When I was about 25 years old, my Indian
boyfriend of two and a half years left for an arranged marriage back in India. We stayed together
until 4:00 a.m. on the morning of his flight to India. We both held
each other and cried for, what felt like, hours. When it was finally time for
him to leave, I told him that if he changed his mind, even while in India, to
call me, and I would drop everything and fly there to marry him. His final
words to me were, “Good luck,” and off he went.
As the months passed by, I regularly
frequented a local organic vegetarian restaurant that was down the road from my
house. I was a busy girl with several work contracts on the go, and cooking for
one didn’t really appeal to me, so I can say, without exaggeration, that I ate
there, between lunches and dinners, easily eight or nine times per week. As a
result, I was obviously classed as a “regular” and, thus, got to know the staff
very well. After a while, I began a regular practice of going to the restaurant
right before closing because it was a much calmer, quieter atmosphere to eat in,
and, often, I would get my meal for free, because it was just going to be
thrown out, anyway. The young man who worked at the cash would let me stay and
eat while he cleaned up and closed down the shop. Naturally, we began to
converse on a regular basis. He appeared to be quite a bit younger than me, but
he was intriguing, nonetheless. He came from Morocco, was Muslim and had a very
thick accent. Despite our cultural differences, we seemed to relate, on some
level. Sometimes he would sit and have tea with me, while I ate my supper. This
eventually turned into him taking me for lunch on Fridays. He had Fridays off
because he respected the Islamic day of prayer and attended the mosque
that day. After prayer, we would meet up at various Moroccan
or Turkish restaurants around town for lunch. Our conversations were long and interesting.
To me, he was someone different, and I learned things from him. I have always
been very open to other people’s traditions and practices. I find them fascinating
and interesting.
That summer, I decided to list my townhouse
for sale. I felt that the market had reached its peak, and I would likely never
get much more for that particular house than at that very moment, so I listed
it, and I was right. It sold in one day for full price! The only condition was
that the buyer have the opportunity to view the inside of the house within 24
hours of making the offer. That means the buyer drove by, saw the For Sale
sign, called immediately and made an offer of whatever the selling price was
without having ever seen the inside. I, obviously, accepted the offer and
graciously welcomed them into my home that evening for an official showing.
Within a couple of days, the deal was done. There was only one problem: I had
nowhere to live.
The next night, while enjoying my supper
with Moroccan Man, I told him of my predicament.
“Why don’t you move into my building,” he
said. “It’s just down the road.”
“That’s a fine idea, but I don’t want to
waste my money on rent. I need to buy a place soon, so I don’t throw all of my
profits away on rent,” I explained.
“Well, it wouldn’t cost that much because
you could share an apartment with me. Right now, I live with my brother. I
could move in with you, and one of my friends could move in with my brother.
That way, you would pay only half the rent, and it’s cheap.”
He provided an interesting argument.
“OK. Let me call tomorrow, and see if they
have any empty units available,” I say.
The next day, we met again at the end of the
day, and I ate my supper while he cleaned up the restaurant.
“Hey, I was thinking I can’t move in with
you unless I am married to you, because I am Muslim,” he says so nonchalantly,
like this never dawned on him before.
“Oh. Well, I guess we’re not moving in
together then,” I say.
“Well, we could get married,” he says.
I am somehow only a little shocked by this
statement. What’s more shocking is I am actually considering it. At this
particular point in my life, I feel I have just been abandoned by the man I so dearly
loved and was willing to give up everything for, for him to go to an arranged
marriage. I am feeling particularly insecure about myself, and here is a man
willing to marry me at the drop of a hat. Somewhere in the back of my mind,
this makes me feel safe. Safe that, at least, there is someone out there who
wants me, and I won’t end up alone.
I ponder the proposal a little more. Can we
even call it a proposal?
“Well, what do you mean,” I dare to delve a
little deeper.
“It’s not a big deal. We just have to go the
Mosque and say a few words, and then it’s legitimate in my religion for me to
live with you. I do love you,” he says.
This, too, should shock me, but it doesn’t
because, I think, a few nights prior, when he hugged me goodbye, he whispered,
“I love you.” I was in shock then, so I jumped in my car and drove off without
a response. I mean, what am I supposed to say? He’s the cashier at my favourite
restaurant that I eat lunch with on Fridays. I wouldn’t even say he’s my
boyfriend.
