Clap When You Land

by Elizabeth Acevedo

Can you be from a place you have never been?

I’m the child her father left her for in the summers. While she is the child my father left me for my entire life.

But one thing I learned from the Saints, when the crossroads are open to you, you must decide a path. I will not stand still while the world makes my choices.

The patron saint of the ocean is known for containing many parts of herself: she is a nurturer, but she is also a ferocious defender. & so I remember that to walk this world you must be kind but also fierce.

Is this what sisterhood is? A negotiation of the things you make possible out of impossible requests?

I know what ugly looks like when it departs from your mouth fully formed. How the words can push space between two people; how it’s close to impossible to collapse that space.

“They don’t do that as much anymore. This must be a plane of Dominicans returning home; when you touch down on this soil, you must clap when you land. Para dar gracias a dios. Regrezamos.” & I smiled back.

Does anyone ever want to leave their home? The fresh fruit that drops from their backyard? The neighbors who wiped their snot? Does anyone ever want to believe they won’t come back?