I'm excited to introduce you all to Mandy. We have both contributed to Off Switch Magazine, and after I read her piece "Untold Stories" in Volume One, I knew she would be a fantastic addition to this series.
***
Her name was Lesa. She was in my dorm, but we weren’t really
friends. It was probably because she had been at the university longer than me.
I was just a visiting student anyway, and only planned to be in Hawaii one
semester. Still, I knew her and she knew me.
We were also in the same English class—although English
was my first and only language, while it was her second, or third or fourth—I’m not really sure. Looking back, it was brave of her to even take the course.
It was the most difficult class I took that semester—American Literature from
1940-present. Slaughterhouse Five, Catch 22, Ceremony, Beloved—all difficult,
complex books taught by an eccentric professor who was as smart as he was old
which is saying a lot because he was old. Really old.
Lesa came the first few classes, and after only a few weeks
she stopped coming. I rolled my eyes when I saw her on campus, riding her long
board, eating a popsicle, walking to the beach with friends. I was struggling
to stay afloat in the class as it was, and I never missed.
A few months into the class, our professor told me that her
mom died a few weeks into the semester. “Cancer,” he told me. “I’ve been
working with her, but I don’t know what else to do. She told me you live in her
dorm. Could you help?”
I tried after that, I really did. I asked her when I saw her
around if she needed help with the readings. But she didn’t want my help and I
didn’t blame her. I stopped asking.
There was a month left in the semester and someone knocked
on my dorm room door. “Did you hear about the earthquake in the islands?“
“Yeah,” I said.
“Lesa’s dad died in it, and we are trying to help her raise
money to go home for the burial. She already missed her mom’s earlier this year
because they couldn’t afford to fly her home.” Tears welled up in my eyes as I
fished around in my wallet for some cash, and that night I prayed so hard that
there would be something—anything—that I could do.
Two days later I walked over to her dorm room and knocked
hard. No answer. I tried again. She finally opened it, her hair a mess, her
face streaked with tears. “Yeah?” she said.
“Lesa—can I help? Can I… do your laundry? Help you pack? Do
you need more money?”
She shook her head at my suggestions, and slammed the door.
I started walking away, and as I was about to turn the corner, I heard her call
out to me, “You can help me pass that class.”
We stayed up all night. Finals were the next day and she
left the day after that. I recapped all eight novels in detail, every short
story, every essay that I read faithfully that semester. I edited her research
paper, found her sources, and gave her the flashcards I created for her to
study. When I walked into the room for our final, she was already there, her
essay sitting on her desk. Our professor looked at her, then at me curiously
before handing out our exams.
Two days later, I was at the airport with a suitcase full of
sand and wet bathing suits, ready to fly home to a blizzard in Utah. I sat at
the terminal and thought about that semester and the people I’d met and the
things I’d done but my thoughts kept drifting back to Lesa and her long flight
home and the funeral that was waiting for her.
After we boarded the plane, I got a text message. It was one
word. “Passed.” I smiled and settled into my seat and watched my tiny island shrink
into the endless ocean that seemed to swallow this space where I internalized
this thought that started with Lesa and never really stopped.
There is always
something we can do.

Beautiful story, Mandy. It's true there's always something we can do to help, and I commend you for taking the time to do it.
ReplyDeleteThis story brought tears to my eyes. I have been thinking a lot about faith, discerning needs, stepping into needs, filling needs...I was reading the book of Nehemiah this morning, and pray that our hearts would break often at the broken walls around us. In addition, just as Nehemiah's heart was broken and he moved to action, I pray we all live like that. Compassion and action.
ReplyDeleteThis story brought tears to my eyes. I have been thinking a lot about faith, discerning needs, stepping into needs, filling needs...I was reading the book of Nehemiah this morning, and pray that our hearts would break often at the broken walls around us. In addition, just as Nehemiah's heart was broken and he moved to action, I pray we all live like that. Compassion and action.
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