15
Canned fruits and vegetables lined the shelves, simple cylinders,
solid geometries wrapped in paper. Next came the soups, not just clas-
sic red-and-white Campbell’s but many brands: Healthy Choice, Pepperidge
Farm, Progresso, Pritikin, Amy’s organic. Poor Andy Warhol, thought
Daniel. He probably never dreamed such variety would ever exist in America.
Daniel visited the Food Lion out on Richmond Road every week, and the
supermarket had become invisible to him years ago. The sunless white light
was as dreary as the light inside a refrigerator. The place was chilly like a re-
frigerator, too. But just knowing that Abbas might shop here made Daniel see
it through new eyes, foreign eyes. The miles of aisles became very new and
pop. Daniel even noticed the Muzak: “You Light Up My Life” at the moment.
“Toilet paper?” said Zack, coming alongside with the half-loaded grocery
cart. “One family pack or two?”
“Just one. We still got part of a pack left from last week. We don’t seem to
shit as much as we used to.”
Zack made a face. The doctor disliked talk about feces, farts, and vomit.
“Oh, Jane and Jack called today. Their Halloween party is coming up.”
“Already? Yeah, it’s October. Thank God they don’t throw costume par-
ties anymore. Damn, I hate costume parties. Everyone dresses up as who they
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C h r i s t o p h e r B r a m
secretly want to be. It’s just too weird standing in a room full of private fan-
tasies.”
“You say that every year. And every year you complain afterwards that
people are too boring to dress up anymore.”
Daniel pleaded guilty with a smirk. “You can’t always get what you want.”
They came to the air-cooled display of luncheon meats.
“No more liverwurst,” said Daniel. “You don’t eat it and it stinks up the
refrigerator. Get the turkey. It’s better for your cholesterol.”
Zack tossed a packet in the cart. “Also, Jane wants us to make sure the Ro-
hanis are there.”
“Us? Why us? Do people think we own the Rohanis?”
“I don’t know. Do they?”
Daniel nervously looked around. “You don’t have to worry about that.
Nobody notices a damn thing in the department.”
“I’m not worried. I’m just asking. But it’s a small school in a small town.
Hard to imagine people don’t pick up some kind of vibe.”
“You underestimate their self-absorption. Their total incuriosity.” They
continued along the back wall to the dairy section. “Did she come by today?”
“No. Did you expect her to?”
“Wasn’t it last Tuesday she came by?”
“No, last Monday.” Zack paused. “I don’t see her as regularly as you see
him.”
“You don’t have to take that tone.”
“There was no tone. I was just being factual.”
“I can hear you thinking.”
Zack smiled. “You’re just hearing your guilty conscience.”
Good one, thought Daniel. He couldn’t help chuckling. “I’m not guilty.
Really. Although you must want me to feel guilty, telling me how she was once
a political prisoner.”
“No. I said only that their lives have been different from ours and you
must be careful. They have different expectations. Different priorities. Let’s
get two things of orange juice.”
“I’m bored with orange juice. Let’s get a grapefruit juice.”
E x i l e s i n A m e r i c a
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They turned the corner into the produce aisle. The right front wheel on
the cart began to wobble and flutter, like a nerve tremor.
And there, ten yards ahead of them, in profile beside the sloping bins of
cabbages and carrots, stood Elena Rohani.
It was uncanny. It felt like more than a coincidence, as if Daniel had sensed
Elena here and that was why he’d been talking about her.
She didn’t see them yet. Daniel saw nobody else. Then he noticed Osh
folded up in the rack under the cart, playing some kind of kid game with him-
self. Mina stood a few feet off, examining the toe of her shiny red shoe, em-
barrassed by her baby brother.
“Speak of the devil,” muttered Daniel.
“She’s hardly the devil,” Zack said softly.
The kids looked perfectly American, yet their austerely elegant mother
was much too exotic for Food Lion. A cashmere scarf circling her neck, she
gazed at the milky green cabbage in her hand as if it were a skull.
“Let’s turn around,” said Daniel. “We don’t need to say hello.”
“She’ll have noticed us,” said Zack. “You don’t want her to think we’re