Inklings 2021

A PEARL NECKLACE Tatiana Botero Passing the “Welcome to Buffalo” sign on the Hemerson Highway, I remembered being three years old, cradled up on mother’s lap while she read Dr. Seuss. The pronunciation of simple words like “Hat,” “Train,” and “Mischief ” were butchered by mother’s thick Colombian accent, which I found to be the most soothing of lullabies when falling asleep at this age. I recalled the stillness that lay outside my bedroom window due to the freshly fallen snow in the winter of ’85 in what was my home city: Buffalo, New York. A safe haven where my family had immigrated to from Colombia when my older sister was born. My nose wrinkled as I thought the smell of chopped garlic coming from mother’s cook uniform as she tried to pronounce every word to the best of her ability, struggling to stay awake after a twelve hour work day at the Smiths’. “I’m a chef, not a cook,” she would say when Papá teased her while he drank his daily Cerveza at the dinner table. My sister and I both knew, even at a young age, that mother was a cook. We knew her job was to prepare breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a white family of five, while also cleaning the bathrooms every Friday. My husband, Harold, suddenly grabbed my hand. “So, how does it feel to be back?” he asked with pitiful excitement. “You never talk about it...” he said while looking down. “Your home.” INTO THE NIGHT Denise Suarez 17