I ponder it a little more while he cleans up
the restaurant. I have learned a hell of a lot about arranged marriages in the
past little while, and, what I have come to accept is that there is no “one
person” out there for you. Basically you can marry pretty much anyone, and make
it work, if you really want to. Arranged marriages are built on a mutual
respect that eventually cultivates into love. That’s the theory, anyway. I’m
not so sure it actually goes that smoothly in practice. Anyway, I conclude that
if my Indian Lover Boy can marry a stranger and make it work, so can I.
Decision made. I will marry Moroccan Man
next Wednesday. After all, it’s not a “real” marriage. It’s just an exchange of
words in a Mosque, right?
Over the coming days, I begin the
preparations. The preparations are nothing except that I must inform my father
that his presence is required, because I am not Muslim, and he must grant
permission for the union. Without missing a beat, my father agrees to be there,
no questions asked. He had met Moroccan Man a few times before, and like me, he
finds most people interesting. He is a very sensitive man, and most people can
find a way to play on his heartstrings, on some level. I think the fact that
Moroccan Man had left the land he knew so well, abandoned his family and those
he loved to come to a new country in hopes of a better life where he was
unfamiliar with the language and carried not a dime in his pocket found a few
heartstrings to play in my father’s heart.
So on Wednesday, just as planned, we all
piled into my father’s pickup truck and headed to the Mosque. There was me, my
dad, Moroccan Man, and Moroccan Man’s friend to act as the witness on his side.
When we arrived at the mosque, me clad in my usual Nikes, T-shirt and cargo
pants, I started to feel anxious. I realized I didn’t know how to behave in a
Mosque. Nor did I know what was culturally acceptable for women and what was
not in a Holy place such as this. I did come prepared with a scarf to cover my
hair, but it kept sliding off, and, somehow, in all my cultural discussions, I
had never learned how to fasten a hijab to one’s head properly. What made it
worse was that everyone was speaking Arabic, and I had no clue what was going
on, where I was supposed to go, or what I supposed to do. I felt alone, even
though there were people all around me, but they were not like me. Eventually,
we were all guided into a room where we were to convene on the floor. We took
our respective places, and the “ceremony” began.
First, the religious leader, known as a
“Sheikh” in Islam, asked for our identification. Moroccan Man’s friend quickly
jumped in to say something in Arabic. Even though I only know about 10 Arabic
words, it was clear that Mo Man’s friend was trying to explain that we had to
skip this step, and not to worry, that it was all good. In the moment, I didn’t
quite understand, but I now know that it is illegal to perform a marriage
without proper identification—but when you are an illegal immigrant in this
country, you don’t have any valid identification to show! It was clear that the
Sheikh understood. Again, at the time, I had no clue what was happening, but I
now know that the Sheikh was being told, in not so many words, that the man he
is about to marry to this white woman is an illegal immigrant, and, by
performing this marriage, he is helping a poor Muslim boy gain a piece of
freedom, and, as such, he is aiding in the advancement of all mankind. “Man”
being the operative word here. I’m giving the poor old Sheikh the benefit of
the doubt here, because I am almost certain he never intended to make my life
the living hell it turned out to be after leaving the Mosque that fine sunny
Wednesday.
When the ceremony was over, I felt
completely overwhelmed by everything. We all walked outside, and when the sun
hit me, and I breathed in the fresh air, I was overcome with tears. I just
started sobbing. At the time, I couldn’t put my finger on why I was so sad, or
even if sad was the actual emotion I was feeling. Today, I can only explain it
as a state of lunacy or temporary madness that I was experiencing. All of it as
a result of poor self-esteem, unfortunately. I was so upset I told my dad to go
home on his own, and I would take public transportation home. I just
wanted to be alone, to clear my head a bit. Of course, my new husband
accompanied me on the bus and tried to console me by telling me I was just
going through the usual shock of being married. I can’t remember what I did the
rest of the day because it’s all a blur now.
That was August 4. On August 23, I started
the first day of, what would be, my last period for the next nine months.