The Lines We Cross
Page 25
From seas that wanted to swallow me
And prisons that wanted to disappear me
From places other people will travel to
With travel blogs, and itineraries highlighted in fluorescent Sharpies,
and Instagram accounts that show how they “found themselves”
In places some people are allowed to visit
While others are never allowed to leave.
The exotic are a short drive up the road
Zip codes vending an experience of elsewhere
But without the frequent flyer points and itinerary
They are just ghettos.
When you feel like a dandelion
Just a wish from being blown away
When you feel like a spice
Just a sprinkle of flavor to your taste
When you feel like a souvenir
In a bazaar of identity that peddles fear
You feel
That you must carve yourself out of resistance
But then some people showed me:
That anger is good
But with action it is better.
That remembering is good
But with hope it is better.
That change is good
But with discovery it is better.
That questioning is good
But with trust it is better.
That resisting is good
But sometimes those you resist do not matter.
And that standing up is good
But standing up alongside others is better.
Thunderous applause, like a storm has erupted, the sound of rain crashing down onto the top of a tin roof. It washes over me like a midday rainstorm. It’s pure and beautiful and I’ve never felt so alive.
I search the audience for Paula and Michael. They’re grinning, clapping wildly.
Michael’s eyes meet mine.
He thinks he’s learned from me. He’s wrong. It’s me who’s learned from him.
He’s taught me to never give up on anybody.
Thank you, Mobinah Ahmed, Asme and May Fahmi, Annarose Zayied, and Sara Saleh for Facebook-status-inspired hilarities, geekiness, and anecdotes. Like the Eye of Sauron, I am watching (and yes, sometimes using) you all. And I think you love it.
Thank you to the Bankstown Poetry Slam for inspiring parts of Paula and Mina’s journey.
Thank you to Mariam Veiszadeh for clarifying Afghan words and customs for me. Any errors are my own.
Thank you to Zeinab and Sumaia El-Kadomi for the music. What a difference it made.
Thank you to Peter Gould for advice on general tech and gaming geekiness and for almost getting me hooked on AR blogs.
I am so incredibly lucky and honored to be publishing this book with Scholastic US. Thank you, Lisa Sandell, for believing in my work after all these years.
Last but not least, thank you to my family for your constant support and encouragement, without which nothing would be possible.
Randa Abdel-Fattah is an award-winning author, former attorney, and an expert on Islamophobia in Australia. She is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Does My Head Look Big In This? and Ten Things I Hate About Me, as well as the middle-grade novel Where the Streets Had a Name. Ms. Abdel-Fattah lives in Sydney, Australia, with her husband and their children.
Does My Head Look Big In This?
Ten Things I Hate About Me
Where the Streets Had a Name
Copyright © 2017 Randa Abdel-Fattah
First published in 2016 in Australia by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd
1 Market Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 2000
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, SCHOLASTIC PRESS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Abdel-Fattah, Randa, author.
Title: The lines we cross / Randa Abdel-Fattah.
Other titles: When Michael met Mina Description: First [United States] edition. | New York : Scholastic Press, 2017. | “First published 2016 in Pan by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd … Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.” | Summary: Michael’s parents are leaders of a new anti-immigrant political party called Aussie Values which is trying to halt the flood of refugees from the Middle East; Mina fled Afghanistan with her family ten years ago, and just wants to concentrate on fitting in and getting into college—but the mutual attraction they feel demands that they come to terms with their family’s concerns and decide where they stand in the ugly anti-Muslim politics of the time.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016040576 | ISBN 9781338118667
Subjects: LCSH: Refugees—Australia—Juvenile fiction. | Muslim families—Australia—Juvenile fiction. | Families—Australia—Juvenile fiction. | Interpersonal attraction—Juvenile fiction. | Australia—Ethnic relations—Juvenile fiction. | Australia—Politics and government—21st century—Juvenile literature. | CYAC: Refugees—Fiction. | Emigration and immigration—Fiction. | Muslims—Australia—Fiction. | Family life—Australia—Fiction. | Love—Fiction. | Ethnic relations—Fiction. | Australia—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.A15892 Li 2017 | DDC 823.92 [Fic]—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016040576
First edition, May 2017
Cover design by Maeve Norton
e-ISBN 978-1-338-11867-4
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.