Some days in the Community I awoke thinking I would never see Ummi again, have a lollipop, or chew bubble gum until my jaws hurt, which Imam Isa forbade, saying it contained pork. I wanted to watch cartoons in a living room with my parents sitting behind me on a sofa. I wanted her to say she loved me loud enough for the Ums to hear. But Ummi didn’t say I love you out loud, which made me think those words were meant only for me. Her eyes watered during this meeting, turned into a well of emotions that trapped something helpless. This sorrow, this drowning, became the way we communicated.
