Excerpt from Beneath the Same Heaven

The house must be bugged, the FBI would not have spent so much time questioning me only to let me go freely. I imagine that all of my actions are being observed, I start to feel self conscious. What happens if they know I am aware of their surveillance? What are they expecting to see me do? How long have the cameras been here?

I slide off the counter and stand in front of the stove as if an actor on a stage. I smooth my hair with my fingers, brush the dust off my pants. I clear my throat and address the stove. “If you’re observing me, let me just tell you directly. I know nothing I have already told you…. “ “So stop watching me. I have nothing you want. I’m just trying to start a new life, to raise my boys. Leave me alone!”

In the silence that follows, the stove does not respond, my imagined audience does not react. How absurd I must seem, addressing an appliance.