First Writing Assignment

The smell of wet grass and soil whisked up my nose. I held my mother’s hand and jerked her back. “I want to go back home. I can’t stand this place. Look all the cars are yellow!” My three year old mind and body did not understand that my parents and I immigrated from Bangladesh. We were hoping for a better life for me in New York. “Let’s go!” My mother looked at me and started to cry. She missed her whole family in Bangladesh. I did not understand her tears so I kept on whining. She took one look at me and smacked me across the face. Tears instantly streamed onto my face. My initial step was to run far away. When my mother was not looking, I quickly slipped away. I kept running and running until I reached a large body of water. “Maybe I can run away to Bangladesh,” I thought. As soon as my three year old legs got tired it instantly hit me, “O no where’s my mother?”
I looked around the area desolate and afraid. I sat down and stared hard into the body of water. I saw my reflection and the reflection of another man. I quickly turned around. “Ahhhhhhhh!! Don’t kill me!” The man started laughing. “Yep, that’s what people usually say when they see me.” I was perplexed. Why does everyone think that man will kill them? I said “Don’t kill me” because they always do that in movies. I raised my hands and said “carry me mister.” I kept on picking at his hair. “It’s called dreadlocks” he said. I compared his skin with mine. It was completely different. “Why do you look different?” I asked. He raised his eyebrow and said “Well, I look more like dark chocolate and you're light caramel. We might be different varieties but we’re still chocolate.” Wow. This guy must be a lunatic. Why would anyone be chocolate? As I think about my incident now, I laugh at how oblivious a 3 year old can be. I asked that man to take me to my mommy. He said he knows my mommy because there was a crazy lady down five blocks down looking for her child. I’m like “Yep that’s my mom!” We grew closer to my mother. I jumped in his arms with glee. He put me down and said “Go on child.” I walked two steps and I thought I should take him to my mother and ask her if we can keep him. As soon as I turned around he disappeared. I walked closer and my mother spotted me. She picked me up and marinated me with hugs and kisses. Then she quickly put me down and smacked me. “Don’t you ever do that again,” she said. I smiled. I understood that her love was tough love. When I narrated the story to my mom, dad and policeman they all nodded their heads. The cop responded by saying they should get me home and give me a bath quick. He thought I was standing too close to a black man. My dad looked at him and said things I could not even understand! But my dad was very mad at the police officer. “What’s a black man?” I said. From the officer’s tone, it sounded very scary. No one answered. “Was the chocolate man a black man. He’s not mean! So Mr. Cop are you a white man because you're light?” The officer looked at me. “I looked back at him and said “What’s the difference between white and black. I mean aren’t we all people. We are just different varieties.” My father chuckled. “Officer I think my daughter is smarter than you. We started walking and never looked back again.