"You don't know, you're on the glass side." Tarek, who was arrested and locked up at the immigration office, said this excitedly to Walter who came to visit. He shed tears and told the old professor his worries and the people around him. They were taken away one by one, and they didn’t even know where they would be taken. Those who were lucky might be other immigration offices, and those who were less likely would be sent back immediately. He said it's not fair, he cried and said, I'm a good person, I'm not some kind of terrorist, even terrorists have rich people behind them, why would they do this to me.
Mouna
couldn't contact her son tarek, and she came to his New York apartment from Michigan to find him, and only heard from Walter. She begged him to take herself to the place where her son was being held, even though he was also an illegal resident and could not go in to visit him. She told Walter that America is her home now. In the taxi, she leaned on Walter's shoulder and cried when she heard that her son had been sent back. Back home, she told Walter to go back to be with her son. He must need his own mother.
But if she goes back, she will never come back. Even if America is home, it has to leave. Because in the end, she is still a mother.
After saying good night, she ran to his bed and he wrapped her around her and made her cry. I thought he would propose to him so she could get her green card and maybe tarek could come back.
Walter
is a tenured professor in Connecticut, where he has written books and taught for twenty years things he didn't quite understand. He met tarek and his wife in New York, and like any other American, I knew he didn't really know how to deal with people from different cultures. Tarek is a rare illegal immigrant, he treats walter like a friend, maybe music gave him the enthusiasm for life. And more people are more like his wives, and probably have experienced too many unkind encounters, are cautious about life, and don't want to suffer any harm.
After Tarek was arrested, he hired a lawyer for him, suspended his work at school, and ran back to New York, hoping to help them.
Hearing the news that tarek was sent back to his country, he tried his best to keep his sanity and ask the supervisor on the glass side for information. Maybe there is nothing he can do for them. Finally, he let go of his anger and shouted loudly to the officer across from the glass, tarek is a good man, you don't understand anything, why are you doing this!
After sending mouna off at the airport, walter's life seems to have lost its purpose again, he doesn't know what he's doing. Tarek had told him to play the drums gently and not to think about anything. At this time, he was playing drums in the subway station, the same rhythm, over and over again, getting louder and louder, blending with the subway passing in front of him. I guess in the end walter can't figure out what kind of magic in his own country can make so many people give up everything. He is on the glass side, he feels he understands a little bit, he blames the country, but ignores that he is a favored person.
QUEENS
walter and mouna go to see a middle eastern-looking American lawyer. Before leaving, mouna asked him where he was from.
"Queens." He answered without hesitation.
Flushing
is a Chinatown in New York, away from jfk, in Queens. I was taken there when I got off the plane and was surprised to find another place that looked like China. There are various local Chinese supplies there. Even if you don't speak English, you can have a life in this place.
Read the book, snakehead. It is the name directly translated from Chinese, snake head. It tells that more than ten years ago, many Chinese people went to the United States, flushed their passports in the toilet at the airport and applied for asylum, and then they could get green cards. The not-so-good name of Flushing suddenly turned ironic.
Studying at an American university with few international students, I still remember feeling helpless in the group on the first day of orientation. When you see Asian faces, you will be very excited to ask where they are from. Usually their answer will be, New York, Massachusetts. After a long time, I don't ask any more questions. All the Asian faces in the school are Americans.
It's a pity that I haven't met people like walers, probably because I've been in contact with people who haven't experienced life yet. They are former walters, and I don't know what their lives are like. I don't blame them, just get quiet. A lot of times you ask yourself, what exactly are you doing here. Of course there is no answer, thinking of the American flag in the movie that was clearly blurred.
I saw a play before, under the big top. The 4 people on both sides are from different countries. Indians call to steal credit card numbers, his nickname is happy. Bulgarian husband drives the subway, wife works with another black mother as a caregiver. I cried in the dark, I seemed to see the New York subway I loved, and I also seemed to see the black mother jumping off the platform. The lights on the stage came on, and I quietly wiped away my tears. The American people who went with them discussed the wonderful plot points, but they didn't understand it.
I am quiet. Shut up. unwilling to explain.
"You don't know at all, you're over the glass."
Finally a quote I saw outside the theater.
“Where you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to never was there, and where you are is no good unless you can get away from it. Where is there a place for you to be? No place… Nothing outside you can give you any place… In yourself right now is all the place you've got."
It's all I have now.
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