An Illegal Alien's Strangest Tale

"It is a true story," I concluded.

"I believe you Ranjit," said my manager. "You are several shades fairer than you were when you disappeared. You have surely been living in dark places for some time. And you have put on fat to testify to the diet you have been having. As for sex I am not surprised that the woman has fallen for a man as handsome as you are. There is no doubt that your captors are criminals with great resources. I have no explanations for what happened, but one thing I am dead sure, you have to get away today itself. Do not leave this room till I take you to the Greyhound bus station. I will have to make some phone calls to find out where to send you." I got the feeling that the manager was dealing with me as if I was a live bomb and was frantically trying to get rid of me.

This illegal alien network must be a very extensive one for within an hour he got a place for me in a city a little short of thousand miles away. Later in the afternoon I was in a Greyhound bus on my way to my new master. The next three days I lived on hamburgers and cheeseburgers. There were times when I wished I was back in my dark prison eating the best Indian food available in the US.

I was now a helper in a grocery store. I worked there for three years. I was doing well. I was not an illegal alien but had a working visa and I was able to send money to my family and I was happy to find my sisters in college. There is not a day when I did not think of Amy and all that had happened. I could find no answer to the puzzle. I thought it was destined never to know the answers but I was mistaken.

The halls of grocery stores in this country as you know are as large as football fields. The miles of shelves are filled with endless varieties of vegetables, meat products, canned good, milk and cheese and ice cream and so on. My duty was to stock the shelves as they get depleted. Finding me an intelligent worker the manager promoted me to the job not only of restocking but also alerting him if some item is depleting quicker than expected. To these managers the term 'out of stock' is not acceptable. Over stocking they frown upon. Now you will understand the tight wire I have stepped on.

There are no walls in these vast halls. Shelves facing adjacent aisles are the partitions. The top shelf is high enough for the average customer to handle the goods which is about six feet. The top of two rows of shelves forming the 'wall' is broad and is used for placing reserve stocks of goods meant for the shelves below. My colleagues and I use portable ladders to handle these boxes. One afternoon I was examining stocks of jams and preserves when I heard a voice in the next isle that first stopped my heart and then sent it racing crazily. 'No Lori, don't meddle with those boxes,' said the voice. I had no doubt that it was Amy's. I stood frozen for a while and then I recovered my cool. I placed the portable ladder and tilting the baseball cap I always wore forwards to cover my eyes I climbed up gingerly. When my eyes were over the wall I saw two women.

One was above average height, big of size and with a large head. She had the piercing eyes of a sergeant major. No way could she be the owner of that voice. The other was of average build, fair with jet back hair, long nose and large eyes. The bigger woman was European in appearance but the other was not European, or Hispanic, or Indian. My guess was she could be from the Middle East. Was she my Amy? When I was with her I had made note of two features that may be of use to indentify her if such an opportunity should occur. Her right tragus was partly split and she had a small raised mole at the angle of the right jaw. At the moment the left side of her face was turned towards me. I had to wait till I could see the right side. She turned and I saw both, the split tragus and the raised mole on the jaw. She was my Amy and she was pretty by any standard. But of the baby there was no sign.

There some movement behind a bundle wrappers and a two year old girl appeared. It ran to Amy who carried her and hugged her. Was this the most beautiful child I have ever seen my baby? The group moved away and I climbed down. I did not want to be there in case they walked up the aisle I was in. I followed them discretely. Lori was full of mischief keeping her mother fully engaged in running after her. Soon they were checking out. No sooner had they disappeared I got their name, address and telephone number from the check out. Amy lived just three blocks away in an independent house.

In India one can get any information one cares to have about anyone from the neighbours, top servant woman, the postman and street corner ironing men. In this country none of these modern conveniences are available. Even if you get to speak to the neighbours they quite honestly know next to nothing about those who live next door. The only information I was able to gather was that the three had moved in a week ago and that there were no men in the house. Much is made of grocery stores revealing information about its customers. I always wonder what important inference one can glean from the number of bottles of whisky a customer purchases. Amy's purchases in our store were pretty normal.

