Page 72 - Obruni In Ghana | Amber Lockridge

70 EPISODE 9: COMING HOME – PART 1
in my lap is closed. It took fifteen minutes of blank staring, moving my eyes meaninglessly over the same paragraph, to realize I’m not going to pass away the next four hours reading. Instead I’m scribbling on the book’s blank cover pages; my notebooks all foolishly packed at the bottom of my suitcase. I’m not sure whether to pretend this isn’t happening or to try and absorb every detail of the passing scenery and every memory of the life I’m leaving. A bit of song I learned in fourth grade runs through my head.
“Away, I’m bound away ‘cross the wide Missouri.”
But I’m bound across the Atlantic Ocean, a distance far more daunting, but no less nostalgic to me, than the Missouri river.
My last memory of Emisaba, she’s in her blue school uniform with tears in her eyes. My last memory of Ama: her head is peeking out of the rust- colored gate in front of my house, wrapped in the blue butterfly scarf I gave her.
“Don’t forget to send me a cordless phone!”