"So, Kassim, you mean to tell me that you're an illegal immigrant?" Zara Desmarais said softly, and the young tomboy looked anxiously at the young man who sat opposite her. Inside the crowded Eaton Shopping Center food court in downtown Toronto, thousands of people milled about, embarking on lengthy shopping sprees. Once upon a time, Zara Desmarais, a small-town gal originally from Calling Lake, Alberta, ancestral home of the Bigstone Cree First Nation, would have felt fascinated, or even intimidated by such a crowd. Not anymore...
"Um, I prefer the term undocumented immigrant," Kassim replied, and the young Djiboutian Muslim sighed deeply, and closed his eyes, hard. Zara licked her lips and looked at Kassim, unsure how to react. She had known Kassim Osman since first year at Ryerson University, and thought of him as a brilliant, hard-working and friendly guy with a wicked sense of humor. To see him crestfallen like this irked Zara, more than she cared to admit...
"So, unless the Canadian immigration authorities grant you refugee status at this hearing with the judge, you're going to get sent back to Djibouti?" Zara asked, and Kassim nodded somberly. A faraway look crept into his handsome face. Looking out at the vast food court, Kassim admired the men and women going about their day, oblivious to his very own private hell. They looked so damn happy and carefree. It just wasn't fair...
"Yeah, Zara, my whole damn life hinges on what some old white dude in a judge's robes has to say," Kassim said, somewhat angrily, and as he rose abruptly, several people seated at nearby tables gawked at them. Zara flashed them a smile, and took a deep breath. Although she pleaded with Kassim to sit back down, the tall, burly young man shook his head and walked out abruptly...
"I'm out, see you later, Zara," Kassim hollered as he made his way to the nearby escalators. All of a sudden, he felt sick of the Eaton Center, sick of these happy, smiley-faced people, and of the whole damn world, come to think of it. Kassim left the Eaton Center, and headed for the streets. Yonge Street was busy as usual, and for once, he was happy to lose himself in the crowd.
As Kassim walked the streets, he thought of all the twists and turns his life had taken lately. Born in the City of Tadjoura, the oldest metropolis in the nation of Djibouti, Kassim moved to the suburb of Mississauga, Ontario, with his parents Ahmed and Fatouma Osman. They were sent back to Somalia a few years later by the Canadian immigration authorities, and died during the conflict pitting the various rebel groups against the remnants of the Somali government.
Distraught after the tragic loss of his parents, Kassim was raised by his paternal aunt Khadija Osman. The young Djiboutian led a sheltered life in Mississauga, and at first he thought it was because his aunt was overprotective. After graduating from Martin Luther King Academy, Kassim Osman applied to the prestigious Ryerson University, and got in. Thrilled by the prospect of university life, the young man yearned to assert his independence, until his aunt told him the awful truth...
"Your parents came to Canada with falsified documents, that's why the Canadian immigration authorities sent them back, and that's why I was never able to legally adopt you, you've got no legal papers beyond your academic record at MLK Academy and your Ontario health card," Aunt Khadija confessed to Kassim. Upon hearing these words, Kassim stared at his aunt as though she had two heads. The young man could not believe his ears...
The old Djiboutian-Canadian nurse sat her nephew down, the night before he was to begin his freshman year at Ryerson University, and made the revelations that shattered his world forever. Kassim remembered staring at his aunt, astonished. He kept waiting for her to tell him that she was joking, but one look into her somber brown eyes and he knew that the old lady who raised him was dead serious...
"What's going to become of me?" Kassim asked Aunt Khadija, who gently touched his shoulder and shook her head. Having raised her nephew since his parents tragic death, Khadija Osman considered Kassim the son that she never had. The son she would have had if her husband Ali hadn't gotten himself killed during a bar fight in Ajax more than two decades ago. Khadija never remarried, and after becoming Kassim's caretaker, although she had a few relationships, raising her nephew became her priority...
"You're going to go to Ryerson and shine, my son, we'll get a lawyer or something and find a way around this immigration mess," Aunt Khadija said reassuringly to her distraught nephew, and Kassim Osman nodded. Thus the young man began his higher education journey at Ryerson University, where he majored in civil engineering. Along the way, Kassim met Zara Desmarais, a newcomer to the Greater Toronto Area by way of Alberta. Although they hailed from different worlds and completely different environments, Zara and Kassim became fast friends...
Kassim sat at a bench inside Trinity Square Park, and looked at his surroundings. He looked at the Anglican Church of the Holy Trinity, an old edifice he once visited with Zara. Like a lot of First Nations people, Zara was raised a Roman Catholic. Although he was brought up in Islam, Kassim grew to respect Catholicism due to his friendship with Zara. The young Cree woman's devotion to her faith reminded Kassim of the pious Hijabis he often saw at the mosque or at Islamic community events...
"I knew I'd find you here," came a feminine voice, jarring Kassim out of his little trip down memory lane. Kassim looked up and gasped, surprised to see a certain tall, curvy, dark-haired and bronze-skinned young Cree woman standing only a meter from him, hands on her hips. With a wry grin on her lovely face, Zara looked at Kassim, decidedly bemused.
Decked out in a long-sleeved black T-shirt featuring Hollywood actress and singer Rihanna, blue jeans and black leather boots, plus her signature black fedora, Zara Desmarais looked like an urban reincarnation of a Western frontierswoman. You can take the gal out of Alberta but you can't take Alberta out of the gal, Kassim thought. Dammit, how could he have been so lost in thought as to fail to notice Zara sneaking up on him?
"Um, hey, Zara, sorry about what happened earlier," Kassim blurted out, and Zara smiled and shook her head. They were a few months away from graduating in their respective programs at Ryerson University, and had been friends for four years, but Kassim could still fool himself into thinking he could surprise her. After knowing him for a few months, Zara knew her favorite Djiboutian like the back of her hand...