Belal Mobarak - Baggage Claim

 

 

Traveling with my family was never fun if you were a kid. Every summer, we would travel to Egypt with lots of bags. We had to bring gifts for my cousins, our neighbors, our cousins' neighbors. But my parents are working class, so they had to be thrifty. Some of the gifts were old clothes, but the worst was at the airport. My parents had a system to bring those extra bags onto the flight without paying those additional fees. This is how it worked. We would get to JFK airport and my parents, my two brothers, one older, one younger, and myself and my mother would split the bags into two sets. The first set would be the suitcases we're allowed to bring and five carry-ons. The second set would be five additional bags. Then my mother would take two of usually my brothers, and they would head to the check-in and they would give the suitcases. And then my mother would say something to the check-in attendant like, "Oh, my back is killing me and I have these kids, they're just running around. Can you take these carry-ons so we don't have to carry them onto the flight?" And the person would say, "Of course we can do that. Let us take the bags for you." And so, they do. The next step would be to go to the security checkpoint, which my father takes my brothers and goes.

 

My mother wouldn't do that. She would make a U-turn, go to the end of the airport where I was, with a second set of bags, and she would give me some kind of hand signal to head over to security. And then we would both head over there nonchalant, separately, as if we're not one family. [audience chuckle] I would get to the security area. I would give each person one of the heavy bags. Security would look at us and there's no communication between security and check-in that we already gave in the carry-ons. So, security looks at us and sees each one with a bag. It's all good. They let us right through. It was terrifying, but I had to do it as a kid, and it worked every time.

 

One day in 2008, we're doing the same thing, and we're at JFK airport, and I was in charge of the extra bags. And I'm waiting for my mother to come give me the signal. And I see her coming in the distance. And behind her, I see a security guard following her. And I look at her. I look at him. She looks at me, gives me a signal to leave. So, I grab onto the cart and I start to walk away. I look back at him. He says something to her. She walks away from him like she doesn't understand English. I panic. So, I grab onto the cart and I start to run. I realize that I'm in the airport with a cart full of bags running. [audience chuckle] Not a good look for anyone, especially me. [audience chuckle] So, I panic and I run faster. I swerve through people, dodge others. I somehow lose the security guard, and I get to the security gate out of breath, and I say to myself, "This is it. I'm 20 years old. I'm an adult. I don't have to do this anymore." [audience laughter] And I declared my independence. I'm never traveling with this family ever again.

 

A few weeks later, my brother announces the next summer he's getting married in Egypt. So, I go to my mother and I tell her, "Listen, I'm an adult now, and I don't even want to travel to Egypt. But because of the wedding, I will, on one condition. I'm going alone, and I'm not taking anyone's suitcases." [audience chuckle] My mother looks at me and says, "Okay, you're an adult. You know what? I'll even help you out. Give me half the money for the ticket, I'll pay for the rest, and I'll even get you the ticket." And I say, "Great, okay." And I was surprised. And I remember thinking to myself, "Being treated like an adult is so much better."

 

Fast forward three weeks before the flight. I'm sitting in the living room, and my mother calls me into the kitchen. And the kitchen is where all the family important conversations take place. And my mother is cooking, and she doesn't lo ok at me. She looks into the pot and she says, "You know, your uncle and I were talking, and your grandmother's getting old. She can barely walk. She has heart problems, and she doesn't speak English. And we're thinking, one of us should go with her." And I'm thinking, "Yeah, one of you should go with her." [audience chuckle] And then she continues, "Your uncle and I can't just drop work just to fly with her. And since you're going earlier, we think she should go with you." And I'm thinking, "No, this is not the deal, not doing this." But instead, I say, "I would love to, [audience laughter] but my flight is non-refundable, so I can't change it. And I think it's too late for her to be on my flight. Sorry, I can't." And she looks at me and she says, "That's not a problem. I bought both of your tickets at the same time." [audience laughter] I look at her and I say, "Okay, fine. I'm only taking that one bag of hers and nothing else." And I walk off.

