mon oncle

i remember when i was about 7 years old, i woke up one night by a whispering at my ear. i found my uncle sitting at my bedside looking at me through the mosquito netting. he held a doll in his hand and said: wake up ammu, look what your dad brought you! i smiled widely at him then because i was so glad to see him at the house at the dead of night. more so than with what my dad had brought for me from his trip abroad (i didn't used to keep track of where he was and when he'd return since he was gone so often. come to think of it, i didn't even mind him gone. and actually ended up liking the absence in later years).
this man waving a disproportionate babydoll at me and smiling with his big buck teeth was the most loved man in my life at that time. he would pick me up, play silly games with me and call me ammu with such tenderness. our (my sis's and mine) every whim was his command. he came every evening but it was not nearly enough. we wanted him around forever. at the time we were too young to realize that he was courting my aunt. we thought he came because he loved us for real. and who knows? may be he did.
then he got married abruptly one day. we never really saw him after that. may be birthdays or eids. and gradually, not at all. my sister was deeply hurt (he had always liked her more anyway) and never forgave him for ditching us like that. he was perhaps being a gentleman. but we were too young then for the complexities of human relationships. much too young.
...
last year at the dubai airport i was feeling lost among all the bangladeshis penned up in an enclosure. i remember thinking: i wish uncle was here. i turned around and saw him standing there with his back to me. i recognized him instantly. i went to him and asked: do you know who i am? not without some hesistation. he looked at me squarely, smiled and said, how can i not know you?.
finding him there just when i had thought of him there - what was that? coincidence? something more? i do not care to analyze. it just happened. was fated.
he quickly exerted his influence (he is a bigshot now) and changed our individual seats so that we could sit together. then during the flight he proceeded to: cut up my food in bite-size chunks, carry my stuff, reclined my seat, shut down the entertainment system when he thought i should be sleeping, let me fill out his embarkation card (i realized then that i knew nothing about him), tucked the blanket around my feet, took my passport to be stamped, held me between his arms at the conveyor belt so that strange men would not try to brush up too close to me... i knew then that he had to do all this because somehow i was the 7 year old child he had left behind a long time ago. his demeanor was so obvious that one person on the plane had at one point asked me: who is this man to you? (it is not uncommon for certain bangladeshis to ask such questions). he had been acting so possessive towards me. doing things for me that no 28-year-old needs to have done.
thing is, while he saw a blinking child at his side ('ammu, what is this spot? did you scratch a zit?', as he held my face to the light), i saw an old man. too quickly falling asleep and snoring. sore from back pains. tired. so, i let him baby me, hoping it would bring the closure we both needed.