A week later I had an additional bit of news that did not sound good. There were visitors twice and on both occasions the visitors came at midnight and left at two in the morning. Amy came to our store about twice a week, never unaccompanied by the friend and of course Lori, never on the same days of the week or even at specified times. It is possible that I could have missed them when I was off duty. I of course never used my colleagues to keep an eye for their appearance. This went on for about three weeks. By this time I had my plans made. It was my strong feeling that Amy would give much to get away from the shady characters she was now associated with. My plan was to get her alone (not easy I had to admit) and ask her to come away with me to India. In the event it was Amy who made the move.

One mid afternoon I was in my office absorbed in some paper work.

"Ranjit." My heart stopped. It was Amy.

"Amy," I said and got up.

"Don't get up. Stay where you are," she firmly but smiling the while. "I have been noticing you spying on me. Luckily Sarah has not. Only today I got the chance to come alone. I warn you once again."

She stood there with a friendly smile but her body language was such that there was no opening even for hand holding leave alone a hug.

"Where is Lori?" Amy stepped out of the room and brought her in.

"Your daughter," she said formally introducing me. "You can carry her if she will allow. She never does to strangers." But I was no stranger. I was her father. She came and sat on my lap and snuggled in my arm and without demur accepted my kisses. This was the greatest moment in my life.

"Come away with me Amy we will go away to India. Get away from the people you are now with."

"No way Ranjit. Please hear my story. You said you came in a container truck. I did it in the cargo hold of a ship. Here there were people ready to exploit me but Sarah saved me from the worst thing that can happen to a woman. She fell in love with me. Please understand Ranjit that Sarah and I are deeply in love. We are gays. I did not know that Sarah and her friends lived outside the law. But I think my present lot is better that the other one. We wanted to have a baby. No adoption agency was willing to give us one. Sarah wanted me to bear one by therapeutics insemination. I was sufficiently bisexual to want a man to do it. Sarah is very possessive and very suspicious. She is not a person to share me with another man or woman. I was adamant that if I bear a child it must be by the natural process.

"She finally gave in but imposed difficult conditions: The man must remain a stranger and after the job is done he must disappear. If he did not on his own then she will do it for him. She meant it. The conditions she had laid out seemed difficult to achieve. I thought and thought and came up with the plan you know so well. Sarah agreed that she could work it. I had been watching you for some time in your rounds. You were just what I had in mind. You may or may not be pleased to hear it but men like you in physical form are not easy to come by. The rest you know. I asked you to go away for Sarah can be terrible."

"Now what do you want me to do. Once on your advice I moved a thousand miles. You want me to do so again?" I was angry and did not try to hide it. She laughed.

"You need not move; we are going in two days time. Till then keep away. Please report sick and do not leave your room for two days. That's all I want you to do. Now I am going. I am already late."

"But I want the baby,"

"Marry a Punjabi girl and produce one."

"I do not want a Punjabi girl. I do not want a Punjabi baby. I want Lori."

Amy had Lori in her arms. She was moving away.

"Say bye," she said and Lori waved. "If you want one like Lori marry an Armenian," she said and was gone.

4

The map on the monitor marked the plane over the Western coast of North America. I peered through the port hole. The coast and the Pacific beating on it were clearly visible in the sun drenched picture.

Ranjit was looking miserable.

"Did you leave it at that?" I asked

"Yes. I had to. I saw no love light in Amy's eyes. Not a flicker. She used me for her purpose and once she had what she desired she wanted me out, well and truly out of her life. She wished me well but nothing more. After four years I went home and married a cousin. I have a daughter."

"Anyway you are left with a nice story to tell."

"What's the use? No one believes me."

*

Published 3 years ago in another blog site with a different title. The story is by the author.