 

Two weeks, two days before the flight, I walk into the living room and I see my suitcase. It's on the left side of the living room and it's fully closed and filled. Next to it is my grandmother's bag, and it's also completely filled and closed. And on the floor, I see my mother sitting next to my grandmother and they're filling two extra suitcases [audience chuckle] and I look at them and I say, "What is this?" And my mother looks at me and says, "They're not yours, mind your own business." And I say, "No, whose bags are these?" And my grandmother gives her some kind of signal to like, say, "I got this." My grandmother looks at me and says, "These are for your cousins and they're my responsibility, not yours." I look at her and my grandmother can barely take care of herself and she's my responsibility. [audience chuckle] And my cousins, they're six years old and four years old. And if they're her responsibility, they're my responsibility too. [audience chuckle] I can't say this, so I look at them and I say, "No, okay, besides these two bags, I'm not taking anything else. And that's final." [audience laughter]

 

The day of the flight comes. We're at JFK airport and we're done with the whole check-in and we're waiting by security checkpoint. And because my grandmother is flying, the whole family is there to see her off. So, my two little cousins, my uncle, his wife, my mother, my father, my two brothers, and my grandmother. And all there were saying goodbye. And my two little cousins each has one of those little string bags. One of them is blue and it says "Little Mermaid". And the second one is pink and says "Princess". And I have my carry-on, which is a duffel bag.

 

And because my grandmother can barely walk anymore, she has to have a carry-on, but I'm carrying it for her. So, I have two bags and they're kind of heavy, so I put them down. And I hug everyone goodbye. And then afterwards, I go to my uncle, I say goodbye, and then I go pick up my two bags off the ground, put them onto my shoulder. And my uncle picks up three bags off the ground and tries to hand them to me. [audience chuckle] And I quickly grab my chest and pull back. I'm like, "What is that?" [audience chuckle] And he says, "Oh, they're gifts for your cousins in Egypt." And each bag is a totally different shape and size. One is a square, the other is a duffel bag, and the third one is a messenger bag with a long strap going to the floor.

 

And I look at him, I'm like, "What's in those bags?" And he says, "Oh." And one thing about my uncle is he hoards, [audience chuckle] just like my mother and my grandmother, and will only give things away if they think the people they're giving it to will put them to good use. And he looks at me and says, "Oh, this is a VHS player. There's two camcorders, and a few Sony Walkman CD players." [audience chuckle] And I look at him and I say, "It's 2009. [audience laughter] They all have smartphones. No one even knows what this is." And I stood my ground. I said, "No, I'm not taking these." And I turned around and started walking towards the gates. From the corner of my eye, my grandmother passes me and says, "These children don't appreciate anything. I'll take the bags." [audience chuckle] 

 

I turn around and she goes to my uncle and tries to wrestle the bags out of his hand. He looks at me like it's my fault. [audience chuckle] She takes it out of his hand and she tries to walk and she limps away. I look at this and I see that this is happening. So, I run over there and I grab the bags. I'm like, "Give me the bags. I'll take them." Now I'm carrying five bags. [audience laughter] We walk towards the gate, and I look at my cousin, and she looks really stressed out. I look at her and I'm like, "What's wrong?" And she says, "My bag is heavy. I can't carry it." [audience chuckle] So, I say, "Give me the bag." So, I take on the bag. Now I'm carrying six bags. Her sister looks at me and says, "Mine too. Mine is heavy, too." So, I'm like, "Give me the bag." So, now I'm carrying seven bags onto the plane. And the long strap of the messenger bag is hitting the back of my leg. So, now I'm limping. I walk onto the flight so mad. I put everything above my head in the compartment, lock it. I sit down, put my headphones on and I don't speak to anyone for the whole flight.

 

We get to Egypt and I take all the luggage up to my grandmother's house and I walk outside to get a fresh breath of air. And I come back and I say “Hi”, but my grandmother doesn't hear me. She's talking to my aunt. And they're both talking and I can't really tell what they're saying. But then I hear my name being called. So, I listen closely and they're talking about me in a way that isn't pleasant. [audience chuckle] And I listen. And my grandmother uses this word. She calls me "hengil". And hengil is an Arabic word that I can't translate to English because it means a few things. It can mean arrogant, perfectionist, selfish, rebellious. To be honest, it's not a real word. It's a word my father made up to put me down. [audience laughter] So, it could mean anything. But my grandmother calls me that and it was hurtful. This is the first time she ever said anything mean about me. If there's one rule in a family, it's the children are off limits. She only spoke badly about adults. And that's when it hit me. She only spoke badly about adults. Thank you.