberation the country gave me medals and trophies but no job. I immigrated with my family seeking asylum, saying my life is not safe in my country since I killed many people who were anti-independent during the war. Boom. My entire family of twelve immigrated to Canada like 1, 2, 3. Since then I feel like I am a gypsy. I don’t have a country. I couldn’t even finish high school. But I survived gloriously. Only God knows why I am surviving for what cause. Nothing inspires me. But I am the one who is holding you here. There are tiny tiny causes here and there.--said Sakib.

Ronita looked at Sakib while projecting her full eyesight on him. She understands everyone has their own struggle. Sakib is her dad’s side of aunt’s son. Ronita asked, why don’t you live in Canada?

I don’t like living with my family. Here I am living illegally. A Canadian can live here for a short time only. But I made it long term. If a cop catches me and sends me to Canada, I am okay with it. All my other family members are doing fine in Canada. Whenever they like to work, work and if they don’t work they have government support. I myself like it here better.--said Sakib.

It is not nice not liking your family.--said Ronita.

It is horrible neglecting your very self.--said Sakib.

I really want to grow through myself. There must be a way. It just happens that I don’t know it now.--said Ronita.

No matter how big you grow you always have to come back to your early pain. There is no escape.--said Sakib.

Let me figure that out.--said Ronita.

Next day at ten o’clock in the morning Ronita came to her job. Washing part was not that bad. But ironing two hundred pieces of clothes was really something. However Ronita finished her first day of work successfully. Since she doesn’t speak much English, no one didn’t bugged her with asking questions. Slowly she learned how to get home on the bus. She saved a good number of thousand dollars. She kept her saved money in her room. Only God can know where her safety locker is. One day when she put the clothes in the washer, her lady boss came into the picture and asked if she was thinking about going to school to learn English. Ronita said she would love to go to school because she had plenty of time to do that. The lady gave Ronita the address of City Hall. Boom! Ronita begins to know people like her who came from another culture. One of them asked If Ronita had any social security number. Ronita said no in answer. Then the person asked her how she came to the country. When he got to know that Ronita’s passport is marked as a permanent resident, he asked him to go to the social security office. He suggested not letting this be known to his cousin. Ronita got her social security number and opened a bank account without the acknowledgment of Sakib. Ronita is informed that she needs to have a green card and for that she has to apply online by putting her information and giving fees. She needs professional help. Even though she didn’t let Sakib know about what she was up to. Sakib senses that something is going on with Ronita which is kept from him. One weekend morning when Ronita had no work and her brother was still at home, Sakib came to Ronita and asked, do you need any immigration help? I know a very good law office that can help you.

Ronita replied, yes, I have to apply for a green card.

Do you have your social security card?--asked Sakib.

Yes, I went to the social security office. They sent me my card by mail last week. I have a state ID too.--replied Ronita.

Who advised you to do that?--asked Sakib.

People in the City Hall.--Ronita replied.

Who advised you to go to City Hall?--asked Sakib.

Lady who I work for.--said Ronita.

Sakib came very close to Ronita who was sitting on a couch in the living room and said, no wonder why you are my cousin. You can do things independently. Let’s do the green card application with the help of a lawyer. Immigration stuff is very messy. Once you make a mistake you suffer forever. What day is good for you? I am going to make an appointment with the law office.

Ronita said, Tuesday.

Sakib made a phone call right away and set the date for coming Tuesday at 3 pm. Ronita is so pleased seeing his quick action. She asked Sakib if he wants a cup of masala tea? She learned how to make the best masala tea. Sakib said yes to her offer. Ronita went to the kitchen to make the masala tea. She asked Sakib if he was off of work today. Sakib described how his work works. He is always on call. He doesn’t know when his call is coming to pick someone up or drop someone off. But he can refuse to work meaning he can ignore a call. It is all up to him how many trips he wants to make in a day. After putting up his job description he asked, why do you ask?

Ronita said, I need to buy some stuff for myself. I am thinking of going to the mall with you.

Let’s go to the mall after tea. Today is all for you. I am not working today.

Ronita turned her head towards Sakib and smiled sweetly. She said, thank you.

By now Ronital is very much used to this new kitchen. She actually cooks for her and for Sakib. Sakib avoids oily food. So Ronita has to learn how to cook baked food. She uses the oven more than the stove. Ronita’s masala tea is ready. She served it in earthy cups which she brought from her home country. Ronita is so pleased to see the look of her serving cups. Sakib praised Ronita’s taste while he took the cup from Ronita. He said, Ronita, you are very talented. I like everything you do and choose. Only talented ones can keep people captivated.

In reply Ronita said, I like you a lot too. I don’t know your secret but you look very young for your age. I have a feeling you use Chinese herbal medicine to stay young.

No Chinese medicine. I just don’t eat oily and fried foods. Besides that I always follow my heart. Following my heart is the main reason I stay young. I also choose the right outfits for me. Your dress plans and get ups have a lot to do with your look.--said Sakib.

I agree with you. I never had enough money to buy something nice for me. Now I have money. I can use it all for myself.--said Ronita.

You should save your money for your education. I will buy anything you want for yourself. I have enough money to keep you like a princess.--said Sakib.

Ronita is sipping her tea with a world of wonderment in her heart. It just doesn’t make sense why a princess has to pay for her castle. She is not giving herself any permission to think about any odds. It feels great to be spoiled by someone. Today Ronita will shop with her heart out. After tea they both left the house for a mall. The biggest mall of this state is an hour drive away. In the car Sakib played all beautiful romantic songs. When freeway speed and music combine, it is a different