Dragon Caller

Before the Beginning

Junaida leaned back against her chair, exhaling slowly. It was great to finally graduate. No more 'due at 11:59 pm' emails or pulling all-nighters to get an essay done.

"Um, hello? Junaida? You listening to me?"

Junaida opened her eyes to see her older sister, Mina, blinking dramatically at her.

"If she's not paying attention, she doesn't have to come with us," Junaida's twin sister, Jesmin, added. "Saves us money, too."

"Hey! This trip is for me!" Junaida argued. "Ammu and Abbu wouldn't let this happen if it weren't for me graduating."

"Well pay attention then," Jesmin replied, typing away on her laptop, "we agreed to China, three weeks, right?"

"I mean yeah, that's where my finger landed on the map," Junaida answered, recalling the blindfolding she had undergone as her sisters made her pick a location.

"Are there even Muslims in China?" Mina said, not looking up from her phone. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm NOT going vegetarian for three weeks."

"Yeah, I think so. I did a research paper on a Muslim naval commander, Zheng He," Jesmin turned her laptop around to show a Google search image of a tall, fair-skinned man wearing 14th-century traditional Chinese garb. "He's part of a group called 'Hui.' It's kinda complicated but they're pretty much indigenous Chinese people whose family converted a super long time ago."

"There you go, Mina. Now you don't have to starve!" Junaida laughed. "But like, how do we find them? Where do they live? Just put in 'Muslim tour guide in China' and we'll get a hit?"

"Uh..." Jesmin began typing furiously again. "Actually, yeah." She turned her laptop around again and her two sisters peered at the homepage of the 'Explore Muslim China' website. It was filled with tourist pictures and glowing reviews from a variety of travelers that had used the service. All had one man in common in the photos, the tour guide, Su Anwar.

"Wow, okay then," Mina exclaimed. "Look, there's a 3-week package. Includes hostel stays with prayer rooms, halal food, daily 8-hour itinerary, and it's only $770."

"That's... almost too perfect," Junaida squinted at the photos. "Can't trust everything you see online."

"You're one to talk," Jesmin scoffed. "Remember when you bought that dress-"

"Okay, okay, stop bringing that up!" Junaida pushed her sister as she started laughing. "Book it with him then."

"I'm using your credit card."

~~~~~

Junaida turned around to see her mother sobbing behind a tissue and her dad next to her, hands in his jacket pockets, a faint smile on his bearded face. She smiled back as Mina grabbed her arm and pulled her onto the baggage line of the John F. Kennedy International Airport. It was a bittersweet moment to finally be without her parents watching over her, as they've done the past 24 years of her life, but she'd miss them regardless. They quickly caught up to stand behind Jesmin in a single file.

After weaving through the twisted and marked path, they arrived at the counter of the first airport screening. Without much conversation, the airport clerks took their passports and began weighing their luggage. Junaida noticed two South Asian men arguing at the weight of their bulging suitcase one aisle over. They were desperately trying to get their clerk to not charge them for the extra weight. Must be Bengali, Junaida thought to herself as she could understand some of the words the two men were saying.

"I'm sorry, it's over 50 pounds." The clerk repeated several times. "Do you want to take this suitcase or not?" One of the men sighed and slapped down several bills onto the desk. The agent gave a tight-lipped smile and proceeded to label them. Junaida tried not to smile at their plight; her parents had weighed hers and her sisters' luggage at least a dozen times the day before the trip to make sure it wasn't over the limit.