The Ballad of Jimu and Akeeko: A Fairytale for the Modern Age

Once upon a time, there was a young woman named Akeeko. Akeeko came from a land very far away named Pajan, where everyone and everything was the same, and it wasn't, then it was supposed to be. But Akeeko was different. She had something not many people in her land possessed. Something big and powerful - a commodity in the eyes of many. For Akeeko, you see, had a foreign boyfriend.

Akeeko first met Jimu one day at a special place where he, and many like him, helped the natives of Pajan learn to speak in his language. Jimu wasn't the most handsome foreigner (and he knew this), but he was tall, not at all like the local men, and had golden hair and azure eyes. He was a little bit older than Akeeko, and had a little bit of a round belly, but she didn't mind; she even thought it was cute! Jimu came from a land called Akerima. Akeeko had never been there, but she had read about it in old books and seen it on the magic box at her friend's place. Many of Jimu's sentences began with “back in Akerima…”. In fact, he talked so much about Akerima that Akeeko felt like she had been there. In Akerima, it appears, everyone and everything was different. People had the freedom to say what they really thought and felt. Almost everyone there lived in a big home, the land was spacious, and there was room for everyone. The food was big too, and looked delicious.

Nothing made Akeeko more proud than to walk through the most fashionable districts of her land on Jimu's arm as eyes stared in their direction, envious because they were stuck with their generic local partners. Yes, now she had Jimu, she was in a different class. People in her land were always busy with something called “work”. But not Jimu or his people. Sure, occasionally, he had to do that "work" thing too, but he always had time for Akeeko. He took her out anywhere she wanted to go, and bought her anything she wanted. She was the envy of all of her friends. "You're so lucky to have a foreign lover" they would say. "Where can I get one?" Akeeko felt sorry for her friends and hoped one day they would find a Jimu of their own.

And so, as time went by, Jimu and Akeeko continued to see each other for many, many moons. Jimu marvelled at Akeeko's exotic beauty (though truth be told, she looked just like any other Pajanese girl) and simplicity of thought, and Akeeko would laugh whenever Jimu tried to speak in her tongue, or use the native eating utensils. Things were going perfectly; Akeeko couldn't be any happier. Or so she thought.

One day, after strolling arm in arm through the narrow streets of the trendiest of neighbourhoods, then eating an elaborate meal, Jimu suddenly took Akeeko’s delicate and slender lily-white hand and uttered those magic words that every girl in her land dating a foreigner longed to hear: “Akeeko, will you move back to Akerima with me?” Move to Akerima? She couldn't believe it. Her heart jumped at the mere thought. Akerima. A place where all her dreams could come true, her fantasies fulfilled in the land of opportunity. She could meet Jimu's family and friends. Maybe, just maybe, Jimu's friends had girlfriends too, and she could become friends with them and they could go purchasing at name-brand stores and have lunch at expensive eating establishments where they would gossip and eat big and delicious Akeriman dishes. “Oh, Jimu yes!” She squealed with glee. “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

When Akeeko told her parents, they did not approve. "He is not like us”, her mother said. “He could never understand our culture or our ways." “Yes", her father agreed. “This will only lead to disaster. You should stay here and marry a boy from our town. One who will work hard and make you happy.” But their arguments fell on deaf ears. For in Akeeko's mind, she was already living in Akerima.

And so Akeeko said goodbye to her disapproving family, goodbye to her unfortunate friends and goodbye to her homogenous homeland and moved to Akerima with Jimu. It's been so long now since she left home and has been living there, her life in Pajan has almost become a distant, fading memory. She did indeed become fast friends with the girlfriends (now wives) of Jimu's friends, even if sometimes at their weekly lunches she had no idea what they were talking about, and the food, though big, didn't taste as good as it looked. Jimu's family seemed to like her too, but they could never get her name right, and always asked silly questions about what things were like in her homeland compared to Akerima. But none of those things bothered her, not really anyway. They didn't matter. What mattered was that she was with Jimu, living in Akerima, and a breakthrough was at hand, she could feel it. She just had to make a few more changes and she would fit right in. She would be just like everyone else around her. Just like a real Akeriman.